A successful software developer career requires more than knowing how to code.
The following five habits will help you keep your knowledge current, stand out to recruiters, employers, and colleagues, and equip you with valuable tools for navigating life.
Have a thirst for knowledge
Learning on the job is key to any successful career, and with the software industry changing so rapidly, being open to new projects and programs will keep your work exciting and your skills current. Thanks to the growing popularity of coding boot camps, online learning platforms, and free web resources, you can learn computer science to become a programming whiz.
But balancing speed and quality is difficult, especially considering the tight deadlines and limited resources we frequently work or study with. It is widespread among those who learn to program and struggle with lack of time or experience regarding practical assignments (which are often tedious from the beginning). However, any coder or developer can reach more competent specialists and pay for homework programming tasks. It can save time and prevent burnout or other trouble.
If you’re passionate about coding, your training will continue beyond the workday’s end. YouTube, Github, and Stack Overflow offer many ways to continue learning new skills and refining the ones you already have in your spare time at no extra cost. There is also a multitude of paid online training platforms that allow you to learn new programming languages, tools, and frameworks.
Find out what companies are looking for
Knowing what employers are looking for will give you the best chance to match your skills to the market. JavaScript, CSS, and HTML remain staples of web development. Data science languages like Python are rapidly gaining popularity as companies look to tap into their masses of data and create an exciting new machine learning and AI applications. If you know your way around Rust or Clojure scripting, you’re more likely to be sought out by the companies that pay the most for your skills.
In addition to updating your technical skills, staying on top of the job market is essential to keep up with general software industry trends, especially as companies begin to rethink their job offerings and invest in the employee experience.
By knowing your value and what to ask for, you’ll be in a much stronger position to take advantage of remote and flexible work options, professional development opportunities, and health and wellness support.
Keep your code in good shape
It seems obvious, but given that one of the biggest complaints of developers is finding bugs in code, the ability to write clean, high-quality code should not be underestimated.
The more time you spend making sure your code is error-free, the less time you’ll need to go back and figure out where things went wrong. Or, even worse, to explain to customers and colleagues why your product works differently than expected. Your fellow developers will also appreciate you a lot more if they don’t have to spend their precious time double- and triple-checking your work for problems.
Work on your soft skills
We’ve already highlighted the importance of strong technical skills for a career in coding, but they’re not everything: your interpersonal skills are also critical to your future success. You can be a JavaScript dynamo, but that won’t do much good if you don’t have the soft skills employers are looking for.
Think about it from the company’s perspective: if they had to choose between two candidates, the hiring manager would be much more likely to pick the person who has some coding deficiencies but is open-minded, adaptable, and an excellent communicator rather than the candidate who thinks they know everything there is to learn about JavaScript and would instead work alone.
The key is to think about the type of person you’d like to work with and emulate those qualities.
Find ways to collaborate
Remote work may offer us greater flexibility and work-life balance, but it has undoubtedly made collaboration more difficult. When you work in software development, effective communication and teamwork are essential to keeping projects on track and on time, knowing who’s working on what, and making the workday more interesting.
Companies are gradually sending their employees back to the office, although it may not be a return to office life as we once knew it.
Developers have been particularly vocal about their desire to continue working remotely indefinitely. If they get their way, technical teams must collaborate more creatively when not sitting across from each other. This can mean allocating days where groups meet to work from the office, virtual brainstorming sessions on Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet, sharing their to-do lists on platforms like Trello or Asana, or simply maintaining a healthy conversation on Slack.
It’s up to you how you do it, but keeping communication flowing will keep you productive at work and make it much more enjoyable.
Conclusion
Programming is a multifaceted profession that requires an equally diverse set of skills, habits, and attributes that, if adequately cultivated, can open up better job prospects and more rewarding work for you. We hope that these five pieces of advice will help you succeed in your goals and make you a top-notch developer, who is sought after by many prospective employers.