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During OpenJS World, which was held virtually June 2-3, we heard from many inspiring people involved in all areas of technology.
OpenJS World Keynote Panel: Getting Hired
During OpenJS World, which was held virtually June 2-3, we heard from many inspiring people involved in all areas of technology. In this keynote series, we will highlight the key points from the keynote videos. We hope to get a highlight of the speakers in a way that allows for people to hone in on the part of the talk that interests them the most.
During the OpenJS World Keynote Panel on Getting Hired, Scott Hanselman spoke to leaders in the tech world to hear their insights on best practices for getting hired, especially during a pandemic, for entry-level job seekers and people of diverse backgrounds.
Hanselman spoke to Zainab Ebrahimi, CEO at Flourish, Jerome Hardaway, Executive Developer of Vets Who Code, and Saron Yitbek, Founder of Codenubi.
Haselman started the discussion by highlighting the impact the pandemic has had on employment. Ebrahimi dove into this topic by sharing an example of how difficult it has gotten for entry-level job seekers to get hired. She explained how she recently saw a job posting for an entry-level position asking for five years of working experience. Yitbek mentioned how a shift from calling the position junior developer to early career developer shows that there is hope and that the industry is slowly becoming more open-minded in the skill levels they are willing to accept.
Hardaway talked about the importance of upscaling your skillset. The conversation discussed the importance of focusing and investing time in mastering a specific skill. Yitbarek talked about how people often find themselves bouncing around from learning one skill to another; she ties this in with a Hardaway comment about the importance of learning how to plan and be organized.
In their closing thoughts, all the speakers agreed that the barriers to entry for entry level job seekers and for people of diverse backgrounds are high. They all focused on how the community needs to accept people for just being themselves, take them as a whole, allow room for learning from mistakes and invest in being patient and teaching skills. While acknowledging that baby steps are being taken to make it a more welcoming environment, they recognized that a lot more needs to be done to address this wide set of issues.
Broken down by section:
Panel introduction 0:24
Flourish and coaching 1:43
Saron talks about helping early-career jobs 2:57
Jerome talks about upscaling the skillset 4:18
Stack you need to create a webpage 8:05
Importance of focusing 10:06
A new way of studying and planning 11:25
Diversity and importance of belonging 15:36
How to create a more welcoming environment 19:03
Does Open source matter on the resume? 23:36
Closing thoughts and call to action 25:19
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