Tony Edwards’ Post

The students gave me a squid as a parting gift. Does that mean they see final year as an equivilent to squid games?

Another conference. Another post-commute toe dip in the ocean. This time, the trip was in honour of my first visit to the DDD South West conference. It's a community built and run event, and one that manages a rarity in the tech event world. It perfectly captured that informal community vibe that so many aim for, but without using it as an excuse for a half-hearted attempt. Super impressed. The most useful two sessions came via John Kilmister & Aaron Green. Both talks broadly focused on different aspects of communication. John's session was built around developer career progression, with many of the lessons leading back to communication skills in someway. One of the points made solidified something known for years without realising. . . "Technical skills dissolve over time. Communication skills compound over time." Quite obvious when it's put so eloquently! Aarons session took a wander through confident communication, at times touching on the psychology behind it. Understanding a bit more about the Halo and Horn effects both gave me some fresh ideas to slide into my uni classes, and a starting point to go deeper. Happy to have learned the handshake trick 🤝 As with most conferences, the highlight was the conversations either side of the sessions. It was enjoyable to mingle with the crowd and get to know some new folks on a trip to the far North. Chatting about open source, within the context of #DotnetMAUI, was really interesting, and the insights gleaned from experienced contributors was invaluable for my ongoing #FOSS fun. Come the end of the visit, it was time to jump on the train to rattle along the rails once more. The four and half hour journey back to the actual southwest was lovely, and the ocean at the end as inviting as ever. Oh. . . you've not lived until you've had a pinapple pizza #NoHam

Come along to the project showcase, and meet the talent coming out of the University of Plymouth comp-sci dicipline.

Step away from the computer. It was the first thing I said when asked, and definitely the most important. It's hard to give advice that's actually practical, achievable, and grounded in reality. So when a burgeoning computer scientist asked me for some nuggets of wisdom heading into their final year, I tried really hard to come up with something useful. I urged them to: - Step away from the computer and enjoy the summer. See friends, catch up with family, invest time in a hobby. You won't be doing anything other than coding for the next year, so make the most of the moments you don't have to. - Build your network. Find people in your industry who are saying things that interest you and engage. Even better, meet them in real life at events. - Build your portfolio now. Don't wait until you need it. - Revisit any major topics that you didn't get a grasp of in years 1 & 2. They were slightly surprised that my answer wasn't to code, Code, CODE! Did I miss anything major? What advice would you give yourself if you were heading into your final year of university?

A wild game dev meetup appears.