3 Skills to Advance Your Tech Career
I recently completed a course that taught me about Solana blockchain development. I’ve worked on a few smart contracts that utilize Solidity, and noticed how much different (and difficult if I’m being honest), Solana was than to program on that traditional Ethereum. And that got me thinking.
How do people “break into” the tech space?
This isn’t limited to those of you that have just graduated college. I’m undertaking a few endeavors where I have to nearly reinvent myself to get into the space. Blockchain development is just one of the examples of me doing so. I realized that there are so many nuances that people don’t know when jumping into a “new” career. Picture me using air quotes there since development is not new to me. Following this are three things I’ve learned through my numerous career changes that have helped me become a chameleon 🦎.
Find the Support Only After You’ve Exhausted All Else
When you’re struggling, it might be easy to hop into the community Slack channel or Discord and ask the question. This can be true sometimes. There are a lot of nice people out there who love helping others. I’m one of them (or I try to be 😬). When I start working with someone, one of the first questions I ask is:
What have you done to troubleshoot the problem?
If you have not tried to solve the problem yourself, you aren’t learning. Problem-solving is a skill that employers look for no matter the field you are entering but it’s overly prevalent in tech. I want you to have spent some time troubleshooting to the point where you can answer that question and I can gauge where you are at. This means that you are hungry for knowledge and respect my time. The Discord groups may be different, but most of the time they are not going to want to answer the exact same question Google can. Leverage the Internet and teach yourself how to learn so you can get that next job or promotion.
Organize Your Steps
One of the first things I see taught to aspiring software engineers in schools is pseudocode. It’s a tool that helps to outline a program before it is written. It is very similar to an outline for an essay. Do you remember the last time you wrote an outline for an essay? If you’re in the 1% of people that continue to do so, awesome, skip ahead. Pseudocode is one of those things that we know are useful, but many of us do not use or do not use effectively. It enables us to thoroughly examine problem statements so that we can reconsider them or share them with others. It also helps plan out your work so you know how long you are going to take. Well, at least you might have a more accurate estimate.
When I was doing a lot more freelance work, I spent a lot of time creating intricate documents that helped me gauge how long I was going to take on a project. Now, I just write pseudocode in the form of comments in my code so that I can quickly get to the next step: code. It also makes it so easy for my teammates to pick up any work that I hand off to them. They can see where I am going because of it. In a world where sprints have become the norm and product owners dive in to see exactly how long each feature is going to take, do yourself a favor and get in the habit of writing good pseudocode.
Communicate Asynchronously
This can’t be said enough. Good communication makes the biggest difference for me when hiring. If they have similar skillsets, I look at soft skills as the difference-maker. I want someone who is a quick learner, a problem solver, and an excellent communicator. Here’s the thing: communication doesn’t end once we hang up that Zoom call. The best people I’ve hired do a great job of communicating with me outside of the calls. They usually get better with that over time. I love working with people who create an excellent one sheet, send a great, concise email, or update their Confluence documents regularly. Being a good communicator in real-time is a skill you need, don’t get me wrong but being an asynchronous communicator makes you stand out that much more.
If you think you’ve got these skills, reach out to some of your favorite companies (ahem, Pedestal?) and see if they’ve got openings. Best of luck out there!
