Imagine this. You’re a woman in a male-dominated field. English is not your first language. Even though you’re confident in your engineering work, the thought of public speaking and being recorded for the world to see absolutely terrifies you.
That was me, five years ago. Since then, I’ve moved into a successful career in Developer Advocacy and spoken at dozens of technical events in the U.S. and worldwide.
My name is Nina Zakharenko. I’m a long time software engineer and currently a Senior Cloud Developer Advocate at Microsoft, where my focus is making VS Code and Azure a great experience…
Have too much to do? Stressed? Overcommitted at home and at work?
Would you believe me if I told you there was a straightforward solution to your troubles? One that doesn’t cost anything at all. You might not believe me, but that’s where I get a chance to introduce one simple word that may change your life.
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“No.”
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Yes, “no.” Now, say it out loud with me, slow and loud — “No…..”
Don’t like spending time on remote Meetups? Do you feel like you’re signing on just for the sake of it, and not learning anything…
Inspired by Phildini’s Python Clock, I wanted to make a desktop version of a Python 2.7 countdown timer for the big event.
My countdown timer matches my mood, with thirteen different themes to choose from 💅.
Key Takeaways
Now that you’ve written your talk, it’s time to practice it and deliver it at the conference. I’ve seen many different styles of great speakers, but there are a few shared important ingredients to every successful talk. Letting your audience know what they’ll learn if they stay, giving actionable takeaways, being prepared, well practiced, and knowing what to say, and getting to the point as quickly…
Key Takeaways
Before you start writing your talk, try to find your style. I’ve like to think I have a skill in taking complex topics and distilling them into small understandable pieces that developers of any level can understand. I know that if someone comes up to me after my talk and told me that they understand a topic that they thought was out of their reach, I’ve succeeded. I…
Key Takeaways
Writing proposals and talks and having the time to practice them is a massively time-consuming process. Especially for your first talk, make sure that you have plenty of time. Even though I’ve been doing this for a few years now, crafting talks still takes me an incredible amount of time. It’s the only part of the process that I haven’t really optimized.
That’s the equation…
Key Takeaways
There are several different tools, apps, and programs, and gadgets I use to help me track my time, my tasks, craft my talks, back them up, and share them afterward. My preference is towards tools to be easy to use, accessible from multiple platforms, and help save time…
Key Takeaways
First things first, you need to find a conference to submit to. There are resources for this such as the Mozilla Tech CFP Twitter, the list of worldwide PyCons, and the PaperCall Event Directory. You can filter the PaperCall directory by events that have open Calls for Proposals (CFPs), or events that provide travel assistance. If you know other good resources for learning about CFPs, please share.
Something…
Key Takeaways
“I have nothing new to say, it’s all been covered” is a myth that I hear beginners perpetuate as a way to talk themselves out of speaking.
It’s not true. What an audience is genuinely interested in is your unique perspective, your story, and the way you tell it. Storytelling…
Key Takeaways
Off the cuff, I asked Twitter a question to see if a few folks might be interested in learning about my process for writing and delivering technical conference talks.
Instead of a few likes, I got a roaring response. The question got almost 2,000 likes in two days. I had no choice but to deliver.
A little about my journey: I went from speaking at small Meetups to my first…
Cloud Developer Advocate @microsoft, software engineer, pythonista, & speaker. Team #emacs. Previously @reddit @meetup @recursecenter. she/her