Jackson Terrill

💡 Working Smarter is a new podcast from Dropbox about how AI is changing the way we work and get stuff done—not in the future, but today. 🤖 On our first episode, hear robotics expert Kate Darling talk about how to think about our relationship with our machines. Click to listen below!

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We're looking for someone with experience across a React/Typescript/Next.js/Tailwind stack to help us architect and implement our frontend codebase. I'm hoping for a few things from applicants: 1. Autonomy. We're a growing team. We need people to be able to share the load in terms of maintenance tasks and feature development. That capacity has to be multi-talented and self-directed. If you already know how to discuss technical requirements, give feedback to product teams, write technical documentation, perform and receive code reviews, and manage personal tasks, then you might be the person that we're looking for. 2. Experience. We want people who have used certain technologies long enough to have opinions on the right and wrong ways to do things. We want people who've already found some of the sharp edges or gone underneath the surface of the tools that they're using. We thrive on pairing and discussion. If you like talking code as much as we do and have the knowledge and experience to help shape our technical roadmap, I'd like to talk to you. 3. Curiosity. Our team is small enough that we often need to wear many hats. I don't need someone who is an expert on CI/CD systems to join me. But I would like to see someone interested enough in the Software Development Lifecycle that they want to learn and have their hand in it. We've already set up our infrastructure, but I'd love to work with someone who's actively interested in network topologies and willing to share that knowledge. We write our own SQL queries, so I hope for someone that can author rudimentary queries but with the desire to improve. If you've ever used a React hook and wondered "How does `useState` actually work?", then I'd like to explore it with you. In return, I'm happy to commit to supporting our future engineer so that they grow in their role with us. I want this to be an excellent opportunity to do work that you can be proud of while also growing your knowledge of modern web apps and networks in both breadth and depth. *** I also don't want anyone to read the job description and immediately self-select out of it because they don't meet all of the requirements. I don't want a lot of people who would otherwise be wonderful additions to my team decide not to apply because they use Vue instead of React or they aren't confident in their AWS expertise. If you're reading this and on the fence, I ask that you are both realistic and generous to yourself. https://lnkd.in/erhqZ2ix

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Really excited to share I'll be delivering a talk "Starting from nothing" at StaffPlus in New York on September 4th 2024. Staff engineers make for an excellent advance party, someone you give a problem like “build a new product” and know they’ll turn that ask into an actionable plan, eventually releasing something great. Sounds great, right? Well, not exactly. You may be the first to scope out the project, but you’ll need to build a team to help you deliver on it. Once you have a team you’ll need a vision that can excite and inspire them, as it’s unlikely you’ll deliver the quality of outcome within the timelines needed without one. Complicating things, it’s probably a poor choice for you to take an ‘official’ leadership position within a team: you’ll need to steer, support and drive the team all from within. I've spent years being this person, helping lead company initiatives at GoCardless and then at incident.io, the most recent example being our On-call product. This talk will share some of the tough lessons learned I've learned along the way. Whether you're tackling your first big project or leading your tenth, you'll leave with strategies that might save you some sleep. Look forward to seeing you there! LeadDev

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🚀 Exciting Takeaways from Our Recent Headstarter Meeting 🚀 Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a transformative meeting at Headstarter where we had the honor of hearing from some incredible guest speakers: Dennis Crowley Co-Founder of Foursquare @Tariq ahmed First Engineer at Applovin Hamza Ali CEO of Olostep Erik Cupsa Machine Learning Engineer Intern at TRC Julian Alvarez 🚀 CEO of Wisdolia and ex-Meta SWE Here are some key insights I gained: From Dennis Crowley and @Tariq ahmed: 1)Scrappiness, hard work, and curiosity are essential traits for a successful candidate. 2)@Tariq Ahmed: "Software engineers make more money than athletes, so we're on the right track!" 3)On imposter syndrome: It affects everyone but can be a positive force to keep you on your toes. Embrace it as a driver for continuous self-improvement. Enjoy the learning journey and personal growth. From Julian Alvarez 🚀 : 1) Take risks and be optimistic about finding your path and solutions. 2) Start early, even if it's imperfect. Be passionate about personal growth and education. 3) Learn from failures—your worst moment can become your best if you know how to learn from it. 4)Maintain physical and mental health: stay hydrated, eat well, exercise, and prioritize sleep and mental well-being. 5)Potential lies in four pillars: Who you want to become What you want to create What you want to achieve Who you want to help and what problems you care about solving From Hamza Ali: "Just getting your college degree is not enough." This meeting was truly inspiring and has given me valuable insights to apply in my journey. Grateful to be part of such an enriching experience at Headstarter! Yasin Ehsan 🚀 #Headstarter #TechInternship #LearningJourney #PersonalGrowth #Inspiration #SoftwareEngineering

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Share Your Wisdom: Building a Collection of Life & Career Insights 🧠 I've started compiling helpful quotes and learnings from my journey (more to explore and excited for what lies ahead) in a new Substack article – a growing collection of wisdom! ✨ Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/ewjsB5xc I believe everyone has valuable insights to share. 💡 Feel free to post in the comments any quotes or learnings that significantly impacted your life or career Let's inspire and empower each other! 👇 #quotes #wisdom P.S: This Substack article will be updated regularly with new insights, so be sure to subscribe to stay in the loop! 🚀

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So, I have some news to share. I'm now a Headstarter Software Engineering fellow and Week 1 has been intense! I've kicked things off by building my personal portfolio website. It's live now, showcasing my skills and experiences. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/g9W5bvvZ For my final project, I'll be working with my team of three on an intrapreneurship-focused challenge. We aim to develop innovative solutions within existing company structures - think less startup chaos and more corporate disruption. The part I'm most excited about in this fellowship is the chance to level up my: 1) Technical skills (hello, AI engineering!) 2) Personal Brand 3) Interview prep 4) Networking 5) Project management Speaking of interviews, I just had my first AI mock interview session focused on arrays and hashing. It was an eye-opener! The focus was more on communicating my thought process than just coding out a solution. I learned the importance of creating a rough plan before diving into code. It felt very much in line with what we would expect in a real interview. The experience along with the detailed feedback, helped me understand what interviewers are looking for. A new experience, but one that's already shaping how I approach problem-solving. I'm looking forward to sharing more about my progress and technical growth over the next few weeks. This journey is all about finding my voice in tech and getting others excited about what we're building. Let's connect! I'd love to hear about your experiences Sreeram Bangaru Yasin Ehsan Headstarter AI Faizan Ahmed🚀#Headstarter #SoftwareEngineering #AIEngineering #TechJourney #Intrapreneurship

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