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The Weird Rules I Set Myself That Got Me a Job

Andrew Healey on April 18, 2019

The following isn't good advice. It's just advice. And even that's a stretch. I used to be really into those productivity hacks. No zero days, Pom...
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G1itcher

I've seen a number of these style of articles and I don't really get it? I'm not trying to be disrespectful; I'm just confused by the structured lengths people feel they have to to get jobs in programming.

Is this more applicable to how to get your first programming job?

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Desi

I love this! I have some similar rules for myself - right now I'm focusing on javascript, so I'm making myself spend one hour a day on rudimentary JS projects with very little CSS or HTML, because I tend to get so bogged down in making the CSS look perfect vs. getting things to actually work.

And also, there's no such thing as weird :D

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Benjamin Faught

I have had to do the same regarding css, because I also get caught up always trying to make things look pretty rather than progressing with functionality or finishing!

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Andrew Healey

That’s awesome, Desi! I’ve chased perfect CSS one too many times before 😁

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prateek goyal

I am a tester and my goals are to jump to software development. Recently I learnt Front-End web development from Udacity and practicing it. I am learning C, Python with how these languages interact with OS internally. Because I am under impression that to get a job in Software development/Programming or even in web development, I need to know C, OS concepts etc.

My question is, am I on right path? Or focusing only on one part(e.g. web development) is ok?

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Andrew Healey

I can only answer for my local area and what I’ve heard from mutuals so I hope others will chime in!

In the UK, it seems that entry level web dev jobs don’t require you to understand C or deep OS concepts. While they are hugely beneficial, you are expected to learn them as you come across relevant problems.

However, I believe that learning them has made me a better developer.

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prateek goyal

Thanks Andrew. It is helpful.
BTW, your article was insightful and there are good takeaways for me.

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Mike Healy

I would find requiring knowledge of C very odd for a web development role, unless it was a specialist backend role and you needed to interface with low level libraries.

For the vast majority of cases it shouldn't be necessary. One can even be 'full stack' in the sense that you can build and deploy a whole project without needing to be 'full stack' in the sense that you can go right to the low level coding languages in the stack.

Upshot, I don't think it's necessary.

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Suren Dias • Edited

Thank you very much for these rules. I have been struggling to reset my career after 10 years as a developer. Been doing PHP development now trying to learn JavaScript frameworks (ReactJS and Node). relearning is the most difficult thing to do and these rules definitely help.

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Andrew Healey

Good luck ✨✨

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J Beetz

Very well thought out. The planning and considerations you make really demonstrate a solid approach to being successful.

I also try to work in multiple languages every day. Somedays, its python and powershell, others it javascript and .net. Sometimes I have to do this for my job. I try to make the most of it by fully considering the problem at hand and then trying out various concepts to solve the that problem.

Thanks for the additional insight.

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Andrew Healey

Thanks J Beetz!

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Justyn Clark

Awesome share bro. We're all weird.

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Andrew Healey

Thanks Joman!

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lak@smartDeLK

Man i love it simple and perfect

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Uddesh

Very helpful. I'm also preparing for interviews, I do most of the things you mentioned.

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Anna Eliz

Loved it! Don't stop recommending Grokking Algorithms, please. I'd use some of your rules.