SELF DEVELOPMENT FOR DEVELOPERS WITH ADEWALE ABATI(ACEKYD)
On the last Tuesday of January, we had our weekly(now bi-weekly) Tweetchat with Adewale Abati also known as AceKyd. He is a developer advocate at Ingressive and also the community manager.
This week’s Tweetchat was on SELF DEVELOPMENT FOR DEVELOPERS, it started with an introduction at approximately 7:00PM.
You can follow the hashtag #TweetchatwithAce on Twitter.
Please note that the contents shared in this article rightfully belongs to Adewale Abati(Ace).
Ace: Hello everyone! I’m Adewale and I’m glad to be here tonight.
Thank you for the introduction @_ingressive_
Today, I’m not here to tell you how to format your code or anything like that but rather have a chat with you all on how to keep growing as a developer. #TweetChatWithAce
I want to use this opportunity to touch on things that go beyond the code we write but how we continue to develop ourselves, prepare for opportunities and also seize them. This may also apply to even more than developers, so stay tuned.
I saw a video recently about developers being problem solvers. That it’s not just about how neatly formatted your code is, or how advanced it is, what eventually matters is the impact your code has on the world.
Growing your career can be a tough one as a developer whether you are self taught or not. There are so many options & paths to take, what matters is to focus on learning. What you consume is what is going to determine the next stage of your career
Nigeria for example, starting out, all you knew was to be a developer, then maybe you become world class. It can be difficult to plan out a career path compared to the process of civil servants perhaps. This leads to feeling stuck multiple times.
You wonder if you are truly growing, or if you are going to stay where you are forever. In my experience I’ve seen people address this situation in the following ways.
* Be part of a community.
* Create content
* Build a brand.
* Grow a network.
Being part of a community presents you the opportunity to not only discuss with others and share ideas, but also for you to see the paths other people have taken and work it to match yours. They say experience is the best teacher, someone said they omitted “Other people’s”.
Meaning, “Other people’s experience is the best teacher”. You can argue that, but it mostly sounds valid. 😀
Being a part of this community also goes in hand with Networking as they can sometimes be similar things.
I learnt something powerful from @asemota at F8 in 2018. He said, and I paraphrase, everyone at a conference is here for similar reasons, sometimes, one person just needs to start the conversation. And he showed it. And it worked
So don’t hesitate to network, start up a conversation in a community, or even reach out when needed.
Creating content at the same time does not mean starting a YouTube channel, or a podcast. Unless it’s what you want to do. It could be just building. Building or creating stuff to put out there in the world presents series of opportunities.
Opportunities that won’t normally just walk to your doorstep. So it never really hurts. You are adding stuff to your portfolio. More people are seeing it. More people know what you do. And most importantly, you are learning stuff and growing!
With all these said and done, it’s really easy to focus on what you cannot do. Oh I don’t know how to write code that well, or I’m not a good technical writer. Well stop it.
I go through this phase a lot and one thing to recommend is, stop beating yourself up, it won’t make you know it.
Sit up, make a list of the things you think you should know or you are worried about, and start learning them one by one.
Before you know it, your list is empty. Blink and you have another set of items to add to a new list. It’s just how life is.
We just have to continue to make steps to become better.
So don’t forget to chill out (I should take this advice myself 😅) and get a hobby outside work too. Helps a lot to step away for a while and then get back into it. I play video games for survival 😊
Last but not least, we also need to take personal hygiene seriously. Health they say is wealth, so take care of your body so your mind is right. I’m personally also more productive when my table is organized. Might just work for you.
Finally I’ll leave us with a quote from a guy that made me start watching Naruto — Rock Lee.
“My motto is to be stronger than yesterday, if I have to I’ll be stronger than half a day ago, even a minute ago!”
With this I’ve come to the end of my story and would love to hear more about how you all try to get better at what you do and develop yourself.
Ace shii up!
Thank you once again for having me.
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