Interview with Eric Kingery

• UGtastic Archive
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The Interviewer

Mike Hall

Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic

The Guest

Eric Kingery

Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community

The Conversation

Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Hi, it's Mike with UGtastic. I'm sitting down with Eric Kingery who runs the Refactor Chicago group, formerly the Chicago PHP community. We're here at the SCNA 2013 conference in Chicago. So, the Refactor group—what is it and how did you get it started?
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
Sure. As I mentioned, we started as Chicago's PHP community meetup about four years ago. We had success, but it was hard to retain people because we had a disparate range of fairly in-depth topics. We found that beginners were alienated by advanced topics, while advanced members were sometimes bored by repetitive introductory PHP material. We realized that many of the challenges we deal with—MongoDB, mobile design, effective JavaScript—are not PHP-specific. We wanted to broaden the scope and bring in people from all different communities to refocus on how to be an effective software professional rather than just a better PHP developer.
Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
How did that change the dichotomy between beginner and advanced topics?
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
It's easier when you have a wider range. In a single language like PHP, you can only cover the basics so many times. By expanding to include refactoring ideas, recruiting, and the importance of diversity, we can cater to more people. We just rebranded, and our next meetup features Jen Myers talking about design. I talked to our core members, and many had actually moved on from PHP in their own careers, so broadening the scope just made sense.
Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
It makes me think of the debate about which language to use for general presentations, like SOLID principles. If it's presented in Java but you're a JavaScript developer, how do you reduce that impedance mismatch?
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
I look at it based on the intended audience. If you're introducing a concept like SOLID, it should be done in a language-agnostic way. Any code on a slide should be readable and named properly so that someone who doesn't know the specific language can still pick up the concepts. Advanced talks are different; people drawn to those likely have enough context to get value regardless of the primary language.
Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Taking a step back, how did you first get involved in the Chicago community?
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
I co-founded the PHP group with a recruiter, though we've moved away from that focus now. At the time, I was at Sittercity, a Chicago startup. We were staffing up after a funding round and made a great move hiring one of the core Kohana developers. Getting involved in the Kohana and CakePHP communities led us to meet people like Rasmus Lerdorf. He actually reached out to present to us when he was traveling through Chicago.
Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
That's a huge win—having the creator of the language reach out. That's like the Ruby group having Matz or the Clojure group having Rich Hickey.
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
Exactly. He works for Etsy now. Even if PHP isn't your main language, hearing from a creator of that caliber is significant. Technologies change so fast; if you're laser-focused on one area, you'll miss advances in server-side JavaScript or functional programming. We want to provide an opportunity for people to talk about professional practices that aren't usually covered in formal CS classes or even boot camps—things like continuous integration, unit testing, HTTP basics, and software process. Unless you have a good mentor or work for a company that espouses these practices, you can just miss them.
Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
So you're helping people move from a 'PHP developer' mindset to a 'Developer' mindset.
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
Exactly. Refactoring your career overall. Most people in this profession benefit more from wide exposure; you need that to operate in the diverse ecosystems of modern engineering teams.
Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
How do people find the group?
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
We're on Twitter as @refactord—like the Chicago airport code. Or refactor-chicago.com, which redirects to our Meetup site.
Mike Hall Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Great. Well, thanks for taking the time, Eric. It was great to meet you.
Eric Kingery Organizer of Refactor Chicago, Co-founder of Chicago PHP Community
Thank you.

Critical Insights

durable
"Language-specific user groups often reach a 'retension ceiling' because members eventually evolve their careers beyond a single ecosystem; rebranding toward 'Refactoring' or general professional practice allows the community to grow alongside its members."
durable
"The 'Impedance Mismatch' of technical presentations can be resolved by using language-agnostic code on slides—prioritizing readability and naming over specific syntax to ensure concepts are accessible to diverse audiences."
durable
"A significant gap exists between formal CS education (and some boot camps) and professional reality; critical skills like Continuous Integration, unit testing, and API design are often learned only through mentorship or community exposure."
durable
"Refactoring one's professional identity from a '[Language] Developer' to a general 'Software Professional' is a key step in long-term career resilience and architectural effectiveness."
time bound
"The 'Rasmus Lerdorf Effect': Technology-specific groups provide unique opportunities for creators of that technology to engage directly with the community, but those groups must eventually broaden to remain relevant to a maturing membership."