Do you want to achieve a successful career as a software developer? You have landed at the right article. Here you will learn the questions you should answer consciously to figure out how to achieve it. It's not just about how to answer the following three questions but answering them correctly and consciously if you want to achieve a successful career as developers.
I will be honest with you. I have to. I'm still trying to answer some of them. Perhaps, because I still don't have enough clarity to do it.
I might say, a successful career as a software developer is something that most of us dream and pursue every single day. Is it one of our biggest dreams or am I assuming incorrectly? If so, let me know it in the comments.
While it is true, for some it represents the highest expression of success, for others, it is only one more goal.
However, regardless of what this represents for each of us, internally, there is a strength and belief with which we try to achieve it, and by this nature itself, there will always be reasons to make it happen. Either because we want to add value to others, we want to leave a footprint in this world, be part of the change, be part of those who had the courage to do it, or just because we would like to be remembered for the contribution to this amazing software community, etc.
Before continuing, I would like to define what a successful software developer career means in my own terms. From my point of view, achieving a successful career as developers means having the expertise at what you do, having the ability to help others in a comprehensible and genuine way, adding important contributions to important open-source projects.
For instance, I would say an architect is a successful architect because of the monumental and innovative designs he does, doctors because they are able to cure a disease, and software developers, because we build a better life through applications that improve and change lives, automate processes, reduces cost, increases productivity, etc.
I dare to say that as developers, at some point has dazzled us the idea of coding complex algorithms or perhaps once and for all fully understand and digest all the data structures and algorithms, such as BFS, DFS, Big, Big O notation.
To achieve all that kind of stuff, it requires hard work on it, focusing on it and it's usually going to take a considerable time. This implies write countless lines of code, daily coding repetitions, dozens and hundreds of coffee cups, sleeplessness, nightmares, and even many disappointments, and failures.
Next, I share the three questions that might help you achieve it.
NOTE: The order of the questions does not really matter, the most important thing is the answer you have for each of them.
1- Do you really enjoy to code?
We have to completely love what we do. So, as developers we should love and enjoy every single line of code we write and if it were possible to spend all day to it without feeling bored, forgetting time, and stop to see how the clock hands advance to see if it is time for lunch or dinner. This is what I call PASSION.
Nevertheless, passion for something is not passive, it will always call you to action even when there are fears to fail along the way, which is basically normal and understandable. When we enjoy building things that the client calls system or application, we never think about the number of lines of code required to achieve that purpose. It just happens that our fingers automatically get in on coding mode, and when least expect it we have created thousands of thousands of lines of codes, each of them is adding to the final output. This final result is what we call software, application, system, etc.
2- Do you have all that you need to achieve it?
Now, you should ask yourself if you already have all the things you will need to accomplish it. If you already have the passion, courage, and commitment to do it, just is missing to face it strategically.
Basically, the previous paragraph means. If you have all that, you just need a clear path to know how to track and achieve it. Based on an action plan you will be able to reach the level, speed, and type of programmer you have always wanted to be.
II know!, We have probably already done that before we had planned it and the result was that we gave up. In fact, 90% of a plan finally lives on paper because of the frustration of wanting to see results. The result should be the last thing we should think about but rather focus on the process itself instead. Well about spilled milk there is nothing to do, past is past my friend. It is time to reinvent ourselves and retake it if you had done it before, otherwise, TODAY is the best time to create it.
3- Are you motivated or disciplined?
The answer to this question is so really important. However, there's no wrong answer. If your answer is you have both, motivation and discipline. You have more chances to achieve the goal, but if you have just the first one you probably will lose this battle.
Next, I will explain why I am arguing against the first one; motivation. Indeed, I would say both: motivation and discipline are important to achieve any goal you have set. But motivation is TEMPORARY. If you are not able to find a way to keep it alive day-to-day, I bet you will die trying. Conversely, discipline requires you to act even when you don't feel like it or when you have lost the desire to move forward that could have come because of the nature of the human being. Just keep in mind that we are victories and defeats, emotions and feelings, therefore there will be times where discipline will be the only one can help us.
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