Keep Your Coding Job With This ONE Tip
We are asked to do so many things each day as developers. We are told to be all things to all people at times.
Working in a company without testers? You’re the tester now.
Working in a company without a boss? Sort it yourself.
Have tickets with unclear specs? You need to ask questions until you understand them.
The list goes on and on.
So as developers what should we focus on in order to keep our jobs? What should we be doing to ensure we continue on a path to greatness as the best software engineers?
You might well be surprised that there is a way to keep your job. A single way. A single focus for you in your job and career. A way for you to develop software artifacts that will lead to great customer satisfaction.
Can we get to it? Is this clickbait article ever going to give me some advice?
That one thing.
Here’s my observation on what the best developers work on and get good at. Here is the top tip for software engineers starting in their development journey.
Be able to code
It keeps coming up. You’d be shocked at how many developers I’ve seen who cannot code adequately in their preferred language. They are slow at programming and the solutions they provide are oftentimes poorly constructed or loosely (at best) tested. It’s just not professional.
How you can call yourself a software developer if you can’t code, I’m not sure.
It’s not just that of course. You will need to do more if you want to keep a decent programming job.
Keep your expertise fresh
I’m sure all of those Fortran programmers are going to come at me in the comments again. If you want to keep coding though you need to become some sort of expert in a current language or paradigm, and this should be your goal.
If you want to be an expert in watchmaking, be a watchmaker. But make sure it’s for watches people actually wear.
Stay curious
If you’re not interested in how things work, things might not go well for you as a software developer. If you’re more interested in people than things perhaps a role in HR is for you.
Sure you need to balance understanding and getting things to work (or getting that bug out of that code).
Also don’t settle for less than good. Curiosity should also encompass making things better.
Take responsibility
If your code is trash go back and improve it. Go back and improve others’ code too. Find things that will make your codebase better.
Calling things trash is a trash thing to do.
Give opportunities
If you know about something, share the knowledge. Work with others for that most important thing, the codebase.
The codebase is more important than any of us.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that if you can’t code why are you a software engineer in the first place?
There are plenty of jobs at my local Burger King. Go there if you want a payday, ok?