Introduction

[00:00:00]
>> Jerome Hardaway: So today, we are going over preparing for the software engineering job volume 3. And this one, we're definitely taking all of the current information that's out there. We're focusing on the data that we have, data I've gotten from teaching my veterans. And we are applying that so you can understand the practical and tactical of what we need to be doing to prepare for today's current job market.

[00:00:21]
Hey y'all, I'm Jerome right there, I'm your host for today, your educator. I'm the founder of Vetsu Code, I'm actually celebrating my 10th year today in teaching veterans. I've taught over 300 veterans in software engineering and helped them all get jobs, so I've I put about $20 million in the US economy in jobs.

[00:00:44]
I'm a software engineer in Microsoft, and I'm a fractional CTO at MyRuck AI where I focus on helping with HR, and artificial intelligence. What makes me the person to teach this course, the most qualified, one I am obsessive about this subject. You'll never ever see me arguing about what version of app router or page router should be used.

[00:01:11]
But you'll always see me talking about what needs to be done for you to get the goal of being able to put food on table for your family. When I left the military after the great recession and I was told that I didn't have skills for the modern society.

[00:01:28]
I had to learn how, I taught myself how to code, and that is how I transition into material in the sector. And having the idea of being in air conditioning, the amount of people able to yell at me down to four, and people want to kick my butt, down to zero.

[00:01:45]
I was like, I am never leaving this place. And I've been here since 2010, 2011 I have not left yet. So, that's one piece I know exactly how it feels trying to break into tech. I know how it feels to go through all these ups and downs of tech, I started when FTP was a big deal.

[00:02:04]
And then when we shifted from FTP to AWS, and then I was here when Node.js or the Node engine from Chrome made its debut. And then we started having react, all the things. I survived the JavaScript wars, where there was a new JavaScript framework dropping every five minutes.

[00:02:23]
I remember those were some exhaustive days. I don't know if you survived it, but having to figure out if you don't even know Ember or Angular, there was Angular.js and Angular without the js and react and okay. How do I make sure that, I tailor my resumes for this one, and now in the era of AI and post COVID, I am still here, still helping people get jobs.

[00:02:49]
As recently as two months ago, my last W and I am here to help you get, make sure that you are you continue to win in this market, particularly in a market as volatile as this. Now we're talking about the market, let's just be honest. Right now, this market in this year, in this season, is extremely volatile.

[00:03:10]
All the top companies are trying to flatten their head count with middle management, while also with artificial intelligence they are trying to up their productivity of their mid. And seniors while not focusing on hiring juniors, which is a mistake, but that is right now the game plan. And we have to see how these are impacting the market, it's harder for juniors to even get their foot in the door.

[00:03:39]
People who have been at jobs five, ten years suddenly being let off and they don't even have the experience of having to go through the job market process. The last time they applied for a job, it was AWS just came out, right? So, we're in this very weird state where people don't know what's going on, what's up or down.

[00:04:04]
And just it feels like unmitigated chaos, but there's a method to the madness. I call it market math, how people are doing it, try to figure out how to make their teens more lean, more productive. Utilizing artificial intelligence while keeping the people they feel like will adapt faster to those technologies and still grow within a company.

[00:04:29]
But yeah, remember, all these challenges are just opportunities, right? If I hadn't taken the challenge of picking up a random book on Databases in 2011. I wanna be here today at 2024 talking to y'all about code. That is crazy when you think about the type of chances that you take with opportunities in chaos.

[00:04:56]
So let's not focus on the negative of this, we approach the world the way it is, but we focus on making the world the way we want it to be, and that's what we're gonna do to achieve our goals, right? So we're gonna focus on navigating and winning in this environment.

[00:05:13]
This is one question I get asked by juniors every day. This is my official stance on leveraging using AI. Artificial intelligence is an integral part of the hiring process, therefore, it should be an integral part of your education and getting hired process. You have to learn how to use the tools that are gonna be used in the market against you, for you, and with you.

[00:05:38]
There is no way around it that is the equivalent of coming in front end masters saying you gonna learn react but refusing to learn TypeScript. No one enterprise market does react without TypeScript these days. So you're hurting yourself when you opt out of not learning the new technologies that are required for you to learn, right?

[00:05:59]
So, whether going lower level or even going to bigger level to understand like what these models do and how to understand them how to code with them, especially in the era of cost efficiency. That's gonna be a very big thing, especially for JavaScript engineers to be able to leverage because people don't understand how expensive this stuff is.

[00:06:20]
So definitely go out there, learn how to use this stuff, learn how to build with this stuff. Start learning how to use it now, that's what I want to put out there.