Lagrosh

Also, bear in mind that a lot of the languages people are using nowadays (I mean more Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc.) are still JVM languages (i.e. Closure, Scala. Ruby, etc). So often if you are in a bigger company and have some system (like microservices), where you allow a certain amount of freedom between the teams/projects, but still require communication between some components. This is still easiest to write in Java. All the JVM languages are built in a way where calling through to Java is very idiomatic for the language, but although often the opposite is possible, it's certainly not idiomatic. That's why a lot of the core libraries are either written, or ported to, Java. Anyway, yes, it'll be around for a long time.

While there are C++ developers still around, it's not where it used to be. The same will be true of Java. Also, I think the increase of Java jobs is probably related to the rise of Android. Also, learning more languages makes you better at your own language. I would certainly advise at least looking into Scala, especially as it's easiest to get into if you're from a Java background. Ruby & Python are good too though. There's also interesting different angles like Go.

We used to have Yammer which was similar. Just chat in Slack now.

In fairness we also don't have QA, but have a high quality standard. However, that's because we try to push towards having the devs & people in the team own their own product, which is to say also do the QA. Some teams do really well, others don't, but it's on them.

Yeah. I do install SourceTree + tig for pairing, but generally I use command line + gitx (for commit comments + staging hunks), as I know exactly what's what.

Todd, it definitely appears that they have no idea what branches are. I'm guessing that they're thinking of working off of master, where you'd have the same thing but local master is where the branch is instead? Either way, sounds like an idiot.

I just make sure to bike everywhere I can, regardless of speed. It's fun & I get exercise in the process. Personally I find going at my own pace is fun, rather than trying to be fast. Also, when you bike to work, biking as fast as you can means sweating everywhere.

Are you sure you haven't switched back to Software Mark?

I would say that user story should be split up a bit

Todd summarised it perfectly. I know it's a bit different for us because we're working on a single project, but even then we have multiple feature teams & work. No-one uses timesheets, because it would be a total mess, and many things I wouldn't be able to say where they get logged to. The way we know what is worked on is by asking people, and good management. e.g. 'Where do you feel there is time wasted right now?' was a question we were asked a while back. The answer was 'Well recently meetings have been fitted around management time, so we have a lot of 30mins meetings dotted around the afternoon.' We then moved all the meetings that were more regular to happen all after each other immediately after morning standup (a meeting lasting 5-10mins every morning where we all make sure we know who's working on/blocked on what). This means we were able to put together larger chunks of time that are ours to time-manage. I can't really see how any degree of reporting or analysing will get you to the same conclusion in less time. Also, we were trusted to know where our own problems were, and work together on a solution.

We don't do that shit, and if we did the whole company would call it out. While I think it doesn't help you in 'career' (i.e. management, as my earlier points mentioned), I feel that it's at least someone's duty to call out bullshit. Otherwise things go downhill very quickly.

I agree on believing thoroughly in the BBC in the UK. Nowhere else I've ever been has anything even close to the quality of BBC as a public channel, and like you said, it keeps the other channels in check. I think I may grow an actual vagina if I have to listen to another horrendous ad for some vaginal cream in the US that may cause any number of things including explosive diarrhea and death. I would actually pay the UK tv license here if it would let me get content.

Actually, you're bailing out the German govt. Most of the bankers who bought the debt were from US/UK.

Exactly. Another big issue with this is that all it takes is one bad manager along a chain and the whole chain is mostly screwed. Also, the 'promoted to your level of incompetence' thing is a big problem. A friend of mine here has been promoted to a management level he realised he doesn't actually want to do. He preferred doing the specialist technical role he was doing, but there was no furthering of a career path that way. This seems to be an especially big problem with the way the world inflates the value of management in most of the world to say 'your manager is your superior' in almost all ways. I feel it's rare for me to be in a company where I can easily be earning more than my boss, and not have to manage a team of 60 people to be seen as having a huge value to the company.

I used to have a manager (who has since been removed) with a checklist for what I needed to get to a higher level. Every time I accomplished something a new thing would be added. This is fine so long as it doesn't affect your level but it did. The end result was a list of 30 items after 1.5 years that were all accomplished with 0 monetary gain. We recently performed a salary review, everyone on mobile team got a pretty big bump & I got promoted, so overall it was good. In my experience it honestly never, ever matters what system you put in place. Bad managers anywhere along the chain will basically lead to misery, and good managers will lead to a great reason to turn up in the morning. I believe the quote is something along the lines of 'People don't leave jobs, they leave managers'. I find this to be basically true (there are obvious other things, such as earning 50% of your market value, or companies breaking the law, but so long as it's not a super huge thing, the truth is that). So long as I have a great relationship with my manager, it takes a pretty huge set of events I'd consider 'bad management' before I move on from a job.

I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't make it past a Google or Facebook interview. I think it also depends on who recommends you or which recruiter you're with.

I'd like to come again, but it's super hard to say where Maria & I will be at this point.

It's definitely a terrorist attack and not a hate crime. You can tell because the victims are white.

So. I got a colleague to write the bio because it makes me cringe, but here's my first proper foray into talking: http://2015.mobiconf.org/speakers . Also, Krakow is a great place to party. Looking forward to it! Todd: Please ask Danks if he'll be there. Would be fun to go out in the city. In fact, why not try and get a ticket yourself?

No Foo Fighters though.

wat

Also, needs more Markdown. Kthxbai

You mean the https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Fat_Man?

Yes. Don't do them. Everyone knows a story about 'That amazingly strange CV that got noticed!'. Yes, and they didn't get the job. And they didn't get any job. (This is obviously a generalisation but still). In general your CV should look simple. By simple, I don't mean written in Notepad, I mean it should be immediately obvious at a glance what your skills & expertise is, and why I should hire you. Usually it helps to be consistent with other CVs for this reason. In general you can find some decent enough CV styles for Word or some such, and make sure LinkedIn is up-to-date, because that actually is a very well-known & very readable version of your CV.

Well the good part about a culture that looks after the rich is that if you're well-off then that 'rich' thing means you. But I agree. At some point you debate the pros/cons of your (+ your family/friends) lives. A lot of the health insurance problems in the US revolve around not being able to afford great health care. However, I agree that even having to think about 'can I afford a good health programme' is insane. I've never really considered the US for the reason you mentioned, but after having now visited I also don't understand why people find it a better place to live even with a very healthy salary. I guess I can understand what a fair few I know have done: - Move to US. - Keep paying basic UK (or whatever) stamp duty & such (~ £300/year). - Save a ton of money & work hard. End up with a couple of hundred k (roughly half a million or so) in savings. - Decide to start a family. - Move back to Europe.