simonamdev/devadvice

Advice I wish someone had given me when I was 17 (for future devs)

Advice I wish someone had given me when I was 17 (for future devs)

Originally by @EricaTheDev. Pull requests accepted!

Things to do

The basics

• Learn a new programming language which is different from the ones you know already: Javascript, Go etc see https://octoverse.github.com for a list of top languages
• Contribute to an open source project
• Have a pet project of your own. Bonus points: open source that
• In the summers when you're at University: work as an intern at a software development company
• Grow as a person, not just as someone who codes: be humble, don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions, learn presentation skills and how to logically discuss ideas
• Full list of ideas at: http://www.metadevelopment.io/growing-as-software-engineer/
• Find someone to mentor you. You will learn much faster.

Things to try to understand

• There's more than one correct way to solve a problem.
• Programming language / framework / pattern do not matter much. They come and go.
• Struggling is normal when you are learning something new. Do not be afraid of feeling stupid until something clicks.
• You do not need 100% of the job requirements to be eligible.
• You do not need to know EVERYTHING in the industry. By the time you learn one thing, two more have become relevant. Be ok with saying "I don't know, lets find out".
• How fast your program runs does not matter if the user does not realise the difference.
• Typing is not the bottleneck. Weeks of programming will save you hours of planning.

Events and talks

• ICTSA (University of Malta ICT students association): https://www.facebook.com/ictsamalta/. Watch out for the annual Game of Codes competition.
• Google developers group (Google technology): https://www.facebook.com/gdgmalta/
• Ignite Malta (A variety of technologies): https://www.facebook.com/ignitemt/
• JCI Malta (Personal development): https://www.facebook.com/jcimalta/

Things to read

Free articles and resources:

• https://github.com/mr-mig/every-programmer-should-know
• https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming-books/blob/master/free-programming-books.md

Things to watch

Talks from conferences such as:

• Craftconf https://craft-conf.com/2017
• Devoxx https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCBVCTuk6uJrN3iFV_3vurg
• GOTO https://www.youtube.com/user/GotoConferences

Things to be

• Software Developer / Software Engineer / Programmer **
• DevOps
• Testing Engineer / Quality Assurance / Quality Assistance / Test Automation Engineer **
• Business Intelligence
• Product Owner / Systems Analyst

** used semi-interchangeably