Zach Brass
iOS developer
New York City, New York, United States
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Zach has been an iOS developer for over a decade at all different types of companies from startups to FAANG. He's also a mentor for Underdog Devs (go look them up). In his spare time, he's a dancer and dance instructor, and competes in the occasional pun competition.
Two truths and a lie:
Zach inherited the world's largest collection of reflex hammers
Zach once ate lunch with former Speaker of the UK House of Commons John Bercow
Zach is in the United States FAA's Registry of Airmen despite never having flown an airplane
Area of Expertise
Topics
"Am I qualified to give this talk?" and other outlandish thoughts fueled by impostor syndrome
Impostor syndrome runs rampant throughout the software engineering world, from junior developers to seasoned seniors. With the shift to remote work, it’s become harder to recognize that others might be feeling the same way. In this session, we’ll shine a light on the intrusive thoughts that define impostor syndrome and uncover practical, honest strategies to combat them (no self-deception required). Whether you’ve ever doubted your expertise, feared being “found out,” or questioned if you belong in the room, this talk will leave you equipped with a new mindset to navigate those doubts.
You Should Mentor That Person
One of the most rewarding things you can do as an engineer is to be a mentor. But it’s often intimidating.
“What if I’m not ready?” (You most likely are.)
“Where do I find one?” (So many places!)
“What if I give bad advice?” (The world won’t end.)
We’ll address all these concerns and more to help you overcome the mental obstacles of becoming a mentor, find a mentee, and get started helping shape the next crop of engineers.
Objective-C: Remember me?
It’s been nearly a decade since the introduction of Swift at WWDC 2014, and there’s no longer a question of which language new iOS developers should learn first. But Objective-C still remains a valuable skill, whether it’s for diving into legacy codebases, modernizing a project to Swift, or being able to decipher an older answer on Stack Overflow that’s still the canonical way of solving a problem. In this talk, we’ll introduce Objective-C to the increasing number of iOS developers who have only ever touched Swift, and talk about some of the (remaining) unique advantages to using Objective-C.
So you just got laid off, now what?
2022 saw mass layoffs in tech companies of all sizes, and 2023 isn’t looking so stable. Searching for a job can be an intensely stressful process, especially if you just lost yours, and especially if every few weeks there’s a high-profile news story about several thousand more people suddenly looking for software engineering jobs too.
But this talk isn’t just about job searching. We’ll talk about setting healthy boundaries and goals, taking care of ourselves, and ultimately acknowledging that getting laid off is not a simple problem that can be solved by simply figuring out a solution that runs in O(n)
Localization for Beginnermediates
Preparing your app for localization goes beyond just using Localizable strings and Autolayout. In this talk, we’ll go beyond the basics and talk about some less commonly known localization topics, less commonly used features of the iOS SDK, and the many new ways iOS localization has evolved in the last couple of years. We’ll also identify common anti-patterns and how to learn from those anti-patterns to make your apps fantastic for users across languages and cultures.
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