20 Hearing your future
Hearing your Future is the Coding your Future podcast which accompanies this guidebook. We talk to graduands and graduates of computer science to hear more about their journey from student to professional. What happens after graduation like the one shown in figure 20.1? What comes next?
Figure 20.1: Silly hat? ✅ Silly frock? ✅ Wearing your best outfit? ✅ It must be time for graduation! What comes next? Hearing your future interviews current and former students to find out more about how they got to where they are and where they are going to next. Picture of obligatory hat throwing outside the Samuel Alexander building in 2018. Photobombing by Gavin Brown 🎓
Listen in to the episodes below, or read the transcripts, to find out more about how these students are coding their future:
- What’s their story?
- How did they get to where they are?
- What obstacles have they faced and how did they overcome them?
- Where are they planning to going next?
- What advice would they offer to their former selves and fellow students?
Find out more by listening here or subscribing wherever you get your podcasts…
20.1 Subscribing to your future
You can subscribe (for free!) by following one of the links below to your favourite podcast tool. Alternatively you can search for Coding your Future or Hearing your Future in your podcast application. You will see the logo shown in figure 20.2 when you find it.
- Spotify: spoti.fi/3SFqaYk
- Apple: apple.co/3JFV5Qe
- Amazon Music / Audible: amzn.to/3OOaS0G
- Google podcasts: podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR…
- Deezer: deezer.com/en/show/3839607
- Podcast homepage: codingyourfuture.libsyn.com
If all else fails, you can cut-and-paste the raw rss feed URL below into the relevant settings on your podcast app:
http://feeds.libsyn.com/299189/rss
Figure 20.2: Hearing your future is the Coding your Future podcast. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Hearing sketch by Visual Thinkery is licensed under CC-BY-ND
If you’d like to be a guest on the show, see section 20.7
20.2 Episode 5: Sneha Kandane
Interview with Sneha Kandane, see figure 20.3 and the transcript and show notes in chapter 25.
Figure 20.3: Sneha Kandane. Picture reused from linkedin.com/in/sneha-kandane-931346183 with permission, thanks Sneha.
Listen to the episode by clicking Play ▶️ below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, see section 20.1.
20.3 Episode 4: Carmen Faura Práxedes
Interview with Carmen Faura Práxedes, see figure 20.4 and the transcript and show notes in chapter 24
Figure 20.4: Carmen Faura Práxedes. Picture reused from linkedin.com/in/carmen-faura with permission, thanks Carmen.
Listen to the episode by clicking Play ▶️ below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, see section 20.1.
20.4 Episode 3: Brian Yim Tam
Interview with Brian Yim Tam, see figure 20.5 and the transcript and show notes in chapter 22
Figure 20.5: Brian Yim Tam. Picture reused with permission from linkedin.com/in/byt411, thanks Brian.
Listen to the episode by clicking Play ▶️ below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, see section 20.1.
20.5 Episode 2: Jason Ozuzu
Interview with Jason Ozuzu, see figure 20.6 and the transcript in chapter 23.
Figure 20.6: Jason Ozuzu. Picture reused with permission from linkedin.com/in/jason-ozuzu-a87049173, thanks Jason.
Listen to the episode by clicking Play ▶️ below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, see section 20.1.
20.6 Episode 1: Raluca Cruceru
Interview with Raluca Cruceru, see figure 20.7 and the transcript and show notes in chapter 21
Figure 20.7: Raluca Cruceru is a software engineer at CERN, standing here in front of the experiment she works on: A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) part of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, see careers.cern/Raluca. Picture reused with permission from linkedin.com/in/raluca-cruceru, thanks Raluca.
Listen to the episode by clicking Play ▶️ below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, see section 20.1.
20.7 Episode \(x\): it could be YOU!
YOUR FUTURE WANTS YOU: Join your future! If you’d like to be interviewed for the show, get in touch, see figure 20.8. Besides interviewing current graduates, I’m interested in speaking to former graduates, especially if you:
- completed a placement or internship(s) as an undergraduate or postgraduate
- consider yourself to be part of a minority or under-represented group
I’m also interested in speaking to people who graduated a while back, not just this years graduates, but any back to 1968. 🎓 (Brackenbury 2005)
Figure 20.8: Your country future wants YOU. 🫵 Join your future. If you are a former student of Computer Science who’d like to appear on the show, get in touch. I’m especially interested to hear from students who did internships or placements before they graduated in Computer Science. Picture adapted from an original public domain image of the Lord Kitchener Wants You poster by Alfred Leete on Wikimedia Commons at w.wiki/3xvX
If you’re preparing to come on the show, please have a think about the following questions:
20.7.1 What’s your story, coding glory?
With apologies to the Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher, see figure 20.9:
“All your dreams are made, when you’re chained to the tracker and the software trade… What’s your story, coding glory?”
What’s your origin story?
- What’s your name and where do you come from? (C. Black 1985)
- Why did you choose to study computer science?
- Which organisation were you employed by, why and how did you choose them
- What were the main obstacles you faced finding employment and how did you overcome them?
- Tell us about your roles and responsibilities within the organisation
- How did you find the job and what other jobs did they look for?
- What were the main things you learned on placement?
- What was the most enjoyable or rewarding part of working for your employer?
- What did you do for your final year project?
- If you graduated previously, what has been your career path to date?
- What comes next?
Figure 20.9: (What’s your Story) Morning Coding Glory? (Gallagher 1995). CC BY portrait of Noel Gallagher by alterna2.com on Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/3bimy adapted using the Wikipedia app
20.7.2 Minority report
This is an optional question taken from the title of the Philip K. Dick novel The Minority Report and subsequent film adaptation, see figure 20.10. Minority report asks our guests:
- Do you consider yourself to be a member of an under-represented, minority or otherwise marginalised group?
- If so which one(s) are you happy to discuss, see section 2.2.1?
- What has your experience been of being in a minority at University and in the workplace?
- How can the teaching and learning of computer science be made more equitable, diverse and inclusive for members of your minority group(s)?
- What else can universities do to make campuses more welcoming to members of your minority group(s)?
- What more can employers do to make workplaces more welcoming to members of your minority group(s)?
Figure 20.10: Are you in a minority? Inspired by the book (Dick 1956) and its film adaptation (Spielberg 2015), we’ll hear from some of our minorities. The Minority Report is short story by Philip K. Dick first published by Fantastic Universe magazine in 1956. What is it like being in minority and how could universities and employers be more welcoming to your minority group(s)? Public domain image of magazine cover by Ed Emshwiller via Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/5Swn adapted using the Wikipedia app
20.7.3 One tune, one podcast and one film
We love our music, films and podcasts and make gratuitous references to them throughout Coding your Future. Critics say our playlist in chapter 17 is clogged up with:
- Lancashire boy bands, see section 17.3
- DadRock and BritPop, see section 17.4
- cardigan-swinging, shoe-gazing, glastonbury-going indie music, see section 17.5
- music made with digital computers rather than analogue instruments, see section 17.2
- other antiquities from a bygone era (Rogers 2008)
So, can you recommend a:
-
TUNE! One tune to rejuvenate or internationlise our playlists. Why is it important to you?
- Perhaps it makes you relax, feel happy or comforted?
- Maybe it reminds you of special people, a special time or special place in your life?
- We’ll add it to The Coder’s Playlist in section 17.1
- PODCAST: One podcast (or audiobook) you’ve enjoyed that you’d recommend people listen or subscribe to 🎧
- FILM: One film we’ve got to go and watch right now, old or new 🍿
20.7.4 Time traveller
Do you wish that you knew what you know now, when you were younger? Just like Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart, we all probably feel that way sometimes, see figure 20.11. So, if you could travel back in time to meet the younger you, just starting University:
- What would you tell your former self, now that you are older and wiser?
- What would you tell current students to help them get the most of their preciously short time at University?
Figure 20.11: Poor old grandad I laughed at all his words but I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger, see Ooh La La. (Lane and Wood 1973) Do you wish that you knew what you know now, when you were younger? What would you tell your younger self about getting the most from University life?
20.8 Everything I had to know, I heard it on my radio
We’ll leave the last words on podcasting to The Buggles and Queen. Podcasting is an evolution and mutation of radio but did video kill the radio star? (Downes, Horn, and Woolley 1979) What if everything you had to know, you could hear it on your radio, see figure 20.12? Tune in to find out. 📻
Figure 20.12: All we hear is Radio Ga Ga but everything I had to know, I heard it on my radio. (Taylor 1984) So don’t become some background noise, a backdrop to the girls and boys, who just don’t know and just don’t care and just complain when you’re not there.
20.8.1 Thanks Jez
This podcast is inspired and supported by Jez Lloyd, host, producer and mastermind of the excellent CS@Manchester podcast, see figure 20.13. Thanks Jez! 🙏
Figure 20.13: The CS@Manchester podcast was produced and hosted by Jez Lloyd and ran from 2015 to 2020. This podcast, Hearing your future, is following in all 38 of its audible footsteps, see podomatic.com/podcasts/cs-engagement