Be Adaptable and Authentic

This is a guest post from Morgan Whaley, lightly edited. Enjoy.

Dear new developer,

Honestly my #1 piece of career or technical advice to new developers is:

Be adaptable and authentic.

I don’t think there is any one magic bullet to helping someone “break into” a job, or business, or new city. Humans are all different and the beauty of diversity in industry and environments is when everyone truly brings themselves and overrides the homogenization that we accuse modern cities and tech of becoming.

If something isn’t working, there’s “no harm, no foul” in changing approaches, or taking a break, or simply admitting something isn’t working.

I see a lot of people who treat that first job like it’s a task they gotta beat into submission and they tie so much self-worth to it. Which is completely understandable… but the more you resist a situation and don’t remain open to possibilities, the more you are going to run into brick walls.

Morgan

PS Also, LEAVE YOUR HOUSE AND GO TALK TO PEOPLE FACE TO FACE OH MY GOD PLEASE IT’LL BE OK.

Morgan Whaley is a Senior Prototype Architect at Charter Communications.

You have to fit the job

Dear new developer,

A few years ago I was job hunting (during a hot job market and with almost two decades of experience) and had a lot of people turn me down or say I wasn’t a good fit. Sometimes it was for coding ability, sometimes it was for familiarity with various systems, sometimes it was because I wanted too much money. I have turned down or left jobs for a variety of reasons, including money, demands on my time, or even just a bad feeling.

What I want to drive home, dear new developer, is that a job needs to fit both sides. The employer and the employee should both feel like they are getting a good deal.

The honest truth is that this means that there are some jobs that you could perform well at that the employer doesn’t know, believe or trust that you can. That can be a blow when you are looking for work. I’ve been there, hungry for anything that will help pay the bills. But you have to have faith. And keep looking. There are lots of developer jobs out there, at big companies and small companies, product companies and consulting companies, software companies and companies that don’t know they are software companies yet. And often, especially as a new developer, you can get hired for your potential.

I’ve also been in jobs where I contorted myself, either a little or a lot, because I thought that was what was needed. I’m all for taking one for the team for a while and doing an unpleasant task or job. But if I have to do it for months and years then that is the wrong job for me.

You have to fit the job, and the job has to fit you.

Sincerely,

Dan

On mid-career challenges

Dear new developer,

I really liked this post on mid-career challenges. I know you’re new, but you’ll be mid-career before you know it!

I’m in a position right now where I have to figure out what comes next for me and how to navigate the challenges of getting there. I made it to senior engineer, I wrote a book, I spoke at a bunch of conferences, switched from ops to dev back to ops again — so now what? For some people, mid-career looks like figuring out what your next set of career goals might be, what you might want your next 10 years of work to look like. For others, it might mean changing careers — you might be in a position where you’re quite senior in terms of core skills such as communication, team dynamics, and project planning, but you came into tech from another field so your coding skills still have leveling up to do.

As you get your legs under you as a developer, it’s worth peering into the future so you can set yourself up for success. Setting goals is part of that. So is learning from other’s experiences.

As usual, the whole post is worth a read.

Sincerely,

Dan

Manage your career

Dear new developer,

You have to manage your career. If you don’t, no one else will.

This means three things.

Know what you want.
Communicate that.
Make moves toward it.

Let’s talk about each of these in turn.

“Know what you want” is the hardest part. Because we are lucky to live in a world with lots and lots of options and opportunities. You can focus on one of a 100 different kinds of software development. And that is to say nothing about other related opportunities (product management, teaching, engineering management, etc) where your developer skillset will help set you apart.

My advice here is that you should pick one and follow it while it is interesting. If you have fundamental skills (problem solving, learning, listening, typing), you’ll be able to transition between areas. It may not be an easy transition and you may pay a price in terms of compensation or status or ego. You may have to spend precious time outside of work getting up to speed. But no decision is permanent. So pick what is interesting. Commit to it for a period of time (six months, a year). Realize that you can change (though, as mentioned above, that may have a cost), so commit.

“Communicate that” because if you don’t talk about what you want, you will have a hard time getting it. This is because people generally want to help, but need to know how to help. So, communicate your desires to your manager, to your communities, to your friends, to your co-workers. You don’t need to mention it every day, and you should tune your communication to your audience.

For example, if you are a web developer and want to be database focused, then volunteer to work on database projects. Mention it to your manager at your 1:1s. If there are people that are doing database work at your company, ask if you can meet them regularly.

This doesn’t mean you can avoid the web development work for which you are paid. What it means is that you can tune your work environment toward your interests. Not immediately and not at all companies, but often.

“Make moves toward it” means you aren’t just talking about your desired direction, but you are actually taking steps toward acquiring skills and doing that work. To expand ont the web developer -> databases example, take action. Present on databases at a meetup. Do a brown bag on databases at your company. Read a book about databases. See what you can apply to your current work.

However, sometimes you can’t make a move internally. Maybe the opportunity just isn’t there. Maybe the company needs you in your current spot. You may have to switch jobs. That’s OK.

Don’t burn any bridges, but when it is time to move on, move on. Find a new job with your new skills and knowledge, hopefully from the community you’ve found. Give notice and head off to a new adventure. (Don’t forget to connect to colleagues on LinkedIn.)

What’s the alternative? Floating through your career, buffeted from opportunity to opportunity, or worse, from job you’re afraid to lose to another job you’re afraid to lose.

That doesn’t sound like much fun.

Sincerely,

Dan

Contextual advice for new developers

Dear new developer,

A few months ago I asked Marie Chatfield, a front end developer and advice columnist, what her one best piece of advice for new developers was.

She wrote a great response. From the post:

For the self-taught programmer: I am amazed at your dedication and perseverance and ability to learn from different resources. Remember that other people have valuable things to teach you, too, and seek out trusted mentors or role models when you can. You will never stop learning in this industry, and you have shown already that you are ready and willing to put in the work. That’s going to take you far.

…

For the one who doesn’t see themself represented anywhere: I am so glad that you are here. I hope you can stay here for a long time. I hope you find communities that make you feel welcome and safe and included. You get to make the right choices for you and your health and safety, even if it makes others uncomfortable or disappointed. You don’t owe increasing the representation of a space with your presence to anyone. You belong here, and you should get to focus on doing the kind of work you want.

What I like most about this is that she gave contextual advice. New developers share many characteristics but are by no means a homogeneous group. The bootcamp grad who was a marketing guy previously is different than the computer science graduate who is starting her first job after college. They both differ from the kid who has been coding since they were twelve. I write these letters from a certain perspective, but know that everyone will read them from their own place.

I really also appreciated her advice to everyone:

It’s okay to fail. Everyone makes mistakes.

It’s okay to look things up. You don’t have to remember everything to be a good developer.

Everyone is nervous about interviews. They’re kind of awful. But you get through them.

I asked Marie for one piece of advice, but she gave more than ten. I enjoyed reading her advice to new developers and I hope you will too.

Sincerely,

Dan

PS She also has written some other great posts.

Context is king

Dear new developer,

I put this image in almost every presentation I do.

pumpkin-boat

There are two reasons.

It’s a striking picture, and funny.
It reminds me that context is important. In some contexts, a pumpkin is a decoration. In others, food. In others, a frickin’ boat.

On that note, I recently posted my letter on admitting weaknesses in a shared slack. Some of the feedback was that this would be counterproductive to your career if you’re a minority or female.

Whenever you get advice, whether written or verbal, it is always worth considering the source. Here’s some context for me: I’m a white, heterosexual cisgender male. I have been a developer for 20 years. I have worked in the metro Denver area for my entire professional career. I have worked about half of my career in consulting companies and half in product companies. I have worked about half of my career as a contractor and half as a full time employee. Though I have worked for companies as large as Oracle, the vast majority of my experience is in companies with under one hundred employees.

What that means is that if you are looking to join Facebook, or if you are a female person of color, my advice may not be useful. While I still hope you find some nuggets of usefulness, some of it may be less helpful.

You wouldn’t ask a doctor for legal advice or a developer for medical counsel. It’s always worth considering who is giving you the advice and where they are coming from.

Sincerely,

Dan

Are you ready to work remotely?

Dear new developer,

Remote work is fantastic. You avoid a commute, have control over your work environment, and save money on lunches. However, it has downsides. You need a fast internet connection, you must be disciplined, over communicate and stay on task. You have to be OK with relative solitude.

My desire to work remotely has changed over time. Frankly, for my first job, there’s no way I would have been happy working remotely. I enjoyed the collaboration, the camaraderie, and a place to go every day where there were interesting people. Even now, with Slack, Zoom and other modern tools, I’ve seen some new developers have similar concerns.

I do think that 100% remote work is different than “work from home once a week” or “work from home when you need to”. 100% remote work requires a different workflow, communication mechanism and concept of availability than those other options. Both of the latter options are really about providing flexibility and showing trust. They are great, low cost benefits for any software company to provide to developers.

Here is a one question test for anyone considering remote work. You can ask yourself this question and if the answer is yes, a remote position will likely work well for you. If the answer is no, then I think you’d be happier with an onsite position. By the way, some people are never going to want to work remotely for a variety of reasons, and that is no big deal.

That question is: “Are you comfortable asking a dumb question in public?”

You must ask questions that appear dumb when you get up to speed in any new company. Developers of all levels do this. Often it’s two levels of questioning. The first is “who can help with this?” and then the second is the actual question.

In a remote company you’ll have to accept that you are “interrupting” people and/or asking questions into a Slack channel. I have observed that both of these are more difficult when I can’t see the mental state of other people (as you can in an office).

You’ll need answers. So you have to be prepared to do ask these kind of questions, in public or interrupting someone you think might have the answer, over and over for the first couple of months of your remote job. Public questions are better for the team but harder on my ego.

If that thought of asking basic questions in public makes you uncomfortable, congrats, you’re human. But if it makes you want to run away and hide, then perhaps you aren’t ready for remote work. If you are interested in the flexibility and freedom of 100% remote work, wait a few years, practice asking questions and internalize the fact these kind of questions may feel dumb, but actually are just part of the process at any job.

Sincerely,

Dan