opening doors with public speaking
guest: michael richardson, senior software developer at kroger
- submit your first conference talk even if you expect it to get rejected, just to start the process
- treat public speaking as a long game, expect rejection and keep improving your submissions each time
- when picking a topic, think about whether it fits the audience and not just what you personally love
- talks generally fall into technical deep dives, high level overviews for managers and beginners, or people skills topics
- speaking and organizing conferences builds a network of organizers and speakers that opens up new opportunities