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New Developers, Here’s What You Should Know to Get Ahead
In the time of layoffs, the better developer wins
10 years ago I was in school studying physics. I was decent enough with a computer, but software development was a foreign concept to me. I took some Computer Science courses but they were very boring to me (to be fair, not the world’s best professor taught them).
Because I took a path through physics, then consulting, and then learning on the job as a Product Engineer, my path was rocky and self-paved.
That being said, I learned from some great people at Appian and Walmart on how to be a good software developer, and I don’t know that I would have gotten all of that from a Comp Sci degree. I thought I’d try to boil down what I think makes a great developer down into the people side and the technical side.
The People Side
Developers don’t have to talk to people, right? You just sit in a chair at home (or in the office!) and keep an IDE open and clack away on a mechanical keyboard, don’t you?
Some do this, and some do it pretty well. Unfortunately I think a big part of getting ahead is getting out of the code and into the product and people side of things. You’re an easy person to lay off if your primary contribution is “writes code that works (hopefully).”
