The 5 sins of developers
Why is it that a promising young developer with a wealth of technical knowledge and experience fails to reach the next level in their IT career? It turns out that the developer - in addition to difficulties independent of the developer - can become an obstacle to their own career. Young developers tend to commit certain professional sins that make it impossible to move from this approximate status of "promising developer" to a solid position.
In the music industry, you can either be a rockstar with a huge mass of fans or a professional musician who has to pump out one track after another. The same goes for IT - you can be a great developer with a well-known brand or a programmer who sits behind his desk and only does boring and un challenging tasks.
According to Evans Data Corporation, there are 5.5 million developers under the age of 30 worldwide. Of course, it's hard to predict how many of them are also ambitious, rising talents, but one thing is for sure - not all of them will reach the top of their IT career. Many of them will stay on their usual track, and even though they may be able to have a job with certainty, they will still not find their ideal profession. But "just any job" is certainly not the same as "the dream job". Here are five sins that are likely to stop the career flight of an ambitious developer.
"I've always done it that way."
Nothing slows down a programmer's career like the lack of personal development. We are aware that there are many guidelines and pseudo-guides here that are full of truisms and nonsense, but some of this wisdom makes sense: investing in career development and expanding your knowledge is absolutely essential for any developer. IT is an industry that is constantly changing. If you do not pay attention, you will be left behind and forgotten. New solutions, frameworks and tools are introduced every day. You need to know all these new things if you want to become a great developer.
In a survey of Stack Overflow developers, it was found that they obtain their knowledge from official documentation (82.2%), information on Stack Overflow (80%), and books (56.3%). Participation in courses - both online and offline - is another popular way to expand one's knowledge. To effectively improve one's technical skills, one should be aware of all knowledge gaps. And there will be many of them, nobody is omniscient. Keeping up with new things and filling in one's own knowledge gaps are the two ideal points of personal development.
"Social skills? What are social skills?”
It is vital to hone one's technical abilities, but that is not all there is to it. Too many programmers believe that only technical know-how is needed. This outlook will not do you any favors as you try to advance your career as a developer. Nowadays, an increasing number of IT employers are placing emphasis on the social skills of programmers. The significance of these social skills is elaborated upon in a number of articles. They are key to any sort of professional advancement.
According to an ISACA study, success in a career can only be achieved through a combination of technical and social skills. The most important thing is the ability to communicate with other people on the team, formulate your own ideas and thoughts, practice proper teamwork, and share your personal knowledge with others. Career counselors advise employers to pay attention to skills such as an optimistic approach, time management, problem solving, working under pressure or self-confidence. Teamwork becomes one of the most important elements of work in IT. Therefore, IT employers seek employees who not only have excellent technical skills but also the ability to join a team and work within it. All gears should mesh nicely together; only then will everything run smoothly.
“What for?”
"Even in ancient Rome, Seneca once wrote that if you do not know which port you are sailing to, the wind will never blow in the right direction. This also applies to a career in software development. Even the most promising developer will not expand his horizon if he does not know what he wants to achieve."
Being just "number one" is not good enough for programmers. These are only wishes, not specific goals. Developers have to know where they will be in a year, three years, ten years, etc. The SMART system is the best way to determine these goals. The goals should:
- Specific - define the goal
- Measurable - the progress should be measureable
- Achievable - the goal should be achievable
- Relevant - The goal must be essential to the career. Which goal will help to reach the next step?
- Timely - Set a deadline for the goal.
Your goals can obviously be very different, ranging from expanding your knowledge to completing a training course, getting a promotion or a pay raise, to finishing a project, etc. It is incredibly motivating if you know EXACTLY what you want and when you want to achieve it.
"Without me, nothing works here."
It is essential to have self-confidence, but it should not distort into arrogance. The day you believe you are irreplaceable may be the last day of your IT career. It is a trap that many developers with a few years of professional experience fall into. Good developers are hotly contested in the job market, so you quickly believe you are irreplaceable. But it is difficult to represent such a lack of modesty as a positive quality. In psychiatry, the tendency to overestimate oneself is often attributed to a paranoid personality. The term "illusion of uniqueness" is often used here.
Nevertheless, we need not to rush into this conclusion in our argumentation. Overconfidence might have two consequences: first of all, nobody would want to work with a presumptuous developer. Secondly, this false belief could lead to negative impacts on the programmer's own knowledge. Dr. Samuel R. Pavel from Southern Illinois University carried out an intriguing study about this topic. He asked several students to do a test, but before that they had to fill in a form in which they estimated their abilities. The test results showed that those students who overestimated their skills received a lower score than those who underestimated their skills. A programmer who falls into the trap of lack of humility will overestimate his abilities and claim that the company will not survive without him. As a result, he has a tendency not to improve his skills. The career ends up being replaced by a developer who is aware of his limitations and actually wants to learn something from others.
"One can sleep when one is dead."
"Work-life balance" is a trending term, but in this case, one could also speak of "avoiding workaholism," "maintaining the balance between private and professional life," etc. The focus is on mental balance, peace, and compromise between work and leisure time—things that many aspiring programmers struggle with. These developers are often very ambitious and see rest as unnecessary wasted time; such a dogged attitude can only destroy a career. Sooner or later, never-resting developers will burn out. According to a study by the Psychology Department of the University of Berkley, burnout and exhaustion are—next to cynicism and the feeling of being ineffective—the biggest problems we face at work. Fortunately, all of this can be avoided by always keeping your balance in mind. The term "work-life balance" is appearing more and more in job postings for software engineers, Java developers, web application developers, or test/QA engineers. Nevertheless, it is the responsibility of every programmer to keep the balance between work and private life for themselves. You have to learn how to set your own priorities, how to separate work from leisure time, how to rest, maintain an active lifestyle and plan your tasks appropriately. One might not believe it, but this can work wonders for your career.
An ambitious developer stands at the door to the world of true (developer) greatness. It's a crucial moment. Will he seize the opportunity and step in, or will he linger on the brink and will eventually be supplanted by others who dare to step forward?
