August 26, 2015 at 11:0515 Important Career Tips for Developers
- Transfer
Alconost Translation
First let me explain how great careers look.
They do not look like a flat line, where you rise a little higher every month. Even “so-so” careers don't look like that. You do not move up the career ladder every month. You simply systematically strengthen your position, stepping forward rarely, but in large leaps. Exemplary careers are more similar to such a schedule. There are periods of slowdown and something like key points where a career “shoots”. Different colours? This is a change of direction: from development to product management, from sales to the founders of a startup, etc.
There are also failures on the chart. And you know why? Because being the best involves some risk. And if you take enough risks, then be sure to stumble in something.
Given all of the above, let me give you 15 tips on your career choices, coding, ambitions, and more.
# 1: Write the code. Lots of code. Schools are good at presenting theory, but with practice there is not very good. This is especially true for top universities. Professors are usually theorists, often hostile to more “practical” forms of learning. The best way to become a great coder is to practice a lot. It is not so important what exactly you write (open source, iPhone applications, etc.) while you code and move towards the goal.
# 2: Be language independent. A programming language is just a tool. Of course, it is important to know him well, but it is equally valuable to constantly learn new things. The best developers try not to position themselves as “a developer on ____”.
# 3: Prestige to help. Big names in resumes open doors and demonstrate your potential. If you can get names like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox in your resume, do it (but don’t stay there for long - see # 4 ).
# 4: Do not stay long in large companies. If only your goal is not to build a career in a large organization (then by any means you need to stay there). In other cases, leave quickly. One or two years after graduating from a company like Google - just right. 10 years? Not really anymore. You will also continue to study, but the return on staying in the same place over time will be less and less (unless you want to be an “employee of a large company”).
# 5: If you are looking for a career A +then move to the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA). I love Seattle and started there, but you have to be honest with yourself: there are much more opportunities for the techie on the bay. You limit yourself as an engineer (product manager or “business techie”) while living somewhere else.
# 6: If A +’s career is not interesting , DO NOT move to the bay. It is incredibly expensive here. Seriously. This is only worth it in exchange for a ton of career prospects. For an easy career, there are many more affordable cities with a sufficient level of technology (like Seattle). A good engineer can buy a nice house in Seattle, and it will be the same coast.
# 7: If you do not want to be a developer all your life, then do not stay with them for a long time.Deep technical knowledge, of course, is needed. But it doesn’t matter at all whether you spent two or seven years on development. After a couple of years after college, think about whether the next 10, 20, or even 30 years are ready to be an engineer? If not ready, then change direction. Lingering in the engineers for a long time will not particularly help you.
# 8: Finish up fast. Most of my friends who changed jobs have been thinking about this for the last 6-12 months. Some remained for another 2-3 years after they began to say that it was time to tie. They lost so much time simply because of resistance to change. If you want to leave, do it now. Send your resume somewhere else, or even go “nowhere.” Most likely, you will not be particularly successful if you are unhappy with life, so delaying care will cost more.
# 9: Be honest. If you try to fool around and cut corners, then this will come out sideways. In life, it’s important to do the right thing. And to do so is not just right, but also smart. People will trust and sympathize with you more. More doors will open - and this may well be a turning point in the career.
# 10: Help others. If possible, help someone who asks for it. This is correct and smart - today you are asked to help, but then these same people will most likely help you more willingly. Help may consist, for example, in getting to know their friends, who may already have a substantial impact on something. If in doubt of someone's usefulness, think about the fact that you know absolutely nothing about their friends and their future.
# 11: make friends.In fact, you yourself are unlikely to succeed. If you are an entrepreneur, you will need employees and business contacts. If an employee - need work. In both cases, friends are the key to opportunity. Far or near, they form an important part of your personal network. And these are not the people whom you once met and no longer spoke.
# 12: Understand, realize that we all have impostor syndrome. Even the most successful entrepreneurs and engineers (with very few exceptions) are sure that they are just lucky and far from being as good as everyone thinks. And that one day they will be "exposed." Understanding how common the imposter syndrome is will help you realize that even if you seem to be a liar, this is not necessarily the case.
# 13: Start something. Take the initiative. Good things happen to those who are not waiting. Look for new opportunities. Launch your hackathon, club, project, company, workgroup - yes, anything. In the process, you will learn incredibly much and see new perspectives.
# 14: Take risks and do not miss the opportunity.If you accidentally notice a looming opportunity - grab it. Follow along and see where she will lead. Do not pass by simply because you do not know what all this will result in.
# 15: Make it a habit to say yes. The best careers revolve around breakthrough moments. But the problem is that they are not so easy to recognize. You never know what this seemingly useless meeting with a cup of coffee will lead to. And you do not know yet that in a couple of months this person will introduce you to one guy who is looking for advice and can become your business partner. Make a steady habit of not giving up.
For all of these tips, there are reasons often behind life stories. These are the things that my friends, clients, and I went through.
Many of my own projects (# 1) and a couple of friends (# 11) appeared during my internship at Microsoft after the first year.
Ultimately, this led to a position on Google, after which I was welcomed almost everywhere (# 3).
The initiative (# 13) and the use of opportunities (# 14), unlike careful planning and research, led me to launch two companies. Both of them became successful and gave invaluable experience.
In fact, both startups were launched as a result of my consent (# 15) to help a friend (# 10).
Consulting on the acquisition of a business (now this is the main part of my business) appeared due to the fact that someone asked me for help. I was not sure that the moment was right, but still said “yes” (# 15). And this tactic justified itself every time.
But there were mistakes.
I love Seattle, my homeland, but moving to the bay was very valuable for a career. There are more opportunities with better prospects, no doubt (# 5). But the costs are much higher (# 6), so it is better to find another place if such prospects are not interesting.
I also seem to have been too long on Google. And the extra years didn’t give me much (# 4). In the end, I left because I no longer wanted to remain a developer (# 7), and I just stopped being happy (# 8).
A couple more tips are obvious to me and work “on the machine”, but I saw what happens when other people don’t follow them.
I never associated myself with languages, and this added me flexibility. Those who did not do so were significantly more limited in terms of career (# 2). The choice of potential employers is decreasing, and such programmers are often considered weaker.
As for honesty (# 9), two stories come to mind. In both cases, someone's desire for success harmed himself. In the first example, one of my colleagues tried to evade important obligations with a loophole in law. In the end, he succeeded, but I would not want to work with him anymore. I won’t even help him in anything that requires trust (that is, it’s not difficult for me to fill out a questionnaire for him, but I won’t introduce him to someone).
In the second example, a certain author published several false reviews of my book, in a stupid and shortsighted attempt to get around me. He poured all imaginable lies and accusations upon me when I was outraged. Now he periodically asks to bring him to my friends, or offers to work on something together. I refuse. And it’s not revenge - it’s just protecting yourself and my friends.
If you followed the links to tips, you noticed that one thing is missing - impostor syndrome (# 12) .
I have long known about this term, but only in the last couple of years I understand that almost any successful person feels like an impostor. This was a revelation for me, which opened my eyes to the fact that self-doubt in their own strength does not mean the absence of these forces. As a result, I became more confident in myself, and now I’m more likely to launch some project (# 13), get carried away by the opportunity (# 14), or just say “yes” (# 15).
And which of these tips is supported by your experience?
Illustrations - frames from the movie “Always say yes”
About the translator.
Translation of the article was done in Alconost.
Alconost localizes applications, games and sitesinto 60 languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
First let me explain how great careers look.
They do not look like a flat line, where you rise a little higher every month. Even “so-so” careers don't look like that. You do not move up the career ladder every month. You simply systematically strengthen your position, stepping forward rarely, but in large leaps. Exemplary careers are more similar to such a schedule. There are periods of slowdown and something like key points where a career “shoots”. Different colours? This is a change of direction: from development to product management, from sales to the founders of a startup, etc.
There are also failures on the chart. And you know why? Because being the best involves some risk. And if you take enough risks, then be sure to stumble in something.
Given all of the above, let me give you 15 tips on your career choices, coding, ambitions, and more.
Coding:
# 1: Write the code. Lots of code. Schools are good at presenting theory, but with practice there is not very good. This is especially true for top universities. Professors are usually theorists, often hostile to more “practical” forms of learning. The best way to become a great coder is to practice a lot. It is not so important what exactly you write (open source, iPhone applications, etc.) while you code and move towards the goal.
# 2: Be language independent. A programming language is just a tool. Of course, it is important to know him well, but it is equally valuable to constantly learn new things. The best developers try not to position themselves as “a developer on ____”.
Career choice:
# 3: Prestige to help. Big names in resumes open doors and demonstrate your potential. If you can get names like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox in your resume, do it (but don’t stay there for long - see # 4 ).
# 4: Do not stay long in large companies. If only your goal is not to build a career in a large organization (then by any means you need to stay there). In other cases, leave quickly. One or two years after graduating from a company like Google - just right. 10 years? Not really anymore. You will also continue to study, but the return on staying in the same place over time will be less and less (unless you want to be an “employee of a large company”).
# 5: If you are looking for a career A +then move to the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA). I love Seattle and started there, but you have to be honest with yourself: there are much more opportunities for the techie on the bay. You limit yourself as an engineer (product manager or “business techie”) while living somewhere else.
# 6: If A +’s career is not interesting , DO NOT move to the bay. It is incredibly expensive here. Seriously. This is only worth it in exchange for a ton of career prospects. For an easy career, there are many more affordable cities with a sufficient level of technology (like Seattle). A good engineer can buy a nice house in Seattle, and it will be the same coast.
# 7: If you do not want to be a developer all your life, then do not stay with them for a long time.Deep technical knowledge, of course, is needed. But it doesn’t matter at all whether you spent two or seven years on development. After a couple of years after college, think about whether the next 10, 20, or even 30 years are ready to be an engineer? If not ready, then change direction. Lingering in the engineers for a long time will not particularly help you.
# 8: Finish up fast. Most of my friends who changed jobs have been thinking about this for the last 6-12 months. Some remained for another 2-3 years after they began to say that it was time to tie. They lost so much time simply because of resistance to change. If you want to leave, do it now. Send your resume somewhere else, or even go “nowhere.” Most likely, you will not be particularly successful if you are unhappy with life, so delaying care will cost more.
We deal with the rest:
# 9: Be honest. If you try to fool around and cut corners, then this will come out sideways. In life, it’s important to do the right thing. And to do so is not just right, but also smart. People will trust and sympathize with you more. More doors will open - and this may well be a turning point in the career.
# 10: Help others. If possible, help someone who asks for it. This is correct and smart - today you are asked to help, but then these same people will most likely help you more willingly. Help may consist, for example, in getting to know their friends, who may already have a substantial impact on something. If in doubt of someone's usefulness, think about the fact that you know absolutely nothing about their friends and their future.
# 11: make friends.In fact, you yourself are unlikely to succeed. If you are an entrepreneur, you will need employees and business contacts. If an employee - need work. In both cases, friends are the key to opportunity. Far or near, they form an important part of your personal network. And these are not the people whom you once met and no longer spoke.
Be cool:
# 12: Understand, realize that we all have impostor syndrome. Even the most successful entrepreneurs and engineers (with very few exceptions) are sure that they are just lucky and far from being as good as everyone thinks. And that one day they will be "exposed." Understanding how common the imposter syndrome is will help you realize that even if you seem to be a liar, this is not necessarily the case.
# 13: Start something. Take the initiative. Good things happen to those who are not waiting. Look for new opportunities. Launch your hackathon, club, project, company, workgroup - yes, anything. In the process, you will learn incredibly much and see new perspectives.
# 14: Take risks and do not miss the opportunity.If you accidentally notice a looming opportunity - grab it. Follow along and see where she will lead. Do not pass by simply because you do not know what all this will result in.
# 15: Make it a habit to say yes. The best careers revolve around breakthrough moments. But the problem is that they are not so easy to recognize. You never know what this seemingly useless meeting with a cup of coffee will lead to. And you do not know yet that in a couple of months this person will introduce you to one guy who is looking for advice and can become your business partner. Make a steady habit of not giving up.
For all of these tips, there are reasons often behind life stories. These are the things that my friends, clients, and I went through.
Many of my own projects (# 1) and a couple of friends (# 11) appeared during my internship at Microsoft after the first year.
Ultimately, this led to a position on Google, after which I was welcomed almost everywhere (# 3).
The initiative (# 13) and the use of opportunities (# 14), unlike careful planning and research, led me to launch two companies. Both of them became successful and gave invaluable experience.
In fact, both startups were launched as a result of my consent (# 15) to help a friend (# 10).
Consulting on the acquisition of a business (now this is the main part of my business) appeared due to the fact that someone asked me for help. I was not sure that the moment was right, but still said “yes” (# 15). And this tactic justified itself every time.
But there were mistakes.
I love Seattle, my homeland, but moving to the bay was very valuable for a career. There are more opportunities with better prospects, no doubt (# 5). But the costs are much higher (# 6), so it is better to find another place if such prospects are not interesting.
I also seem to have been too long on Google. And the extra years didn’t give me much (# 4). In the end, I left because I no longer wanted to remain a developer (# 7), and I just stopped being happy (# 8).
A couple more tips are obvious to me and work “on the machine”, but I saw what happens when other people don’t follow them.
I never associated myself with languages, and this added me flexibility. Those who did not do so were significantly more limited in terms of career (# 2). The choice of potential employers is decreasing, and such programmers are often considered weaker.
As for honesty (# 9), two stories come to mind. In both cases, someone's desire for success harmed himself. In the first example, one of my colleagues tried to evade important obligations with a loophole in law. In the end, he succeeded, but I would not want to work with him anymore. I won’t even help him in anything that requires trust (that is, it’s not difficult for me to fill out a questionnaire for him, but I won’t introduce him to someone).
In the second example, a certain author published several false reviews of my book, in a stupid and shortsighted attempt to get around me. He poured all imaginable lies and accusations upon me when I was outraged. Now he periodically asks to bring him to my friends, or offers to work on something together. I refuse. And it’s not revenge - it’s just protecting yourself and my friends.
If you followed the links to tips, you noticed that one thing is missing - impostor syndrome (# 12) .
I have long known about this term, but only in the last couple of years I understand that almost any successful person feels like an impostor. This was a revelation for me, which opened my eyes to the fact that self-doubt in their own strength does not mean the absence of these forces. As a result, I became more confident in myself, and now I’m more likely to launch some project (# 13), get carried away by the opportunity (# 14), or just say “yes” (# 15).
And which of these tips is supported by your experience?
Illustrations - frames from the movie “Always say yes”
About the translator.
Translation of the article was done in Alconost.
Alconost localizes applications, games and sitesinto 60 languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com