Careers in the
software industry
North Plainfield High School
Wednesday December 9 2015
Fabrice J Fonck
Bio
•
Professional
–
–
–
•
Educational
–
–
•
Independent software globalization consultant;
Microsoft Corporation (1991-2011). Responsible for
developer documentation, world-readiness and all
international releases of Developer Division products
and technologies: Visual Studio, Visual Basic, C#,
Expression, Silverlight, ASP.NET, MSDN,.NET FX, etc.
Created Small Basic specifically for beginners!
MBA Management Science and Information Systems –
State University of New York (1991)
BS in Business – IECS The Strasbourg Graduate School
of Management – France (1989)
Personal
–
–
–
–
Born & grew up in France, moved to the US to attend
graduate school in 1989
Fluent in French, German and English
Family is always #1. Married with 3 children.
For fun, I enjoy flyfishing and travel
Why this industry?
• Jobs, jobs, jobs!
– High pay + benefits
– 2+ openings for every CS grad this year
– By 2018, CS jobs 3x > # of applicants
• Forefront of technology & innovation
• Broad range of applications
–
–
–
–
•
•
•
•
Mobile & embedded (car, tv, etc.)
Desktop
Web
Cloud
Rapid pace of change
Global reach
Flexibility
No suit & tie!
Jobs
• Program Manager
– Feature PM: product specs
– Release PM: schedule & milestones
– Usability PM: user experience
• Software Development Engineer
–
–
Read product specifications
Write code to implement features
• Software Development Engineer in Test
–
–
Quality assurance: find the bugs
Automation and manual testing
• Localization Engineer
–
Product works worldwide
• Technical Writer
–
–
Write the product documentation
Write samples
Getting there…
• Passion for technology
• Learning to write code
– HS CS classes: less than 5% offer AP CS
in the US…
– Community College classes
– On your own:
• MSDN: Beginner Developer Learning Center
– Small Basic
– Visual Studio Express
• edX universities
• Khan Academy
• Code.org
• Choose a CS major in college
• Internships and events
–
Imagine Cup
• Stand out!
Resources and contacts
•
www.msdn.microsoft.com
–
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Visual Studio Express
Computer Science courses at edX
CS at Khan Academy
Commentary: U.S. kids need computer-science
education
Computer science grads fielding 'multiple job offers'
America’s Tech Talent Crunch
10 hot computer science schools
Want a job? Get a computer science degree
2015 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update
Fabrice_fonck@hotmail.com
QUESTIONS?
Thank You
fabrice_fonck@hotmail.com