Dear new developer, A big part of your job is keeping up to date with new technologies and happenings in the tech world. This can sometimes be a distraction, because there is all kinds of new stuff coming out all the time, whether from big companies releasing new tools or platforms, people publishing interesting code … Continue reading Join an online tech community
Patterns for managing up
Dear new developer, Design patterns are common ways to implement solutions that can be repurposed across different systems and domains. This post proposes patterns for handling organizational situations. Some really good excerpts: No matter how amazing you are at your job, you will sometimes get feedback about things you could be doing better. It can … Continue reading Patterns for managing up
Learn the command line
Dear new developer, I remember the first time I saw a senior engineer struggle with the command line. He was a new hire and was getting up to speed on a new project. If memory serves, he was trying to get his IDE set up for a java project. I noticed him with the command … Continue reading Learn the command line
What Mitchell learned in his first two years as a software developer
Dear new developer, It's great to see what other developers have learned, especially when they are just starting out. This is a post covering Mitchell Irvin's lessons from his first two years as a software developer. Now, I don't know Mitchell at all (but I guess I am connected to him in the third degree, … Continue reading What Mitchell learned in his first two years as a software developer
Learn two languages
Dear new developer, Learn two languages. When you know just one language, you can go a long way, especially if the language is dominant. In web development, that language is javascript. In system programming it's C. Both of these languages will be around forever, and you'll always be able to get a job writing them. … Continue reading Learn two languages
The right way to ask a question to get an answer
Dear new developer, I already covered the right way to ask questions, but this post was so good that I wanted to share it. (I found it on hackernews.) Mike Ash gives advice on how to get answers from the internet. Tips like "explain everything up front", "post your code" and "follow up after you … Continue reading The right way to ask a question to get an answer
Learn about personal finance
Dear new developer, If you have a job, you're probably making pretty good money. I know when I started I was making a lot more money than I ever had before (it was $42,000 per year, but this was in 1999). Man, it felt good to just buy what I wanted to buy and not … Continue reading Learn about personal finance
Letters to a new developer from Joel Spolsky
Dear new developer, Looks like Joel Spolsky has written a number of blogs posts aimed at new developers. Every post is tagged with the date so you can be aware of any old posts that may have dated advice. But I've been following Joel since a colleague emailed the Joel Test around our workplace in … Continue reading Letters to a new developer from Joel Spolsky
Use LinkedIn, and use it well
Dear new developer, Set up a LinkedIn profile and keep it up to date. This will serve as a public resume. (Yes, a github is great too, but you might not always have time to keep code up to date or an interest in a maintaining a large project.) Once a year, at a minimum, … Continue reading Use LinkedIn, and use it well
You can do this.
This is a guest blog post from Kyle Coberly. Enjoy. Dear new developer, You can do this. There's a lifetime of stuff to learn and it will seem intimidating, but if you keep doing it, you'll get better. Teenagers, career changers, and retirees all have done this, and they weren't any smarter or more naturally … Continue reading You can do this.
Letters To A New Developer 