This post was originally posted on my blog
The reason for this post series
Ever since being promoted to more senior roles, I often get messages from developers just starting in web development & programming. People, who message me, mostly want to know what I did, how I know certain people, and how they can get there. In this post series, I want to share some of my experiences in becoming a senior software engineer. I hope that it will give some of you insight and help you in your journey of becoming a senior engineer and it might inspire you to share what you know on the way.
Getting Started As A Developer
Starting as a junior developer can be challenging. At least I wish I had a mentor that helped me navigate all the different aspects of my early technical career. Additionally, not everyone is lucky enough to find a good mentor to help them out, others might feel uncomfortable with being mentored. However there are many things you can involve yourself in without having a mentor, that will help you learn and grow. In this post series, I will share some of these insights and tips with you.
The interesting part of being a junior developer is that there are so many paths that are open to you. To give you an example: When I started my developer career, I did a 6-month internship in a digital agency in Amsterdam. After six months, they were really happy with me and offered me to stay on as a Frontend Developer, the main work revolved around building websites & digital campaigns, but I decided that I wanted to deepen my knowledge of computer science and higher education. So I applied for a master’s program with a focus on web development. Both ways offered me different outcomes and opportunities. Certainly, I would have also made a great choice with staying at the agency, but asking myself some personal questions about what I wanted, helped me move my career in a direction that aligned closely with my core values.
Where I started
I wrote my first lines of code in 2013 after I switched from a university degree in spatial planning to a degree in media design and informatics. Back then I had never programmed before, although I had a big interest in computers from a young age. Still, I wasn't sure that it would be an area I could excel at. Doing a mixed informatics degree that also had design parts in it, allowed me to commit to the idea of programming. In hindsight, the design part did help a lot later in my career in frontend development, because I was able to learn a lot about the visual design process and have a feeling for things that don't work visually.
Years later at a meetup for women in informatics, I learnt, that these "mixed" degrees like bioinformatics, media informatics or geoinformatics, are often the degrees with higher numbers of women, because women doubt themselves less starting in these applied fields of informatics.
What my biggest challenges were
When I learned to code, the first few years were quite challenging, because I was still figuring out what I wanted to do. In my studies, I focused most of my choice projects on developing web applications. Nevertheless, I also enjoyed all the fields connected to more creative and visual projects and enjoyed the photography and animation classes. I built dozens of projects for university, family, and friends, while also working hard to get better at programming. At that point I was not good enough to have a job as a programmer and worked my summer jobs in completely different fields. The biggest challenge back then was to get more clear on what I wanted to do and what I was good at.
Tip: Ask yourself these questions in the early stages of your career
It takes some time to figure out your ideal work environment. During these first few years, it's important to think about what you like, what you're good at and what you still want to learn. Asking yourself some of these questions will help you to find a job that you will enjoy and that will help you grow:
- What are three areas that I know a fair amount about or what do I really want learn more about?
- How do I stay updated on current technology trends, news, or products? What motivates me to keep learning?
- In what role in a team do I feel most comfortable? Do I enjoy taking on responsibilities for others?
- What were the last three projects I worked on? What has excited me most about them?
- Who do I admire? What are the things that I think they are doing that are great? How can I also do more of those things?
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