As a Pluralsight author, I come across a lot of people who are new to software development. Perhaps they have just left college or university or maybe they are changing career.

The Covid pandemic has left a lot of people out of work across the globe so lots of people are retraining and software and web development are popular career choices.

So I thought I’d share my top tips to help you get, or keep your career on track.

1. You are NOT an imposter

Let’s start with what I think is the most important thing.

A lot of developers suffer from what’s called imposter syndrome, myself included. The constant feeling that they aren’t good enough! It’s understandable really, there are so many inspirational people in the industry who just seem so damn good at what they do.

Last year I started playing the electric guitar. Now I admit that I’m not very good and I’m certainly no Eddie Van Halen but does that mean I’m not a musician? No it doesn’t. I pick up my beautiful guitar every day and I play. Sure I play slowly and I miss some of the chord changes but still I play. That makes me a musician.

It’s the same with software development. You open your laptop, you write code, you build things. Of course you make mistakes but you are still a software developer.

2. Never stop learning

Technology moves at a frightening pace. New languages and frameworks seem to pop up almost every week. Now if you only ever stay focused on the languages or tools you know, you will very quickly get left behind. Your skills will soon become irrelevant and you will end up unemployable!

That’s a scary thought. So what’s the solution? Well you need to keep developing your skills so pick one or two technologies and learn the basics. Now don’t just watch video’s or read about it but actually build stuff.

Now I’m a .NET developer so if I’m trying to learn a new language, I often take some existing code and then re write it in that new language. Doing it this way I find I can often pick up a new language in a. few weeks.

Now this constant learning has other benefits too. The more you learn, the better you become at learning. The quicker and easier you can pick up new skills and the better you become at solving problems.

Pluralsight is a great platform for learning but everyone learns in different ways. Find what works for you and learn something new today.

3. Identify your weakness

I’m not a fan of the term ‘full stack developer’. I just don’t believe that a developer can be great at everything. Now I have always traditionally been a back end developer. I started my career working on web services with WCF and I never really had chance to work on front end technologies. I’m also not very good at visual design.

Understanding the area’s you struggle with is important because it gives you something to focus on. Once you know where your skill set is weak you can focus on improving those skills. This is going to make you a more competent and ultimately more employable developer.

4. Have a side project

Every developer should have a side project. Now that might be an open source project that you contribute too or it could be something you’re building for yourself. It doesn’t really matter. Side projects give you the opportunity to express yourself. Write the code that you want to write. Not only that but they help you develop additional skills like project management, requirements and design.

I think the important thing with side projects is that you finish them. Now you don’t have to publish them, they don’t have to change the world or make you the next Zuckerberg but it’s important to see them through. This helps you build up a portfolio of work. something you can show off to future employers.

Another benefit of side projects is that they keep you writing code and learning. It takes thousands of hours of practice to become proficient at anything so the more code you write the better you will become.

There is an excellent article here from Khalid at Jetbrains on some great starter open source projects to get involved in.

5. Get social

I’m not sure why but software developers don’t tend to be the most sociable people in the world but it’s really important that you connect with other people in the community. You don’t have to do all this on your own, there are lots of people out there who are willing to help

Use your social media accounts to get involved in the community. Follow people you admire, reach out for advice and if possible find a mentor, someone you can reach out to for questions and advice.

Don’t sit there struggling to solve a problem all on your own when there are thousands of people on Twitter that are willing and able to help.

Conclusions

So those are my 5 top tips for becoming a better developer.

Even if you don’t realise it, you are already a good developer. Focus on your learning, identify your weaknesses and build sometime just for you. Reach out to the community and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

As ever, if you need help or advice then reach out either here or on Twitter and if you have any tips of your own I’d love to hear them.