Mandy M.
Senior Software Engineer at Dotdash Meredith
Computer Software
Education: Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, University of Alberta
New York, NY, USA
Biography
Mandy Meindersma is a Senior Software Engineer at Dotdash Meredith, her day to day is coding Java + Spring for the 40 brands that are under Dotdash Meredith. She has had a passion for technology ever since her first robotics course in high school. Since then she has fallen in love with coding and has completed her bachelors in Computer Science from the University of Alberta. She has a passion for volunteering whether it is organizing tech events as the President of the Dev Edmonton Society or teaching kids how to code with organizations like Canada Learning Code.
Passion
Mentoring students! I think mentoring is the cure to imposture syndrome, because once I realize that I can teach someone else something then I realize I know more than I think.
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
Everything is negotiable
Topics
Best Story
I was doing a talk at a conference and I had a volunteer who was checking in people attending to my room. My session went great and afterwards she came up to me and said: "You know, most software engineers are so dry when they speak, I was worried about your presentation but I could literally hear the laughter from down the hall. Your session was the most packed track at the entire conference."
Example talks
Why do computer scientists name things so interestingly?
The hardest part of computer science and programming is naming variables. I will go into all the fun naming conventions, where they came from and fun examples of weird naming.
(work in progress)
Building Up with Open Source
Want to learn a new technology but not sure where to start? Want a new job but you are missing some of the requirements? Want to learn how to get noticed by recruiters? Want to work with other passionate developers? Join this session as it provides a comprehensive roadmap for contributing to open-source projects so that you can make your resume stand out. It begins with guidance on project discovery and selection, highlighting avenues to find suitable initiatives. Participants will learn how to make contributions through Git, emphasizing the ideal workflow of forking repositories and then creating pull requests. The session delves into the intricacies of code review, shedding light on what reviewers look for and how to navigate their feedback. Finally, the process of achieving approval for code changes is demystified.
You can leave this session with a clear understanding of how to find, start, and collaborate on open-source projects while also highlighting all of these skills on your resume to stand out in the hiring process.
Writing a technical resume
What do you add on your resume? Does it have to be one page? Do you need side projects? Do you include a photo? Does linkedIn matter? How do I write good bullet points? What template should I use? PDF vs Word? What is ATS? All of these questions and more will be answered in this presentation! You will leave knowing how to make an impressive technical resume that recruiters will notice. Half of the session will be devoted to industry professionals reviewing your resume, so make sure to bring a recent resume!
Help! How do I know what kind of developer I want to be?
Front end developer? backend developer? data engineer? security? DevOps? Full stack? We will take 10 minutes for each sub section of developing and work through a real life bug and fix it. After attending this session you will leave with a better idea of what kind of developing you are interested in!