We had a Senior Software Developer join us a few years back and he seemed obsessed with “networking” and also using “new technology“. By “new technology”, I mean if we weren’t already using it, he wanted to use it, so was pushing to use Docker. And by “networking”, I mean going to nerd conferences and events.
“Is anyone thinking of going to DockerCon? Seems like the kind of thing we should get some skin in the game?”
Senior Developer
I’ve never heard of that phrase “skin in the game” before, but my biggest question is “how long can people talk about Docker for?” People from all around the world, going to Barcelona to talk about what things they have docked.
I don’t often see a benefit of these conferences anyway. People do mention “networking”, but what do you really do? Talk to random people, boast about how good you are, and hope that if you apply to the company they work for, that they are the ones looking at your application, and also remember your name and who you were? If not, it probably isn’t increasing your future job prospects.
You must think it is very beneficial if you are travelling from England to Spain just for a conference, but this developer was well up for it. I suppose if he could convince the company to send him, then it’s a free holiday, so maybe you don’t know how sincere he is.
In my previous job, we were in the gambling industry. There was some event down in London, something like the “International Gaming Exhibition”. It was for companies in the gambling industry to show off their new products. There were loads of slot machines, fancy roulette wheels, all kinds of automated machines (card shufflers, automated roulette wheels).
I had no idea what our objective was really, so I just walked from stall to stall, taking all the free stuff. I got a couple of tote bags; stationery items such as pens and post-it notes; and playing cards. Our company was essentially rivals to some of these companies so we weren’t there to buy, and we didn’t have our own stall so we weren’t there to sell.
Some of the stalls were very elaborate and like those ones they used to have at E3 before that sort of approach was deemed sexist. So some stalls were occupied by bikini-clad “booth babes”. You could say those companies are getting some “skin in the game”! I thought they must hire them from some modelling agency or something, but it was interesting hearing them answer fairly technical questions about the products – so they must have done their homework. One company was spraying their woman in full body paint. I got there when she was about 90% painted, but one of my colleagues was boasting about how he got there earlier. This was probably around 2011 so I would imagine those “booth babes” might be cancelled, like the ones at E3.
Stranger Coding Tings 