Talk given at Codebar Festival.

If you wish to see my slides in their full glory, they are available on Slideshare.

I used to stress a lot about the “efficiency” of how I was using up all the minutes in my day. I’d to cram in as much as possible into time. eg. read on a 10 minute train, write code in the half hour before bed, etc.

While I stressed about it a lot, I never found that I did the “10x” things I read about that were supposed to emerge as a result of this extra “efficiency”. For example I have only finished one of the three side projects I started in 2016, despite promising myself that those wouldn’t take long.

Last week I went to a jobs event, recruiting for my company. I was there on my own, and recruiting is a pretty new experience for me, so I was kinda excited about it. The attendees were a mix of graduates, bootcampers, and a few more senior developers, but mostly the crowd were looking for their first or second job. I enjoy going out and talking to people about their experiences with software – I think breadth of knowledge is really valuable – so I found it interesting seeing what other people are looking for in a job. I’ve only ever had one; maybe I’ve aimed for all the wrong things!