What I wish I had known when starting my development career
Dear new developer, I remember the first time I pulled up MapQuest in the 2000s. I looked for directions to a place I'd never been. A custom map popped up, which was cool. But even more impressive was the turn by turn directions. I printed them both out and followed the instructions. That felt like … Continue reading It’s not magic (part 1)
This is a guest post from Vincent Ng. Enjoy. Dear New Developer, You have embarked yourself in a tech journey full of opportunities. You will encounter and overcome many obstacles and challenges along your journey. You must make the most of your opportunities and excel in them. Below are nine skills that you can practice … Continue reading Nine ways of looking at a developer
Dear new developer, One thing I love about software development is that you'll always be learning. This is because of two things. First, there's better and different hardware. It is possible that this pace will subside sometime, but looking at the variety of new computing hardware, sensors and components that have been created over the … Continue reading You’ll always be learning
Dear new developer, I remember when I started out, I thought meetings were a waste of time. All those people in a room (now a Zoom), discussing an issue. Folks would go back and forth, and at the end of the meeting you'd hopefully have a decision. But often the output was just more research … Continue reading Meetings are work
Dear new developer, I have recently been doing a lot more puzzles. It's a low tech way to spend time with the family. As I was working on one recently, I snapped two large sections of a puzzle together. It was very satisfying. I mused on how working on a jigsaw puzzle is a lot … Continue reading Coding is like a puzzle
Dear new developer, When I was starting out, I thought that software development was all about code. After all, that was the main thing I was working on. Well, maybe not the main thing, as I needed to know what code to write, how to interface with other code, what was the problem being solved, … Continue reading Software is about people, not code
Dear new developer, I was asked recently at a talk I gave about what was the best surprise of being a new developer. I was talking at Turing School, and had discussed some of the things that surprised me when I was starting out. There are a lot of great things about being a developer. … Continue reading What is the best surprise of being a new developer?
Dear new developer, This post from Corey Snipes, an experienced software developer, is well worth a read. From the post: People skills help so much. It’s hard to overstate that. I am a competent software developer, but I am really good at working on a team and that has carried me to increasingly sophisticated and … Continue reading How to market yourself as a new software developer
Letters To A New Developer 