This blog post is the longer response to a question asked at dev.to.
The question was: What's the worst career decision you've ever made?.
As I w...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
Agreed! Writing/blogging has been such a good outlet for me.
My first blog post was on dev.to, and it took A LOT to write it up. I had no ideas what to write, but the more I avoided doing it, the more I would (probably) regret it. And I am already really happy I did :)
Awesome to hear that. Yup, you will suck at blogging, but that's OK!
Blogging and having a professional online presence (in addition to Github) is the new resume, IMO.
Your blog pays dividends down the road. I should know, it's already starting to pay. :)
I've personally interviewed over 500 people in my career, and engineers with code (no matter the quality) stand out over those without.
I've also been interviewed in the past, where the entirety of the interview was just chatting with the hiring manager. One of these resulted in an accepted offer. After starting with the company, my manager asked for feedback on the interview. I explained that I thought it was weird to have so little technical discussion and still receive an offer. He explained that I had so much quality stuff online that he knew he'd extend the offer even before talking with me, and that the interview was more of a formality. It ended up being one of the cooler jobs I've had.
So I couldn't agree more with this post!
Completely agree!
Furthermore, by writing/blogging, you'll grasp/master the subject in ways you never expected.
Also keep it simple, because, as Feynman said:
I was a writer in another life so starting a blog was a no-brainer for me. However, feeling like I had something of value to say consistently was a struggle. I teetered on the edge of trying to write about learning and write an authoritative piece on JavaScript and at the time, Java. I even posted one here and was told I was wrong about a thing. It was hard to hear but I took it in stride and kept writing.
Eventually, with the help of my blogging and Twitter, I ended up with a couple job offers. It worked out to my benefit.
I have been writing for my blog for three years now. I look back at the old posts and see my growth. It's really been a wild ride!
This is so similar to my past year and right now that it feels like a slap in the face, the good kind 😬
I'm glad! I hope you don't make the same mistake my young self did.
Go on and share your adventure with the world! :)
This!
I'm constantly looking for some motivation to start. This will be one of the pushes;)
Motivation and inspiration are fickle. I suggest practice. Get started today and create your first article here in dev.to!