Node.js Budapest - October 2015

I was privileged of having an opportunity to keep a talk at Node.js Budapest meetup. I found that the Node.js community is very active in Budapest and filled with interesting people. The topic of the presentation was non-technical, and I was a bit worried that it doesn't resonate with people that have a very technical mindset. I think my fear was unnecessary as quite many came to talk about the subject and were enthusiastic to learn more.

Talks

There were two talks. One by Kevin Purnelle about "Node.js & html5 for multi-platform desktop apps" and mine "How to get hired as a Node developer".

Kevin was frustrated with the music players on OSX, so he made one with Electron! He explained the differences between NW.js and Electron, what are gotchas on each and why did he finally choose Electron. Also, RisingStack has a new tool to do micro-service diagnostics and the current web-based version could be converted to a desktop app with ease. It's fascinating that we can build desktop apps with the existing web development skills!

Getting hired as a Node developer

Things have changed quite dramatically between generations when it comes to applying for a job and staying in the same company.

For example, my father joked that when you worked for 30 years in a company, you would get a (semi-)golden watch. If you worked 40 years, you would receive batteries for the watch.

Ninety-one percent of Millennials (born between 1977-1997) expect to stay in a job for less than three years, ... That means they would have 15 – 20 jobs over the course of their working lives! Forbes article

I felt that there was demand for sharing the information about how to a get a project or a job. As a freelancer, I have quite many interviews per year and those doesn't differ much from regular job position, so I thought I have something to share. I divided the talk to sections that included story + actionable tip. Each tip focuses on a particular phase of getting a programming job. The phases were: contact, programming task, interview, and networking.

The Prezi presentation isn't very useful without the talk itself, but it can be used as a reminder if you were listening to the presentation. I'll write another blog post that explains the given tips in a text format.

Conclusion

I highly recommend you to check what the Budapest programming community has to offer. The Node.js Budapest experience was very positive, and the event was well-organized and LogMeIn did the hosting professionally. I hope that next time when I travel there will some events going on to participate.