Career Opportunities For C++ Professionals -- A Panel Discussion (Note New Date)

Our October meeting will be a panel presentation and discussion
on career opportunities for C++ professionals. This will be a
departure from what we normally do, which is a lecture on some
technical topic. We will have three panelists, so that we can see
the landscape from three different perspectives: a recruiter, an
employer, and an academic.

We shall also be giving away several hundred dollars' worth of
recently-published books (details below).

NOTE THE NEW DATE. Our panelists were not all able to come
on the originally-scheduled date. Our new date is Thursday
evening, October 25.

Here are our panelists:

Stephanie D. Dennis is a recruiter with Ashley Ellis, LLC.
She will be speaking about the type of organizations that
seek C++ programmers and more specifically what skills they
look for. Additionally she will review the market trends
and demand for such programmers and how this has changed
over the years. In her own words: "Stephanie makes it a
priority to exceed expectations and meet the needs of both
professionals looking for the right opportunity and
organizations looking for the right team member. Feel free
to reach out to her with any questions!"

Chanaka Liyanaarachchi is a professor in the Financial
Mathematics Department at the University of Chicago,
which is a graduate program where you can get a Master's
Degree in Financial Mathematics. He is also a Software and
Financial Engineer at a Chicago-based trading firm. He recently
introduced, and now teaches, a programming course titled
"Computing for Finance" using C++ as the language of
instruction. He will talk about the transition from C++ programmer
to mathematician and financial analyst, and, conversely, the
transition from mathematician and financial analyst, to
C++ programmer; what kind of students come to the
program, and what kinds of jobs they get when they graduate;
and why he chose C++ as the vehicle for teaching computational
finance.

Gene Panov works for Prime Seven, "a startup electronic-only
market-maker on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange", which has
chosen C++ for their high-performance applications (but not
for all of their applications). He is a member of the
Chicago C/C++ Users' Group and you may, in fact, have seen
some messages from him a few months ago, inviting people to
work for him. He will talk about why his company chose C++
as the language in which to create some of its products,
what skills are most needed in the C++ programmers whom he
hires, how easy has it been for him to find people who have
those skills, and other topics that he knows about. In his
own words: "We offer competitive salary and participation in
startup's upside".

There will, of course, be ample time for questions and answers,
after the presentations.

And now for the second item on the agenda. We have been
approached by a publisher who wants to promote its books by
giving away free samples. At our October 25 meeting we shall
be giving away five copies (worth over $300) of the Fifth Edition
of The C++ Primer, by Stanley B. Lippman, José Lajoie, and
Barbara E. Moo, completely rewritten for C++11. Everyone who
comes is eligible. We have also been given copies of other books
(and we have more copies of The C++ Primer) which we shall
give away at future meetings.

The meeting is scheduled for 6:15pm, our traditional start time,
but our meeting room will be available at 6pm, maybe even a
few minutes earlier. It is on the 13th floor of 10 South La Salle,
Suite #1330.

Make sure you RSVP for this meetup on the website even if you
already RSVP'd for the earlier "Save The Date" announcement,
because the date has changed, and we want to know that you are
still coming.

We have had many new members since our last event, and I look
forward to meeting you all on the 25th.