31–40 of 70 posts
If you're naturally extroverted and have a natural way with people, make sure you really enjoy software, otherwise you're going to struggle. If you are naturally really good with computers and can already program, make sure you learn to work with other people. There is, happily, quite a lot of info out there to help borderline autistic types (like me) learn to come across like a normal person. I can provide more info…
- You don't need to memorize a whole language or its documentation to be a good dev. It's way more important to learn how to solve problems.
- Don't be afraid to use "boring technology". You don't have to ride the latest wave or jump on any hype train. Languages, frameworks and libraries are tools and while it's important to know what to use, your main goal is to deliver a good final product.
- Reinvent the wheel to learn. Don't reinvent it for production.
- Don't worry about people who say you're not a real developer if you work on top of other software. You don't have to built a OS kernel to be considered a developer.
- Don't worry about coding challenges if you're not able to do them as quickly as others or even can' solve them. That's a very specific task that requires a lot of training and doesn't translate into being a better developer.
- You'll deal with people, sometimes with very arrogant people. None of us like to be criticized for our code, some take it like a personal attack, but we all have to learn to deal with it. Sometimes we write dumb code, sometimes it just can be improved.
- You're not better than the guy next to you, no matter if you have an university degree and they don't are self-taught.
Your job is to deal with customer requirements (i.e. listening to people), and translate those into code other engineers (communicating with people) need to maintain, on a priority/schedule your management (also people), create to deliver business value. This is a people business, whether you like it or not. Develop those skills. You never finish learning. People who tell me "I know [technology]", invariably are not…
I agree, but I'd say that sometimes could be good to write that 10-50% from scratch, maybe for a bunch of reasons.
Your job is to deal with customer requirements (i.e. listening to people), and translate those into code other engineers (communicating with people) need to maintain, on a priority/schedule your management (also people), create to deliver business value. This is a people business, whether you like it or not. Develop those skills. You never finish learning. People who tell me "I know [technology]", invariably are not…
>Using something that already exists that does 80% of what you need it to do, is normally a better win then writing something from scratch that does 100%. That 80% might even be too high - the real number could be as low as 50% or even 10%. I agree, but I'd say that sometimes could be good to write that 10-50% from scratch, maybe for a bunch of reasons.
I offer this after a (student) friend said "I don't know if I can make a career of it cos I hate Java: do I really have to?". He was so relieved when I explained that his enthusiasm and enjoyment affords him to avoid whatever doesn't resonate.