Episode 311 | Jason Swett - Growing Socially

Guest:

Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

Jason Swett talks with Dave Rael about job search skills, growing socially, the nature of software careers, and the rewards of creating useful stuff

Jason Swett has been building websites for over 20 years, working for organizations like AT&T, the University of Chicago, and VMware. Jason’s favorite part of programming jobs has always been the job search and interview phase. Now he teaches job search skills at SixFigureCoding.com.

Chapters: 2:19 - Dave introduces the show and Jason Swett4:46 - How Jason got started in software7:12 - Jason's attraction to interviewing, negotiating, and the job search9:54 - The reasons for frequently changing jobs12:07 - Jason's motivations for teaching job search skills14:33 - Sales and marketing for developers19:04 - Jason's approach to the job search and what he has to offer developers23:57 - Ways for developers to market themselves - hunting and farming27:46 - Interview preparation31:09 - Jason's story of failure - lacking social intelligence and acuity (and learning to grow it later)36:05 - Personal skills developers can develop and Stephen Covey's contrasting of the character ethic and the personality ethic39:17 - Jason's success story - creating content people found useful enough to pay for it40:44 - Jason's mix of technical and soft skills content42:28 - The things that have Jason most excited43:51 - How Jason stays current with what he needs to know45:20 - Jason's causes of pain and suffering46:43 - Advice for improving job search skills by looking at the individual steps and getting better at them one at a time48:03 - Jason's top 3 tips for delivering more value

Resources: Jason's Website (no longer SixFigureCoding.com - he switched to codewithjason.com after recording) Jason on GitHub Late Night with Conan O'Brien Ramit Sethi "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want." - Zig Ziglar Saron Yitbarek on Developer On Fire Toastmasters International Stephen Covey Explaining the Charactor Ethic and the Personality Ebthic Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp - Peter Norvig Perrry Marshall "Uncle Bob" Martin on Developer On Fire

Jason's book recommendation: How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change - Stephen R. Covey Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter) - Steve Krug Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship - Robert C. Martin

Jason's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Make sure you understand what needs to be done and why before you do it Learn usability testing Read Clean Code by Robert C. Martin