6 Career Boosters for Programmers
I have almost a decade of experience as a software engineer, and during this time I already been in many situations that made me grow as a professional.
In this article I want to share some tips, that you can start applying today, in order to grow fast as a software developer.
Looking Correctly To Your Colleagues
Have you ever felt a little bit jealous about a colleague? He has done something amazing and you wished it was you. Chill out that’s ok, it’s from our human nature and from the messages that society passes to us.
If you think about it, this doesn’t bring you any advantage, indeed this is very bad for your career, you should understand that working with people that make amazing things, will make you close to do something similar.
After you understand that this is something that you can work, start by chatting with your colleagues, share some ideas, ask some advices, offer your help. If you are in a healthy company this will be a very natural process.
On another hand if you don’t have this environment in your company, work your mind and you will attract this company into your life.
Another good thing of seeing your colleagues as allies instead of enemies is building a network of people that enjoy to work with you. This can be valuable in the future.
Programming Languages as a Tool
This is a very controversial topic. I see so many programmers worship a single programming language and ignore the rest and in my opinion this is so bad.
Let me tell you why…
When you worship something you became slave of that thing. Isn’t suppose to be the inverse? You should use a language as your slave and not be the slave of a language.
How to overcome this?
Well, first you must realise that a programming language is more than a tool to materialise ideas, it is also a tool to shape the way you think.
Make an exercise, let’s suppose that we have the array [1, 2, 3], now I ask you how to double every number in the array. I bet you will think in the solution with the languages that make part of your life.
So learn more languages, learn algorithms, learn concepts and be free from this slavery.
I can recommend you two books to help you achieve this. The first one is to learn algorithms in a fun way. The second is to learn 7 different languages.
You can see them:
- Grokking Algorithms: An illustrated guide for programmers and other curious people
- Seven Languages in Seven Weeks: A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages (Pragmatic Programmers)
Evaluate Correctly the Work You Do
It’s very common in software development suffer from the impostor syndrome and this has a little bit to do with the first topic.
That feeling that you don’t deserve the salary you earn at the end of the month and that you are an impostor.
First you have to realise that you passed an interview and as long as you give everything of you to learn with humility and responsibility, you have nothing to fear about.
Learn to value your evolution as a programmer and understand that you have your own pace. Be tolerant with yourself, be open minded.
Your Values as a Professional
Become a good software engineer, by doing your work so well, that if you leave your company it will be easy to replace you as a programmer.
Maybe they will miss your professionalism, your inspiration but be missed because your code is so bad that you are the only one that can change it, is not very grateful.
Learn to choose good variable names and functions, to divide your code into modules, to develop tests. Do the best to ensure that your colleagues understand your code and that it works after you change anything. Do this and you will be respected by your colleagues.
To help you, I recommend you the book Clean Code by Uncle Bob.
Soft Skills
Technical skills are the pearls that makes you a programmer, but in a world full of opportunities you must work your soft-skills.
I was born shy and introvert, two characteristics that made me suffer even in my career. In this situation I learned to have cold blood and focus on the escape.
Don’t get me wrong I’m still shy, but I learned to control my shyness. But forcing myself to overcome this situations compensates me for the journey and for the returns.
Be proactive, tackle your weakness, leave your comfort zone and in the end you will be recompensed by this attitude.
I can recommend you two books that made the difference to me:
Looking Forward
Another underestimated exercise, is to think what you want to achieve with your career. If you don’t visualise where do you want to be in the next 5 year, how the hell are you going to walk the path that will make you happy?
Sit down in your chair or sofa and do a little research, see the market trends, explore every option and see where you want to go.
Kind Regards,
Mick Bolt
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