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"Software Developmers Career Guide and Soft Skills" book notes

Published at 2023-07-17T04:56:20+03:00

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Improve

Always learn new things

When you learn something new, e.g. a programming language, first gather an overview, learn from multiple sources, play around and learn by doing and not consuming and form your own questions. Don't read too much upfront. A large amount of time is spent in learning technical skills which were never use. You want to have a practical set of skills you are actually using. You need to know 20 percent to get out 80 percent of the results.

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Boot camps: The advantage of a boot camp is to pragmatically learn things fast. We almost always overestimate what we can do in a day. Especially during boot camps. Connect to others during the boot camps

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Set goals

Your own goals are important but the manager also looks at how the team performs and how someone can help the team perform better. Check whether you are on track with your goals every 2 weeks in order to avoid surprises for the annual review. Make concrete goals for next review. Track and document your progress. Invest in your education. Make your goals known. If you want something, then ask for it. Nobody but you knows what you want.

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Ratings

That's a trap: If you have to rate yourself, that's a trap. That never works in an unbiased way. Rate yourself always the best way but rate your weakest part as high as possible minus one point. Rate yourself as good as you can otherwise. Nobody is putting for fun a gun on his own head.

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Don't do peer rating, it can fire back on you. What if the colleague becomes your new boss?

Cooperate rankings are unfortunately HR guidelines and politics and only mirror a little your actual performance.

Promotions

The most valuable employees are the ones who make themselves obsolete and automate all away. Keep a safety net of 3 to 6 months of finances. Safe at least 10 percent of your earnings. Also, if you make money it does not mean that you have to spent more money. Is a new car better than a used car which both can bring you from A to B? Liability vs assets.

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If you want a raise be specific how much and know to back your demands. Don't make a thread and no ultimatums.

Best way for a promotion is to switch jobs. You can even switch back with a better salary.

Finish things

Hard work is necessary for accomplish results. However, work smarter not harder. Furthermore, working smart is not a substitute for working hard. Work both, hard and smart.

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Defeat is finally give up. Failure is the road to success, embrace it. Failure does not define you but how you respond to it. Events don't make your unhappy, but how you react to events do.

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Expand the empire

The larger your empire is, the larger your circle of influence is. The larger the circle of influence is, the more opportunities you have.

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Become visible, keep track that you accomplishments. E.g. write a weekly summary. Do presentations, be seen. Learn new things and share your learnings. Be the problem solver and not the blamer.

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Be pragmatic and also manage your time

Make use of time boxing via the Pomodoro technique: Set a target of rounds and track the rounds. That give you exact focused work time. That's really the trick. For example set a goal of 6 daily pomodores.

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You should feel good of the work done even if you don't finished the task. You will feel good about pomodoro wise even you don't finish the task on hand yet. Helps you to enjoy time off more. Working longer may not sell anything.

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The quota system

Defined quota of things done. E.g. N runs per week or M Blog posts per month or O pomodoros per week. This helps with consistency. Truly commit to these quotas. Failure is not an option. Start with small commitments. Don't commit to something you can't fulfill otherwise you set yourself up for failure.

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Internal motivation is more important over external motivation. Check out Daniels book drive.

Multitasking: Batching is effective. E.g. emails twice daily at pre-set times..

Don't waste time

The biggest time waster is TV watching. The TV is programming you. It's insane that Americans watch so much TV as they work full time. Schedule one show at a time and watch it when you want to watch it. Most movies are crap anyways. The good movies will come to you as people will talk about them.

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Meetings can waste time as well. Simply don't go to them. Try to cancel meeting if it can be dealt with via email.

Enjoying things is not a waste of time. E.g. you could still play a game once in a while. It is important not to cut away all you enjoy from your life.

Habits

Try to have as many good habits as possible. Start with easy habits, and make them a little bit more challenging over time. Set ankers and rewards. Over time the routines will become habits naturally.

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We don't have control over our habits but our own routines.

Routines help to form the habits, though.

Work-life balance

Avoid overwork hours. That's not as beneficial as you might think and comes only with very small rewards. Invest rather in yourself and not in your employer.

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Use your most productive hours to work on you. Make that your priority. Take care of yourself a priority (E.g. do workouts or learn a new language). You can always workout 2 or 1 hour per day, but will you pay the price?

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Mental health

Friendships and positive thinking help to have and maintain better health, longer Life, better productivity and increased happiness.

In most cases burnout is just an illusion. If you don't have motivation push through the wall. People usually don't pass the wall as they feel they are burned out. After pushing through the wall you will have the most fun, for example you will be able playing the guitar greatly.

Physical health

Utilise a standing desk and treadmill (you could walk and type at the same time). Increase the incline in order to burn more calories. Even on the standing desk you burn more calories than sitting. When you use pomodoro then you can use the small breaks for push-ups (maybe won't do as good when you are in a fasted state).

Intermittent fasting is an effective method to maintain weight and health. But it does not mean that you can only eat junk food in the feeding windows. Also, diet and nutrition is the most important for health and fitness. They make it also easier to stay focused and positive.

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No drama

Avoid drama at work. Where are humans there is drama. You can decide where to spent your energy in. But don't avoid conflict. Conflict is healthy in any kind of relationship. Be tactful and state your opinion. The goal is to find the best solution to the problem.

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You have to learn how to work in a team. Be honest but tactful. It's not too be the loudest but about selling your ideas. Don't argue otherwise you won't sell anything. Be persuasive by finding the common ground. Or lead the colleagues to your idea and don't sell it upfront. Communicate clearly.

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Personal brand

Invest your value outside the company. Build your personal brand. Show how valuable you are, also to other companies. Become an asset.
Invest in your education. Make your goals known. If you want something ask for it (see also the sections about goals in this document).

Market yourself

The best way to market yourself is to make you usable.
Have an elevator pitch: "buetow.org - Having fun with computers!"
Have social media accounts, especially the ones which are more tech related.

Networking

Ask people so they talk about themselves. They are not really interested in you. Use meetup.com to find groups you are interested and build up the network over time. Don't drink on social networking events even when others do. Talking to other people at events only has upsides. Just saying "hi" and introducing yourself is enough. What worse can happen? If the person rejects you so what, life goes on. Ask open questions and no "yes" and "no" questions. E.g.: "What is your story, why are you here?".

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Public speaking

Before your talk go on stage 10 minutes in advance. Introduce yourself to the front row people. During the talk they will smile at you and encourage you during your talk.

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Just do it. Just go to conferences. Even if you are not speaking. Sell your boss what you would learn and "this and that" and you would present the learnings to the team afterwards.

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New job

For the interview

Build up a network before the interview. E.g., follow and comment blogs. Or go to meet-ups and conferences. Join user groups.

If you are specialized then there is a better chance to get a fitting job. No one will hire a general lawyer if there are specialized lawyers available. Even if you are specialized, you will have a wide range of skills (T-shape knowledge).

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Find the right type of company

Not all companies are equal. They have individual cultures and guidelines.

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Work in a tech. company if you want to work on/with cutting edge technologies.

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Apply for the new job

Get a professional resume writer. Get referrals of writers and get samples from there. Get sufficient with algorithm and data structures interview questions. Cracking the coding interview book and blog

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Invest in your dress code as appearance masters. It does make sense to invest in your style. You could even hire a professional stylist (not my personal way though).

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Negotiation

Whoever names the number first loses. You don't know what someone else is expecting unless told. Low ball number may be an issue but you have to know the market.

Never spilt the difference is the best book for learning negotiation techniques..

Leaving the old job

When leaving a job make a clean and non personal as possible. Never complain and never explain. Don't worry about abandonment of the team. Everybody is replacement and you make a business decision. Don't threaten to quit as you are replaceable.

Other things

As a leader lead by example and don't lead from the Eiffel tower.
As a leader you are responsible for the team. If the team fails then it's your fault only.

Testing

Unit testing Vs regression testing: Unit tests test the smallest possible unit and get rewritten if the unit gets changed. It's like programming against a specification n. Regression tests test whether the software still works after the change. Now you know more than most software engineers.

Books to read

Clean Code