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What's the best career advice you can give in ten words or less?

Ben Halpern on June 09, 2019

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Ben Halpern

Sleep and tackle the problem tomorrow with fresh eyes.

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edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y

A colleague's eyes are always fresher than your own.

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AlysCole

Too many times has a colleague been able to immediately pin down a problem I'd been pouring HOURS into.

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Thomas H Jones II

(More junior) teammates often wonder why I'm so verbose with my status-reporting. I can't count the number of times where I've sent out a "I've been banging my head on , here's everything I've done - did I miss something trivial" only to have a reply, a few minutes/hours later, saying something as simple as "line 24 of your problem-description".

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Periklis Gkolias

Second that

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Brian Hanna

Doing this one right now. Completely borked the local database for one my apps today. Shut down my machine and went home. Going to play some video games and deal with it in the morning

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Damien Cosset • Edited

Don't worry, nobody knows what they are doing.

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Ben Halpern

Can confirm. Don’t know what I’m doing.

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Thomas H Jones II

Always amazes me when I run into people that claim to know, with absolute certitude, that what they're doing is the correct, best way to do a given thing.

Usually, such certitude does not bear up under even the most casual of scrutiny.

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Avalander

How comes you can only like a comment once?

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edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y

Some people do, learn from them.

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Sinuhe Jaime

I know what I'm doing: trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do

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Nadine M. Thêry

If you are not happy, do something. Life is short.

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Ben Halpern

That’s how I felt after I got my first job my degree trained me for.

I sort of knew how to code and that looked like a lot more fun so I quit and figured out my happy path.

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Rizwan⚡️

+1 Yes, life is too short to be in a crappy job. You can be a team of one but be realistic as well and explore your options. There comes a time when all your pleading and convincing will go to waste if the executives/management don't value your opinion. You deserve to be happy! :)

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Russell Ormes

Maybe life is too long to be unhappy.

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Gift Egwuenu

Never stop learning.

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𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐝𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐝

Just ask the bloody question!

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Jaimie Carter

Haha .. yes! Just ask, already!!!!

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Ben Halpern

Good one

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Scott Yeatts • Edited

Don't be afraid to admit when you're wrong.

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Luke Westby

Technology is ephemeral; people are not

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edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y

I have a bad feeling some COBOL code is going to outlive us all.

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Ben Halpern

Love that

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C.S. Rhymes

Drink less coffee, drink more water

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Ben Halpern

I really want to give up my coffee dependency

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Sam Ringleman

I don't.

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Avalander

Heresy!

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Ken Bellows

😱

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Cécile Lebleu

Don’t go to bed if you haven’t learned something new today [repeat every day]

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Oleksii Holub

Depending on what you consider as "learning something new", you may ruin your sleep really badly :D

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Cécile Lebleu

"Get enough sleep" would be my no. 2 advice!

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gabriel-viviani

while(isAlive())

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Cécile Lebleu

That's why programming is so great. Two paragraphs of explanation condensed in one function! Awesome! Thanks 😄

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Ben Halpern

Any tips on keeping up this discipline?

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Molly Struve (she/her)

Ask the question, someone else is probably wondering it too.

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Ben Halpern

Definitely!

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Abraham Williams

Surround yourself with nice people.

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Jaimie Carter

You can't be more right! Good one.

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Jason Steinhauser

Failing is better than not trying.

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Ben Sinclair

You've never tested bulletproof vests for a living.

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Fernando Zablah

Don't forget to commit

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Michael Hadley

Don't commit directly to master until you're absolutely sure!

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Sean G. Wright

Work hard.
Build relationships.
Find opportunities.
Take chances.
Be kind.

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Darkø Tasevski

Experience is overrated over knowledge, and knowledge over motivation to learn.

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Nick Taylor
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Stefan Dorresteijn • Edited

The best worst advice I can give is "Don't work on other people's dreams, work on your own"

I truly believe in that line, but it's not viable for most people so it's terrible advice.

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Kasey Speakman • Edited

When challenged, try to understand the other person's perspective.

Challenged in this sense doesn't just mean direct conflict, but also when a customer request completely breaks your notions of how the software you wrote is supposed to behave.

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Lautaro Lobo

Totally!

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Fernando B 🚀

Don't stop learning, take breaks, learn from mistakes.

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Tomas Forsman

Work is part of life, so make work worth living.

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Dillon Greek

Sometimes helps to close your mouth and open your ears.

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Wilfredo Pérez

Mistakes are the best thing that can happen to you.

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Ben Halpern

I motivate myself through mistakes by thinking about how much I’ll learn by working through the pain and consequences.

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Stacy Cashmore

Keep experimenting. Technically, your way of working and communication.

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Simon Vrachliotis 🏄🏀💻😍

Don't wait to be an expert - put yourself out there.

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Sinuhe Jaime

"It's not THAT important, life matters more"

I think/feel like you should care more about you and less about the work

Some people will disagree but I have found that being more focused on me have helped me on being a better developer.

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Yaser Al-Najjar

Results matter, do yourself a favor and focus on them.

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Sandor Dargo

Be proactive, curious and finish what you started.

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Tomas Forsman

Connect with people

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Kevin

Know your worth.

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Minh Trinh • Edited

Protect your eyes. You need them.

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Thomas H Jones II

"Find a job where you can get regular wins."

The most soul-crushing part of a job is when you just continually pile frustration upon frustration without ever getting the "high" of achieving a success.

One of the best parts of my prior life as a short-term consultant was that I got that success-high at frequent intervals. It could be as frequent as every couple days but never longer than a month or so. Compare that to long-term consulting... You can go quarters to years with no wins to offset stresses/frustrations. And, yeah, the constant travel sucked (I'd achieved lifetime double-platinum with Marriott after three years of racking up 170+ nights/year with them), but never underestimate how stress relieving regular wins can be.

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Amruta Ranade

Be kind to yourself and others.

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Oleg Aleksandrov

If you dislike your job - start looking for a new job.

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jess unrein

I’m cheating with two separate pieces of short advice.

  1. Software is for people, not machines
  2. Learn and engage with things other than software.
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Ben Halpern

Good ones

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Neesha Desai

Sometimes you just have to suck it up.

(This is also when you should probably start searching for something new...)

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Michael Learns

"He whose life has a why can bear almost any how."
-Friedrich Nietzsche

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Vuild

You are probably wrong. Review.
They are probably wrong. Review.

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Jorge

Ask the questions.. share the answers

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Tom VanAntwerp

Your relationships are everything--cultivate them wisely.

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Christina Gorton

Learn to speak up. Ask questions when you are stuck.

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Hugues Tennier

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

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Maciek Chmura

Don't overthink, and just build what you like.

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Antonio Radovcic

don't panic

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Felipe

Be humble when someone asks you "obvious" questions.

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Vincent Grovestine
  1. Listen first.
  2. You can have it cheap, fast or good. Pick two!
  3. Learn to say "no".
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Jaimie Carter

Be careful what you wish for.

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Joseph Jude

Reality is negotiable

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Marco Fiset

Money isn't everything.

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Sasha Blagojevic

Never stop being curious.

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rhymes
  1. Most of us are not saving lives
  2. Go on a holiday
  3. Don't just work
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jeikabu

"Plastics"

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Anthony Bouvier

Check your privilege.
Be humble.
Keep learning.
Practice self-care.

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jibbi

Don't worry if you don't have all the listed requirements

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Charlie Triplett

"Go where you can do the most good."

— A former mentor of mine who had been a manufacturing engineer and art teacher.

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Burdette Lamar
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Ben Halpern

Nice take on the format 😊

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George Lampadaridis

Keep calm, find ways to be happy with your job.

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Den McHenry

Don’t trust that others know better. Speak up. Ask questions.

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Sonny Li

from an ex-manager: work hard and don't be an asshole

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Laurie

Accept that you’ll always be learning. But question things if you never return to those skills and use them.

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Arit Developer

Authenticity + Skill + Diligence + Wisdom + Patience = Career Success

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Desi

Trust your gut

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Mikey Sanchez

What difference does your position make if you dislike it yourself?

~ Seneca

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Code Mochi

There's a rewarding life outside academia- maybe try software development?

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simonebogni

Be always ethical and expect the same from others

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Sebastiangperez

Be curious, debug all,
keep your inbox empty.

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Ben Sinclair

Don't work the weekend because you're worried about deadlines.

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Nate Shoemaker

Study, work eight hours a day, free time.

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Leonardo Teteo

If you have the opportunity to challenge yourself, go for it!

(11 words, but it is within the margin of error)

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Alan Dávalos

If code's work you probably need other hobbies

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Kwami Kudjie

Ask questions

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Tamara Temple

Apply for the job anyway

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lepinekong

Learn to learn, avoid big corps if you can ;)

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Chris Bertrand

Make it work, make it right, make it fast!

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Ady Ngom

Believe and keep investing in yourself. Period

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Matheus Adorni Dardenne

"Success" is the marriage between competence and opportunity.