7 things I learned as a Software Developer

Last week marked my first year as a Software Developer ?

I learned a lot of things, but the following 7 stick out. My hope is that at least one of them proves useful in your journey?.

1. Take notes ✏️
Everyone forgets things. You might have to revisit the StackOverflow solution or a blog that helped you understand a certain concept. Save yourself some time and create a noting system and start writing down helpful resources, advice from managers, how you solved a problem, etc.
I personally started noting down links to important resources on an excel sheet (let me know if you have a better workflow!) and it has definitely saved me some googling and re-research time.

2. Know the WHY ⍰
Don’t just copy/paste the code without understanding what it does. It might solve your problem at hand, but you will have that knowledge gap moving forward.
You don’t want massive technical knowledge debt 5 years down the road!

3. Speak Up for Yourself ?
No one knows what you need except for you – so don’t expect your managers to read your ?. Need more support? Ask for it. Have some ideas? Discuss.

4. Mentor Others ?
You don’t have to wait until you’re mid-level to start teaching or helping others (Even if you teach one thing that stays with them, that is mentoring! – to some, it might sound like a stretch, but it’s good enough to get you started). Others who are a notch or two below your level will benefit from your knowledge. Not only that, but teaching is a great way to solidify your existing skills. ??

5. Ask Questions ⁉️
Don’t be the dev who asks questions every 5 minutes without Googling beforehand. But also don’t be the dev who holds up a feature because they were stuck on a problem and waited 2 days to ask for help.
There are no ??stupid??questions??

6. Have a Hobby ⚽️
No matter how much coffee you’ve had, your ? isn’t meant to code 24/7. Give your mind rest and space to be creative by doing other activities you enjoy. Otherwise, risk burnout. Besides, having other interests can make you more fun to work with.

7. Don’t Take Things Personally ?
You are not your code. Learn to view it as temporary. As part of a team, you’ll see it change over time for reasons that have nothing to do with your abilities – the codebase grows, business requirements change, code reviews happen, etc.

I started with React on day one, not knowing much about it. But today after a year I can confidently say that I have worked with awesome Javascript technologies & tools ranging from — ReactJS, ReactNative, NodeJS, GatsbyJS, Jest …. firebase, AWS, netlify, vercel and countless others.

No matter what gets thrown at me, I’ll strive to find a solution for it. After all thats what it means to be a Problem Solver aka Software Developer 🙂

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