We Got Coders
TakeOff
Takeoff 2016
I do wish 2016 would 'take off' as the Americans would say...
Best thing to happen in 2016 for me...
Thanks for the invite / for your attention
@dmgarland
Creative Person
12 years in web development
Teach web development
Founder of We Got Coders, a training company and consultancy in UK
Wannabe Digital nomad
New York 3 months - I'm a digital nomad
I ♥
Lille resident and formerly worked for a startup at Eurotech
It's great to be back in lovely Lille....
Francophile / amateur French speaker
Music - synthesist and keyboardist
I play for a band called Sweet Billy Pilgrim - I used to travel back
from Lille every Wednesday night to rehearse / gig
TODO - expand into slide with rehearsal / arts bar
A century since the Battle of the Somme. Seventy-five years since the Pearl Harbour attack, 50 since the start of China's cultural revolution and 15 since 9/11. Twitter turns 10.
Bowie, Alan Rickman, Prince, Keith Emerson, Cryuff. Terror attacks.
Trump for president?
How To Rescue Tech Migrants From Brexit
What I'll talk about...
Probably a lot of Brits looking to escape the UK soon
What life is like for digital nomads
How to on-board developers, especially Brits
What we do at We Got Coders
Probably the only good thing to come out of it was that Cameron was
sad and lost his job.
Dimitri Payet
N'Golo Kanté
It's made worse by the fact we were all smarmy when Hollande got in,
saying we'd "roll out the red carpet" for French workers fleeing
higher taxes
The same website now says EU is rolling out red carpet for Brits
I voted
Why?
Bigger Market- currently 20% of our trainees come from EU countries.
Solidarity - 75th anniversary of the Somme. I am European!
Live / Work - Focus of this talk - I regard myself a digital nomad
Escape from UK
I wanna escape from the UK and I'm probably not the only one...
Cost of Living
Joie de vivre
Berlin
Austin
Toronto
San Francisco
Boston
Tel Aviv
Los Angeles
Amsterdam
Montreal
Paris
What could possibly appeal to British web developers?
Is Lille well positioned to benefit?
What could possibly appeal to British web developers?
2011 helped setup Libertrip
The first e-commerce platform for Travel
Euro 1.15 = £1
70% less pay than London day rates
Ruby on Rails application
Idea is you plan trips, share with your friends, book hotels and
flights in a social way.
Got a break, live and work abroad and I loved it!
Couchsurfing
Parties / Bars
Fun place to live and work
Economical, ecological
What was it like to join a French company as a Brit?
Language barrier
My boss asked me on my first day: "As tu un PC?"...
He was probably worried he'd hired an 'expert' who didn't know what a PC was!
Later I said: "Je propose que je mettre un job dans ton cul"
Do you know what this is? I tried to say that it was preserved vegetables.
"Mon nourriture prefere c'est des legumes mettre dans un preservatif"
Next one is lead with ... "and Ceci n'est jamais une pipe"
Other things:
Terminology: CDI / CDD
Cultural: lunch breaks
Team Discussions: Pair Programming
What appeals to digital nomads?
Pull Factors
Flexible / remote working
Culture
Life Goals: Learn a language
Time for learning, side projects
Help with relocation, putting down roots
Help exploring the surrounding area
Playing an important role in your team
Good coding environment. Quiet, relaxing fun…
Does it live up to the hype?
What T4HWW actually says:
How to define exactly what you actually want
How to maximize output per hour worked
Inspiration and validation of an alternate reality
Being rich != Having lots of money
(goal-setting)
(productivity hacks)
(vs the standard life path)
Myths
Building an income stream is easy
It’s about working 4 hours a week
You can hire someone else to do your job
You should be having the time of your life
You have to leave home / travel
(growing the business).
or you aren’t doing it right
"Digital Nomad" != "Location Independent"
So you don't have to backpack around, earning just enough for your
next ticket...
http://locationindependent.com
We are Lea & Jonathan Woodward, a British couple with two young kids, Mali & Samson.
We didn’t think “nomadic” accurately described what we were doing – running our business online from wherever we travelled to – and so we came up with the term, Location Independent*, instead.
“We knew that there were plenty of places in the world where you can live on a lot less than we were earning and have the same, if not a better standard of living. So we asked ourselves:
What if we left the UK for one of these places and continued to run our existing businesses?”
We Got Coders
Started in 2013
Immersive, intensive training with paid work experience
We train 30 web professionals a year
100% of our trainees who completed the 6 month course have been made job offers as Ruby devs
Our goal is to be the leading provider of Web Development consultants in the UK
Our Approach
Full time immersive courses
Live-in with the team
Pair programming
Industry best-practices
Mentor support in work experience
Tempsford Mill
Grade II listed Mill House
On an island in Bedfordshire
2 classroom facilities
Accommodation for 9
Digital Escapee?
Living in the mansion
No commute
Food provided
Community of developers
Still near city - but the advantages of country life
Epicurean lifestyle
Yewlands House
Grade II listed Manor House
Overlooks the Lee Valley
2 classroom facilities
Accommodation for 8
Steam Room, en-suite private bathrooms
Games room with arcade machine, Snooker...
Live and Breathe Code
Mention that if anyone is interested in finding out more about our
courses and offerings, to find me afterwards.
Happiness
Friendship
Freedom
Thought
Friendship – who you eat with, matters more than what’s on your plate
Freedom – ‘from the prison of everyday affairs and politics’
Thought – because rational thinking keeps pointless anxiety at bay.
How to On-board developers
Probably a lot of Brits thinking about working abroad
Hire them by providing:
Right Support
Mentoring
Pair Programming
Training
Pay them! (Forget equity)
Take their background into consideration
We should talk more!
We would love to expand to Europe
If you want to hire devs available on-site / remotely
If you're interested in a code retreat in the UK (before it's too late!)
Questions ?
Follow us:
@wegotcoders
@dmgarland
Thank you :)
