3 career mistakes passionate young engineers should avoid

I have mentored 15+ engineers during their first few years in industry.

Today I list 3 common mistakes I see young engineers make repeatedly.

If you are an engineer in the early stages of your career, avoid them to get quick promotions and big raises.

Mistake #1: Always regressing to a technical solution

Too often, engineers jump too quickly on a technical fix to a problem.

A slow API endpoint need not always be optimised. A progress bar or a funny message asking the user to wait often work equally well.

Often it saves time to add an item to your daily to-do list than writing a cronjob and a script which you have to maintain afterwards.

Mistake #2: Trying to learn every trending thing

You do not want to become the proverbial jack of all trades.

Don’t spend time learning something just because it is ‘cool’ today.

Most highly paid engineers know few technologies in depth, as opposed to many technologies at surface level.

Mistake #3: Underestimating the importance of soft skills & good management

Most engineers are reluctant to explore anything non-tech.

They think technology is king. It’s not.

On the list of things that bring real-world success, technology might not even make in the top-5.

Great management and clear communication are far more powerful skills.

Don’t ignore them. Begin learning them as early as possible.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog