Geekflex

I love programming. It’s a passion of mine that I’ve held onto for as long as I can remember. I have what seems like a natural aptitude for it, and I consider myself extremely lucky for having discovered this passion early on so that I could follow it into a career. After a day’s work I feel fulfilled and satisfied, like I accomplished something worthwhile. Most of the time, I also feel like I’ve learned something; which is the strongest motivator for me.

When I was a student, I would spend all night in front of my computer. I’d be learning programming languages, working on pet projects, and solving programming-contest challenges. I remember pulling an all-nighter several years ago, teaching myself C# and XML-RPC by building a simple application that let me post to my blog. Yet it seems that once I graduated and started working full time, my motivation to spend the same time and energy on pet projects diminished.

The issue is what I’ll call my social quota. When I was a student I was surrounded by other people all day. Whether I was in class, in the engineering student association’s office or at a social event, there were always fellow students to talk to. Coming home after a day rich in social interactions, I would relish the solitude of sitting in front of my computer and programming the night away.

I became dependent on the levels of social interaction that I would reach in a given day of school. To this day I can’t think of a more rewarding experience than meeting new people, talking and socializing. I became a people-person, and I’ve been as-yet unable to reconcile my need to socialize with people and my passion for programming.

Programming is ultimately a solitary activity. There is only one keyboard attached to the computer. Even when you work with a team — and indeed, one of my favourite things about the profession is when we hammer out the solution to a problem as a group — eventually you have to go back to that computer and code the solution that’s floating around in your head. After sitting, alone, in front of a computer for the better part of a day, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer, at home, for the better part of the evening.¹

It’s not just programming, but most solitary activities that I have no interest in doing in my free time. Social contact is like a drug for me and I get very antsy if I go without it for long periods of time. While there is some social contact at work — and believe me this is something that’s crucial to keeping me going throughout the day — my quota is usually nowhere near filled. Once I’ve left the office for the day, I’ll do anything for a night out with friends. I get energized by being in a crowd. Whenever I’m faced with the choice of doing something alone or doing something in a group, I will always choose the group.

All that being said, I’m quite satisfied with both my career up to now and my lifestyle. It’s okay to spend my days programming and problem solving, and then relax with my friends in the evening. I imagine if the situation was reversed, and I were working with people all day, then I would probably shut myself away in the evenings and I’d be blogging about my Alone-Time Quota (or, Why I Don’t Go Out In The Evenings).

Now that I’m a working man I no longer attend career fairs with a portfolio full of copies of my CV, armed with questions and searching for technical challenges. I’ve had more than my fair share of experiences running through these events as a student, and also helping to organize them. I’ve seen what works for many companies, and what doesn’t. Now that it’s my turn to compete for attention with dozens of other companies, I’ve come up with this list of tips.

1. Bring an engineer

When I was looking for a job this way I had my own set of criteria to fill. Does the company work on interesting projects? Are the people friendly, motivated and intelligent? Would I learn something from an internship there? I was hungry for technical details of the products they were working on. I’d ask about programming languages, APIs, frameworks and problem solving. I needed to know that there were interesting technical challenges inherent in the products. That’s the kind of thing that would pique my curiosity and get me to apply.

Naturally, if there wasn’t an engineer or developer behind the career-fair booth I would quickly lose interest and move on over to another booth. This is why if you’re company is looking to recruit technical students, you should always have an engineer or developer behind the booth¹. Technical-minded students will want to hear some technically interesting reasons to go work for you.

2. Make First Contact

When I was a student, attending career fairs was a ritual. I made it a point to go to every booth and ask all the companies present what they were about and what kind of job they were looking to fill. Being proactive at career fairs is what landed me internships despite the fact that I was never part of any co-op or placement program. It wasn’t tricky; all I had to do was walk up to the booth and say “Hi! What does your company do?”

The problem is that most students won’t do this. Most students will simply walk by a booth without saying anything or even taking a closer look (unless your swag is really, really compelling). This is why as a recruiter you have to be the one to make first contact. Those students that are meandering past your booth might be just the ones you’re looking for, but you’d never know it unless you stopped them and started telling them about all the cool stuff you do. Better yet…

3. Have a demo

The booths that attract the most attention at career fairs typically have some live demo available. Maybe even something interactive. When I attended the University of Ottawa High-Tech Career Fair last month, we brought a number of cameras as well as a couple of servers to show off our video surveillance software. I even brought a BlackBerry Bold and an iPhone to show off the Mobile project that my team and I have been working on for the past 10 months. You can bet a number of students were impressed when I showed them I could control the camera in my company’s parking lot — 200km away — using my phone.

Not only is it extremely rewarding to show off the project you’ve been working on, but it’s important to show the students that you have a tangible product. Having something that they can see and feel and interact with is a great way to pitch your company. You can say: “This is what we do. This is what you can do.”

4. Be Energetic

We have a corporate policy that forbids us to sit down behind the booth during a career fair. We’re not allowed to look bored. If you look bored, people will think your company is boring. Even if you’re tired and your feet hurt, you need attack recruitment with the same drive and energy that you apply to the work you’re really passionate about.²

Stay on your feet, and speak passionately and energetically with every student that walks by. Be excited about what you’re telling them (not too excited). Excitement and enthusiasm will make potential candidates excited, too.

5. Avoid Corporate Stock Photos

You know what I’m talking about. Those generic images of the every-company. Generic-looking, smiling business people in suits sitting around an all-white conference table. Pictures of random cityscapes that could be anywhere. I’m talking about the kind of stuff that appears when you do a Google Image Search for “corporate”. This image might be attractive to your enterprise clients, but it’s not attractive to students. Especially not technical students.

Stock photos obscure the message of what your company actually does. Without that message, students will just walk by your booth as if it’s invisible. There’s nothing distinctive that shouts “You want to work here!!”. If you don’t have a demo to _show anyone what you do then you’re really screwed. Instead of showing generic stock photos, you should show pictures of what your company actually looks like, or some photos of your products being used in the field. You want people to see your company culture for what it is, and you should be proud to show it off to a potential new recruit!³

Some of the best booth displays I’ve seen that do this well include Microsoft’s “Hey Genius!” campaign from a few years ago and of course Shopify‘s “Be Awesome”.

One of the things I miss most about being a student is the regular change of scenery. A typical day of my student life involved being in several different places throughout the day, from classrooms to student common areas to offices. I’d rarely stay in one place for very long. Not only was each class in a different physical location, requiring me to get up and move around a bit — but in each class I’d see a different subset of friends and acquaintances.

When I started my full time job, I quickly became agitated by the monotony of office life. Each day I’d be surrounded by the exact same subset of coworkers. I would sit in my one office, without anywhere else to go. Eventually the end of the day would come and I would go home. Sometimes I would go to the bathroom; a trip made infinitely more exciting by Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader, conveniently placed in every stall. My office building was in total suburbia, so meeting up with friends for lunch was all but impossible. I was in a private inner office, which meant I had no access to natural light and was pretty much just left alone all day every day in the same room, sitting on the same chair, with the same four walls boxing me in.

I’m not exaggerating. This is what office life is. The contrast between a dynamic student lifestyle and a “professional” lifestyle is staggering. It’s not that the stuff I was working on is boring — far from it. It’s just that the environment was about as stimulating and invigorating as white noise. I couldn’t focus on anything and my mind would wander. It doesn’t have to be like this.

I might be an exceptional case, but I’ve always concentrated better when there were more things going on around me. The background noise of a coffee shop would help me focus better. When studying for my final exams, I’d take over a conference room at school with a few friends. The occasional distractions we provided each other was like the seasoning on an otherwise really bland steak. It made for an environment where studying was bearable, and I managed to get much more done than I would have been able to if I’d stayed home alone with a textbook.

The day I was most productive at work was the one day I managed to work remotely from another lab. But working remotely (or working “from home”) isn’t the solution. A “change of scenery” doesn’t mean “working alone.” Collaboration is important, and you need to be able to ask questions of your teammates, and brainstorm with them. Instant messaging and e-mail only work up to a certain extent, but nothing compares with face-to-face interaction. This was the main point of Fred Brooks’ keynote speech from OOPSLA ’07 (listen to the mp3 if you have 1.5 hours), and there is research and evidence to back it up.

The best thing to do is offer some alternative scenery at the workplace. IBM’s software lab in Markham, Ontario is a stellar example. The top floor of this lab has four different “theme rooms” that employees can use. One room is modeled after a medieval library with antique bookshelves full of ancient-looking books and wing-backed chairs. Another room looks like a fishing cabin with couches and paintings of canoes along the walls. My favourite room was the “Japanese Garden” which had a rock garden and an indoor waterfall between rice-paper walls. To make these rooms accessible, each employee receives a laptop as their primary workstation. If you ever need a change of scenery, just unplug your laptop and go sit near the waterfall. The theme rooms offer a change of scenery and, since you’re not leaving the lab, your teammates are always close by for when you need to collaborate.

My ideal environment would be just like the study space we improvised during exam period: a big room with a small group of coworkers. We don’t all have to be working on the same things, but just having other people there is a motivator. The occasional distractions and small talk would keep the day interesting, and I’d be able to focus better on my work. I know this kind of environment exists, because this is almost exactly what my Extreme Blue internship was like. The trick is going to be finding a similar environment now that I’m no longer a student.