Talk proposal. What do you think?

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Frequently Asked Questions

As a mentor for thoughtbot's Prime service, I've provided coaching to over 100 developers.

In my talk, I'll share the questions I'm asked repeatedly, and how I answer them.

This discussion will be targeted at beginner and intermediate developers striving to improve.

Likely discussion includes:

• What should I do if I inherit an app with no tests?
• Any advice on how to switch to vim?
• How does one land her first Rails job?
• How does one land a better Rails job?
• How do I conquer the fear of letting others see my code?
• Am I underpaid?
• How do I balance integration and isolated tests?
• How can I make myself stick to TDD when the going gets tough?

Plus, because it's me, we're gonna do some live coding. Take bad code. Make good. Happy times.

@voylinux Good idea!

where do I go from here?

This is a really interesting area. Going from nothing to knowing every day rails is quite a defined path. Moving from intermediate to advanced is a lot less clear. Going the last 20% often takes the most time as the return on investment becomes less noticeable.

Very interesting questions, I would add one more if I may : "How to approach a complex codebase ?".

For example : given the codebase RSpec, given a simple feature I want add, when I'm exploring it with Pry, then I want to ask myself the right questions in order to achieve my goal.

I don't know if this is simply something that you learn by doing (it is I guess), or if there is also a "methodology" that can help.

I think this is a great topic and will make for a great talk. One added area that I would like to see included is your thoughts on how a small group may or may not impact the ability to level up? For example, there is a group of 3 PHP developers who have worked together for years and want to switch over to Rails/Ruby. What strategies might they implement as a group to try to decrease the ramp up time.

For feedback, my personal ranking of topics above, top being highest priority:
How can I make myself stick to TDD when the going gets tough?
What should I do if I inherit an app with no tests?
How do I balance integration and isolated tests?
How do I conquer the fear of letting others see my code?
How does one land a better Rails job?
How does one land her first Rails job?
Any advice on how to switch to vim?
Am I underpaid?

Live coding in talks!!! Yes please.