JuniorDev Launch - Why Juniors && What's It Like as a Junior && Tips for Juniors

We are kicking off the JuniorDev Community in Perth this month! What's this all about?

Who should come to this event? Everyone in Tech!! Okay, that's bit broad. Juniors should come of course! People that want to learn to code should come, people looking to hire Juniors, very welcome, and people who don't want to hire Juniors at all, should really really come! :D

This is a night for everyone, not just Junior Developers! We have four awesome speakers who are going to cover a variety of topics to do with Junior Developers in Perth. We will hear from Junior Developers about what it's like being one, and hear from Hiring Managers about what they look for in Junior Developers when hiring. We'll also hear about the benefits of Junior Developers in teams, so if you are looking to hire Juniors, or been thinking about it, it's a great opportunity to come and hear first hand how awesome they are!

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Melissa Ettinger is the Technology & Transformation Graduate Program Manager at Bankwest. Melissa has a background in Tech and still calls herself a Software Engineer. She started working at Bankwest as a Software Engineering Grad, finished the two-year rotational program in January 2017 and moved directly into managing the program. Prior to that, Melissa worked at a Software Solutions start-up in San Diego, California while completing her Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. She is passionate about Graduates, technology, learning and giving back.

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Jemie Effendy is a first year Technology and Transformation Graduate at Bankwest. Jemie is passionate about Software and Application Development. Prior to this role, Jemie worked as a Software Engineer/Developer for about a year at The University of Melbourne. He also worked as a casual Software Developer in some of Victoria-based startup companies to enhance his knowledge in Software Development while studying to complete his degree in IT.

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Jake Ginnivan is the Digital Development Manager at Seven West Media where he works on their new digital platform. Before this he spent many years as a consultant for Readify with a brief 2 year sabbatical to London working in the finance industry for Adaptive Consulting. He is an active maintainer or creator of quite a few open source including GitVersion, DbUp, Shouldly, BDDfy and contributes to many more.

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LJ Kenward ( @LJKenward (https://twitter.com/ljkenward) ) is a Junior Developer at Xero and self proclaimed Junior Developer Advocate! After a working FIFO in Mining and Construction throughout the Pilbara as a Truck Driver, LJ jumped into an intensive three month coding Bootcamp in 2016. LJ's journey into software has been much less traditional than most, and she is an energetic member of the tech industry, both as attendee and facilitator. She facilitates the Free Code Camp Melbourne meetup and co-organises JuniorDev meetup events, and has spoken about the Why and How for companies to Hire Junior Developers.

Why Junior Devs? It's no secret that the industry has a talent shortage when it comes to hiring developers, and with technology only becoming more and more integrated and integral in all of our lives, software development isn't going away (let's not talk about AI writing code just yet ha ha!). We need to invest in entry level developers, educate, grow, train, support and give them the opportunities to thrive, not just survive!

Who are Junior Devs? We believe in self identifying, but we consider Junior Developers people from 0 to about 3 years experience. This is so varied though, as technology changes, some languages are totally different, and then you could be switching between Front End, Back End, etc. Junior Developers come from EVERYWHERE! Computer Science / Engineering / IT Graduates, for sure, but also Bootcamp attendees, self taught coders, hobbyists! You don't have to be working to be a part of this Community!

Thanks for SpaceCubed for Sponsoring the venue:

"Join a community of over 800 entrepreneurs, ranging from start-ups to scale-ups, and look at the different membership options here (https://spacecubed.spaces.nexudus.com/en/page/membership). If you're not sure, then contact us (info@spacecubed.com) for a tour with us and find out how we support people at every stage at growth through our community, events, programs and more."

and you can have a look around their Town Hall facilities while you're at the meetup!

Thank you to our generous sponsors, SpaceCubed (http://www.spacecubed.com/en) for Hosting us at their awesome Town Hall event space, DDD Perth (http://dddperth.com) for the Food and Drink sponsorship and DDD Melbourne (http://dddmelbourne.com) for the logistical support and sponsorship! Thank you to our speakers for volunteering their time to chat with all of us!

Any questions reach out to LJ on Meetup.Com or Twitter at @LJKenward (https://twitter.com/ljkenward)