How JavaBlackBelt Helped my Career

posted by John Rizzo

Interview Transcript

John Rizzo – JavaBlackBelt co-founder, hereunder “JBB”, and

Lukasz Kryger – JavaBlackBelt Moderator, hereunder LK

Taken at QCON conference, March 12^th, 2008

JBB: When did you first learn about JavaBlackBelt?

LK: About a year ago.

JBB: And what was the first JavaBlackBelt exam you took?

LK: The first exam I have taken was one of SCJP mocks, which I obviously failed answering correctly only 1 question out of 28. Back then I wasn't even aware how little I knew about Java. After failing the exam a few times, I realized I had to start from the beginning: that is, to pass each exam on the JavaBlackBelt “belt track” one by one, focusing on one area at a time.

JBB: So you ended up earning your “yellow belt”?

LK: Yes, of course, it was a good preparation for the rest of the track: it helped to familiarize with the JBB rules and conventions. Step by step, I managed to earn enough knowledge points to become a “brown belt”. Now I can't wait for the “black belt” to become available.

JBB: When did you start to contribute to the JBB website?

LK: My first contributions were forced by the JBB system, requiring to „pay" for most of the exams with contribution points. I created few questions, corrected number of existing ones – and soon it became my everyday habit. I became a “JBB moderator”, so I had to spend a little more time verifying existing questions' quality, responding to users' attention requests and guiding new JBB users.

JBB: Which exams have you been most involved in?

LK: I am “JBB Exam Leader” of both Java SE Basic and Java SE Core, which are probably most popular among the users, so they need a little more attention than other stable exams. I don't limit myself to these exams however, when I have enough time I try to help with other exams as well.

JBB: These two Java exams require a lot of work because they are relatively larger than other exams.

LK: Yes, I receive many attention requests daily, sometimes taking a few days of holidays to handle!

JBB: Could you tell us about your professional background?

LK: I'm a relatively new software developer. After graduating from university almost a year ago I moved from Poland to Edinburgh, Scotland. Soon I started to work as a software engineer on University of Edinburgh, working with Java and related technologies.

JBB: What are your duties there?

LK: My company, Edina, maintains the University's Data Library – provides access to all kinds of data for all subscribed universities across UK. I'm personally involved in services for providing geospatially-constrained data of all kinds: historical, statistical, social, demographical etc.

JBB: How did you get the job?

LK: While in Poland I found the advertisement on the university's website. Realising that I had all the skills required to apply for that position, I didn’t hesitate and filled in the application forms. I was invited for an interview shortly after. I was pretty self-confident that I was well-suited for this position, because I had acquired all the necessary Java skills, which were confirmed by passed JBB exams. The actual job interview turned out to be relatively easy, again largely thanks to my experience with JBB – the main part was solving a short Java test which was a walk in the park after passing all those JBB exams!

JBB: Great! And more recently, you earned enough contribution points to bid and to win the JavaBlackBelt auction to come for the QCon…

LK : Yes, it turned out that this relatively valuable item had less interest than other ones available on JBB auctions.

JBB: I guess the fact you have to pay the flight and the hotel is an obstacle for most people.

LK : Yes, but my company covered my travel expenses, they were actually very happy to send their employee to such an event, which is not very cheap, to put it mildly.

JBB: Is QCon 2008 the first professional developer conference that you attend?

LK: Yes, the first strictly Java-oriented.

JBB: What are your feelings about it, what do you enjoy most?

LK: I'm delighted by the opportunity to listen to many of my „Java heroes": authors of book I have on my shelf, programmers whose frameworks I use every day and influential developers that make the Java community expand and go forward. I also enjoy the freedom of choice – there are always at least four lectures in parallel and everyone is free to pick the one they are most interested in.

JBB: OK, thank you for this short interview.

JBB: I'd like to thank JBB for the chance to attend this conference, and it was great meeting you.