I’m in a group called /dev/color, which is a professional development group for black engineers. I’ve been a member for the past three years, and I’m kicking off my fourth year in the program. Membership has impacted me in numerous ways, but I want to highlight one thing I’ve learned that is applicable beyond this specific network:
Ask for help.
Continue reading “Ask for help”I’ve been thinking about programmer hiring for several years now, and I have a new theory for how to do it:
Make it clear what it is your software team does, and hire people who can make a compelling case for why they want to join your team.
That’s pretty much it. Class dismissed.
…
I guess I should justify this theory. The remainder of this piece describes my journey to this radical realization.
Continue reading “Screening developers should be easy”As a part of the redesign of this site, I merged in the journal of my brief teaching career, which was originally a separate website. It’s my most significant writing project to date. Here it is, prefaced by a retrospective I just wrote:
To break my streak of apocalyptic posts (don’t worry, there will be more), here’s something happier.
This is the most important thing I have to say about the Trump administration:
Bad policy is something most of us can survive and undo. But what will hurt us for a generation is how this regime responds to an actual crisis, and how they use it to seize power. The overreaction is in progress already, even though nothing new has happened.
Welcome, all!
This page is the next step in the evolution of how I engage the world online. This is not my first attempt at writing online. Most significantly, I journaled my experience in Teach For America. But for the first time, I plan to be intentional about addressing an audience beyond just myself and the people I know personally.
Continue reading “Welcome”
Alan, online. 