Keep growing as a tech leader
I am always looking to improve my skills and become a better leader. It is so important, as if you stand still in tech you just get left behind.
Below are a few of my favorite resources that I use to keep growing.
1. Keep up with the technology
rssheap
Rssheap.com is a great resource for finding popular articles on a particular tech. I especially like it as you can select technologies that you are interested in, and it will send you a weekly email with the most popular articles on your chosen topics. It saves me a lot of time having to sift through articles that may not be that interesting, or are on technologies that I am not interested in at the moment.
Udemy
udemy.com has some excellent video tutorials that can take you through almost any technology you want to learn. Our team at MoneySavingExpert.com love it, and have really made use of it recently.
We’re replatforming this year, and changing language (php to java) so we’ve been given time by the business to reskill, and udemy java and react tutorials have played a big part. They have given us the foundation to be able to then go away and work on side projects using java and react.
I would advise though don’t spend more than £10 (or whatever the equivalent is in your currency), as udemy regularly have deals and codes that will bring the cost down to this level even if it is usually an expensive course.
2. Develop Leadership Skills
Software Lead Weekly
softwareleadweekly.com is my favorite resource for learning from the best in tech leadership. Oren Ellenbogen collects the best blog articles, videos and other resources that cover leadership in tech.
It is a great way to regularly learn what the best are doing, and current trends in tech leadership.
It is sent as a weekly email, but if you want to get an idea of what is included, checkout the archive at softwareleadweekly.com/issues.
Lead Developer Conference + videos
The best tech leadership conference I have been to is theleaddeveloper.com. It was great learning from so many great tech leaders, and being with so many great leaders in the audience. If you are interested, there are still spots available for this years conference on the 8th and 9th of June.
The other great thing about the conference is that they make videos from past years available, and they are a great resource for tech leaders. See lead developer 2016 videos & lead developer 2015 videos.
3. Personal growth
Medium
Medium itself is a massive resource for personal growth. medium.com/personal-growth is a publication that often has a lot of great articles. But the most helpful thing I have found is to customise my medium interests, and select the productivity and self improvement tags. This then means I get a few great articles to my inbox each morning, ready to read before work.
Books + ebooks
I’m a big fan of ebooks. I’m an android user, so tend to use google books, as it means I can read on my phone whenever I have a few spare minutes (which isn’t often with 2 small children).
Some that stand out for me are, The 7 habits of highly effective people, The lean startup, and rich dad poor dad. I came very late to reading books, as I used to hate reading in school, but given the right subject, I now find it really interesting.
What else?
Is there something else that I should be using to grow?
What resource really helps you?
Let me know in the comments below. I’m always on the lookout for great ways to improve.
Before you go
If you are interested in joining an organisation that helps you to grow, while giving you a chance to really achieve, then we are hiring at MoneySavingExpert part of Moneysupermarket Group.
