By the end of this month, I will have exactly 1 year of professional experience as a software engineer. As my skills improve, the expectations (set...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
Pauline,
Thanks for sharing from your experiences. I am self teaching and I may never get to code professionally because I'm already in my 60's, but I am going to follow you and your progress and try to imitate some of the lessons you have shared.
Thank you,
Donald
What do you mean by never never get to code professionally. You have a lot of experience in life. You may still be successful in this new field. You may encounter something new by combining tech with your experience. You never know. Mindset is the key
Thank you Joao. What I mean is that I am likely to not look for a job coding. I have several ideas that I would like to implement. If they become profitable all the better. My wife and I retired last year and we want to take summers off to travel.
But, your concern is very much appreciated because I do wonder sometimes if I'll get there.
Its never too late to learn. You are the living example.
totally agree with you never !
That's a lot of self-awarenesa after just one year, mad props for realizing those conclusions! In addition to PRs, I would encourage you to go to co-workers before you start coding and share your design with them. I think that's where I learned the most: figuring out how our Enterprise architect envisioned a problem vs my perception and learning why we can't to different conclusions.
Since you've demonstrated self-awarenesa, apply it here as well. See if you can put together why co-workers think the way they do. Some people get so absorbed in programming they forget about the user. People who have lost a business venture before tend to be very risk-adverse. Some people just parrot whatever they read about online.
You have your entire career ahead of you. There's a lot of things I wish I would have done differently over the past seven years of my career and coding more is not one of them. Definitely find something that fascinates you to tinker with, but it sounds like you're on a good path. Burnout is very really and it sucks ass and hopefully you don't get to know it as well as I did.
Hey Pauline!
First of all, thank you so much for sharing your experiences, I enjoyed reading your article.
If you have not implemented some active time (workouts, runs, any kind of exercise) into your weekly routine, make sure you do! You would be surprised how much it increases your productivity and creativity!
V/R
Oliver
Reading one blog everyday, which is not directly related to my core skills.
I often skim through the blogs or read parts of it. I decided to read every single character of that blog and try to really understand rather than skimming through dozens of them.
@httpspauline of course all those habits you mentioned are very noble and would be great for your progress but, the best thing for you to improve you are already doing - self-reflection and introspection.
I think the moment we believe that we know everything and stop searching for improvement it is the time our decline starts, the moment that we start being less effective and stagnant as the world around us changes and improves at fast pace.
Keep up the spirit.
Same! And I'm sitting at 3+ years working professionally 😬Mostly it comes from thinking projects need to be "actual apps" (whatever that means). This year I'm going to build side projects with smaller scope. Even just another sign up form using a different CSS approach.
I totally know what you mean! Heck, from now on, I will start small, even if it's just going to be just 1 single well-thought-out component like a slider 😂
Good one, Take care of your health too , Read this and this, hope helps.
Thanks for sharing that. You posted things that I will definitely incorporate as well. I'd like to learn something new about development everyday. It can be something small but I think it will build over time. This Ted talk is really what I'd like to be able to do.
youtube.com/watch?v=TQMbvJNRpLE
very good article! in the part about side project i feel the same, never finish my own projects because i think its not perfect... then i try to do simple solid projects. Even though the project is simple, i try to use new ways to train and improve my own knowledgement about what im working on
I just keep on working, studying and learning stack being used in the company. and of course on my free time I try to learn things that are not included in the company's development stack, and i always keep in mind that dont just learn to code, but learn to create. So always do create stuff and try to implement things/tools you are comfortable with. In that way you'll grow as a software developer.
Pauline,
Thanks for sharing, I hate to be a downer but most of your points will not be realized, most are based on your possible senior .. if they like you maybe... I know it is weird to say that..
Side-Projects: no time, unless you have a really good contract
CopyPaste.. will always do that to meet deadlines.. as long as you due diligence there is no problem.
Rest: They want you and unless you are the Woman they will ignore you.. be the..
Excellent post, thank you for writing it!
One thing worth trying with copy-pasting: It's fine to copy-paste just to see if something works, or just to see how it works. But then once you do that, comment out everything you've copy-pasted, and put everything back one line at a time, while writing some notes on how each step works (and/or some questions to ask others to sharpen your understanding)
In other words, it's fine to copy and paste as part of a spike, especially if done on its own branch that you don't intend to merge into your production code. Then you go back, try to understand it, and do the thing for real after that.
All that said, it seems like as long as you follow your own advice, you're in for an awesome year of growth!
Pretty sure I use alt-tab more religiously than ctrl+c/v now that I think about it.
Hey Pauline!
Thank you so much for sharing all these informative things from your real-life experience. Now on, I will try to get in good shape with all those habits that you've mentioned.
As a developer, I think I should do at least three things a day:
Thank You again.
Happy Coding
Take more energy drinks.
The golden rules, nice reading Pauline!
Very much agree that reading code, reviewing code, and also especially if written by a skilled dev - reading reviews is a great learning opportunity!
Great items! I loved the matter fact you described your issues. "These are not faults just items I can change." Great attitude!
Very nice thinking, I like it and I will apply some of the habits you have mentioned.
As a developer with less than 6 months of experience, this was a super insightful read - I'm definitely guilty of some of these. Good luck and thanks for sharing!
This was super relatable, thanks for sharing!