Get out more, young developer
Wait, hear me out. You probably think it’s counter-productive to spend time away from the keyboard and still manage to be a solid software developer. After all, you need to rack up about 10,000 hours of coding to become a zen.
When I started out as a developer, I was mostly at every event that was organized at the time. That gave me the opportunity to network with people who were already doing what I wanted to do. I learned a lot from my interactions at these events. I discovered early on that it is wise to be aware of the things you don’t know that you don’t know. I interacted with people who were far ahead so that I could fill my knowledge gaps.
Having a good network of professionals would be advantageous to you as someone who is starting out. It’d bring internship opportunities to your doorstep and you’re likely to get mentorship from people in your network. You need to be committed and focused on being great at what you do to be taken serious though.
When I started writing code, at the University, I built websites and showed my friends what I had done. I offered student politician free websites to promote their campaigns online. Before I got out of school, most people knew I could develop websites and they were generous enough to send some referrals my way.
Because of my programming skills, I got the opportunity to share my knowledge with other people in communities such as KNUST GDG, mFriday, Mobile Web Ghana, Python African Tour, etc. whiles at the University.
My experience with the developer community in Ghana has generally been positive. I have met fantastic people at meetups / conferences and gotten great support. To give back to the community, I am very conscious at helping upcoming developers to excel in the profession.
I’m always eager to help so reach out.
