Why a Software Developer needs a Twitter account?

Twee-twee my dear reader! I sincerely believe that you are a software developer who is really interested in the answer on the question: damn, why I need that stupid twitter account?

After 8 years of a software development, I’m strongly convinced that twitter is a powerful social tool for any programmer. It was really helpful for me numerous times in different situations. You may argue: what is the purpose of a news feed with infinite messages about weather, mood, politician debates and ads?

Read don’t tweet

The most common misbelieve about twitter is that you must write something there. Forget about it. If you can write something — cool, if no — ok. I even can not recall what were my first tweets. Definitely it was silly stuff 🤐

But any way, it’s a good skill to put something meaningful and informative in a concise form (every tweet has 280 characters limit). Especially for a software developer.

Control the content flow

First of all, it’s up to you what do you see in your news feed, because you are able to personalize data you want to receive. For example, in 2012 I was extremely interested in Java technologies, so I followed twitter accounts about Java frameworks, libraries, conferences, influencers. Hence I was always aware of last trends, versions, events, updates.

It’s convenient to have a centralized source of data. You save tones of time by reading small informative messages, instead of surfing through multiple news sites.

Communicate with TOP developers

You may be a freelancer and work alone. You may be a part of a startup and work in a pair with another developer. You may be a team member of enterprise production units. Regardless of case, you are limited by number of more experienced developers than you.

There is a well known fact in the world of chess:

When you want to become stronger player — play with stronger opponents.

Twitter extends a circle of developers who surround you, so you may use this as an advantage. Read articles what experts share on their accounts, participate in discussions, ask questions. By doing this, you may become more closer to the best world technology hubs.

Get job offers

I know many IT companies, who publish open positions firstly in twitter accounts of their employees, before posting them on recruiters sites. That happens because the companies give preference to people who already is familiar with company’s culture, technologies and domain area. So it is a good opportunity to be the first candidate for a recently opened position.

Instead of summary

I tried to describe all of positives which I personally extract from twitter usage. If I didn’t convinced you to start using twitter, write in comments your reasons 😕

Write clean code, keep your skills up tp date!