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How to grow into your best developer self

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Re: How to grow into your best developer self

#41

Post by snoman »

slmyers wrote: post #14
k__ wrote: post #5

Finding a mentor probably helps most and is the hardest. I know a few good people who wouldn't have got where they are without a mentor. I never found one and I'm 10 years in the game now. So I'm probably cursed to mediocrity, haha.

Call me a pessimist but I doubt the vast majority of people will ever find true mentorship. Would it be nice to have a more experienced and talented developer take a personal interest in your career and technical development? yes, of course it would, but it's unlikely at best. I'm sure self study, discipline and "grit" matter far more.

And they never will with that kind of attitude.

Personally, I was fortunate enough to have a mentor when I was starting out and it rocketed me to a strong position in my career and I couldn't be more grateful. I try to actively mentor 1 or 2 people a year as a result.

It's been mostly very successful so far.

Re: How to grow into your best developer self

#43

Post by mvindahl »

I think the common denominator is to optimize for happiness.

Most of us ended up in software development because we were curious about technology in the first place. Learning stuff and tinkering with stuff makes us happy. We should continue to do so.

The section about optimizing your career is also about optimizing your happiness. There will be plenty of times where the sirens try to lure you into taking on tasks which are financially rewarding but boring. Take on some of these but don't get trapped forever in a local minimum. Your strategic goal is to feed your curiosity and your happiness.

The part about finding a mentor I'd phrase more broadly as: find a network. Find friends. Hang out with people who are fun to hang out with and who care about tech and life in general. They'll probably have strong opinions, and so will you. You'll learn a lot from these people; they'll be the mentorship that you need. And why would they want to hang out with you? Because you are bright, curious, and because people that optimize for happiness are great to hang out with.

Re: How to grow into your best developer self

#46

Post by echelon »

module0000 wrote: post #40

Your "best developer self" is the one who supports themselves and their family financially - unless your mortgage is paid by good vibes, karma, or upvotes. Tailor your mindset and skills to accomplish that goal, and you'll be alright. Just remember, you never get to stop - the tools and needs keep changing, and if you want to accomplish that all-important goal of supporting the people who depend on you, then you must…

Family and mortgage? I'm single and live in Atlanta where everything is cheap.

Optimizing for happiness and career path seem like more ideal goals for me personally.

Just some different perspective.

Re: How to grow into your best developer self

#47

Post by davidwparker »

sjclemmy wrote: post #6
k__ wrote: post #5

Finding a mentor probably helps most and is the hardest. I know a few good people who wouldn't have got where they are without a mentor. I never found one and I'm 10 years in the game now. So I'm probably cursed to mediocrity, haha.

I too would welcome a mentor! I've often thought this would be a good social network - online mentoring. Lots of upside for the mentee, not sure about the mentor...

That's _almost_ the startup we created ~3.5 years ago (still going today!) https://www.uvize.com/

It's not 100% online mentorship though. It's really there to facilitate / manage / help existing mentorship programs at organizations.

We thought about trying to get it to a point where it could work with non-associated mentors/mentees, but it's really a chicken/egg problem at that point.

Re: How to grow into your best developer self

#48

Post by throwthisawayt »

I have a question for senior developers like the author. I've been a developer for 1.5 years and on this article's checklist for switching jobs I have everything except a mentor (that's probably more my fault). According to the this article I should not switch jobs. However I live in the Bay Area and there is a huge COL and also salary difference between top and "2nd tier" companies. Junior engineers at Google/FB/MSFT make 180+ while I would say market is 120+ for the Bay Area. This is a sizable income difference esp when you compound over 3-5 years. Dan Luu explains it better: http://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/

Does it make sense to stay at my job where I am learning well or should I try to switch to a larger tech company since it has a material impact on my financial well being ? I want to raise a family and hope own a home (or rent one near good schools) and I don't see that as being possible in the Bay Area without a Google salary. If I was living in a market like Texas I would stay at my current job because market salaries allow you easily have a middle class family lifestyle (my parents live there and you can easily raise a family on 90k). The Bay Area however is another beast and that 50-60K Google salary difference compounded over many years seems substantial (esp for that mortgage down payment). I don't want to move out of the Bay (my wife is tied here too). What do you guys think - are the financial reasons enough to consider switching jobs for the Bay Area ?

Re: How to grow into your best developer self

#49

Post by digler999 »

throwthisawayt wrote: post #48

I have a question for senior developers like the author. I've been a developer for 1.5 years and on this article's checklist for switching jobs I have everything except a mentor (that's probably more my fault). According to the this article I should not switch jobs. However I live in the Bay Area and there is a huge COL and also salary difference between top and "2nd tier" companies. Junior engineers at Google/FB/MSF…

Make sure you find out from several sources how many hours those engineers at "top tier" companies are working. They could be making the same as a "2nd tier" engineer, just working 1.5x more. Thats cool if you have the funds to put your kid into a nice school, but you also have to be present to be a good parent.

Re: How to grow into your best developer self

#50

Post by seaborn63 »

marklombardi1 wrote: post #37
seaborn63 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bootcamp grad and I got lucky enough to find work. While I don't have a mentor in the traditional sense, everyone here knows my background and I can go to any of them for help. I may not be the brightest, but I work really hard and they see it, which I think helps when I go to them with questions.

Also in South Florida, and I'd be interested to hear about your bootcamp experience. Contact info?

shoot me an email. zseaborn63 [at] gmail
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