Learn what you need to succeed as a developer beyond the code. The lessons in this book will supercharge your career by sharing lessons and mistakes from real developers.
Wouldn’t it be nice to learn from others’ career mistakes? “Soft” skills are crucial to success, but are haphazardly picked up on the job or, worse, never learned. Understanding these competencies and how to improve them will make you a more effective team member and a more attractive hire.
This book will teach you the key skills you need, including how to ask questions, how and when to use common tools, and how to interact with other team members. Each will be presented in context and from multiple perspectives so you’ll be able to integrate them and apply them to your own career quickly.
What You'll Learn
• Know when the best code is no code
• Understand what to do in the first month of your job
• See the surprising number of developers who can’t program
• Avoid the pitfalls of working alone
Who This Book Is For
Anyone who is curious about software development as a career choice. You have zero to five years of software development experience and want to learn non-technical skills that can help your career. It is also suitable for teachers and mentors who want to provide guidance to their students and/or mentees.
Author(s): Dan Moore
Edition: 1
Publisher: Apress
Year: 2020
Language: English
Commentary: Vector PDF
Pages: 228
City: New York, NY
Tags: Best Practices; Career; Teamwork; Soft Skills
Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction
For new developers
For anyone considering software development
For mentors
Format
Thank you
Chapter 1: Your First Month
There are no adults in the room
Onboarding
Overindex
Work through the trepidation
How to excel at your job
Learn your team
How to read code
Learn about personal finance
Take care of your body
In conclusion
Chapter 2: Questions
Ask smart prepared questions
How to ask a question on the Internet
Don’t be afraid to ask questions
Technical decisions in the face of uncertainty
Getting answers from busy people
Ask the hard questions
You know more than you think
How to ask “why”
How to document “why”
Start asking “why”
Trade-offs
Improving Stack Overflow
How to say “I don’t know”
In conclusion
Chapter 3: Writing
Read your work aloud
Write that down!
Tips for using email well
Real-time messaging
Write a technical ebook
On developer documentation
Always be journaling
Organization
Schedule
Reviews
Personal results
Closing thoughts
You should blog
Motivation
In conclusion
Chapter 4: Tools to Learn
Leverage
The command line
jq, awk, and sed
awk
sed
jq
Version control
Text editors
IDEs
The standard library
Automated testing
Network engineering
SQL
Debuggers
Benchmarking
Search engines
The keyboard
In conclusion
Chapter 5: Practices
Don’t just write code—solve problems
Look around corners
Read code
Estimate your work
Debug systems
Assume positive intent
What about when…?
The ROI of trust
Express gratitude
Cultivate the skill of undivided attention
Leading vs. lagging indicators
In conclusion
Build empathy
Don’t complain about the code
Avoid jargon
Realize time is money
Say no
Play a lot more
Build on your own
Consistency is key
In conclusion
Chapter 6: Understanding the Business
Software is about people, not code
Outcomes over output
Business process crystallization
Businesses spend money to make money
Understand the business model
No company is a monolith
Where do developers fit in?
Hammers
Starting a company
Learn from your customers
In conclusion
Chapter 7: Learning
Never stop learning
Build expert intuition
A regular world
Many opportunities to learn
Frequent feedback
It takes time
Teach and learn
What is your woodlot?
Avoid being an expert beginner
Pattern match to be a just-in-time learner
Help, I can’t learn something because it is boring!
Your team will teach you
Use an RSS reader
Listen to podcasts
Subscribe to link newsletters
Read great books about software development
Listen actively
Learn two languages
In conclusion
Chapter 8: Mistakes
Get used to failure
Making mistakes is okay
Mistakes are forgiven, hiding them is not
Don’t make the same mistake twice
Don’t be afraid to “fail”
That time I dropped a production table
You’re going to put some plates in toasters
What do I do when I see someone making a mistake?
The despair of ineptitude
Admit your weaknesses
In conclusion
Chapter 9: Your Career
Favor learning over earning
You will never be in a better position to leave a bad job than before you start
Pick a flaw, any flaw
Preparing for a recruiting event
Resume
The introduction
The conversation
Appearance
The surprising number of programmers who can’t program
Start at a small consulting company
Potential vs. delivery
Maintain work-life balance
Take this advice, or leave it
Manage your career
Knowledge
Communication
Progress
Know your runway
How to manage one on ones
Write a brag document
Be adaptable and authentic
Are you ready to work remotely?
How to go through a layoff
Use LinkedIn
Contracting
Engineering management
Someday, you won't want to code for a living
In conclusion
Chapter 10: Community
Meetups
Conversational hooks
Online tech communities
You get what you give
Build your work community
Three mantras to live by
Surround yourself every-damn-day with people who are smarter than you
Build community and give without expecting anything in return
Listen to your gut, every day without exception
Build a personal board of advisors
In conclusion
Index
