Effendy Pradana • 19 September 2020We have to keep reinventing ourselves, the world can change in an instant, technology will change in a blink, and what you do today will determine if you are going to be dragged or grow along with it.
Because being a developer is not just a day job.
There are several kinds of developers, there are Frontend, Backend, Fullstack developers, there are Beginners, Juniors, Seniors, and Legends.
And some developers are labeled differently from steady to active learners.
And trust me regardless of what level your experience is, or your expertise, being called an active learner should be your main focus. Hiring managers now are more focused and interested in hiring those kinds of developers.
So, if you want the job, make sure to let them know that you are an active learner, it’s a keyword, it’s the fish bait.
So why do we always need to learn? Simple, it’s part of the job.
It is part of becoming a developer, and you signed up for it.
The best developer isn’t those who have the highest pay, nor the highest IQ test results. The best developers are those who never settle, who is always excited to learn more, to do more, who reinvent and redesign everything, the companies are hungry to hire them.
and knowing that it will make everything worthwhile.
Knowing that you are on the right track makes everything better, it will not only make you happy, but it will keep you inspire and makes things easier, they sometimes call it ‘the secret’ but its no secret anymore, it’s what you think you become — mindset.
What you think you become, remember that, always.
The continuous learning mindset — will help you grow and evolve, it will be your safety net when things get tough when jobs flounder.
What you know today will be irrelevant tomorrow, if all you know now is C/C#/Java and you’ve been using it for years, it’s probably time to reassess things.
Let me give you an example, in my current job, I have this colleague who has been working in the company for 5 years, she has been using C# all her life, now the company decided to build a new system, new architecture, using modern stack.
Thankfully, I am familiar with some of the requirements like Reactjs and Nodejs, others were Typescript, MongoDB, and Express along with other tools like Cypress, Docker, and many more.
Even after all the implementation, she hates it, and the more she ignores it the harder it is for her to cope up.
All we can hear are complaints and her disappointments.
You see, here’s one of the best things about being a Self-Taught Developer, learning becomes our lifestyle, we embraced it, and we don’t resist when new things are introduced or required, rather, we get excited while others resist.
Sometimes, change is good. Sometimes the changes are forced on us. We will never know what’s to come, no one knows, and the only thing we can do — is to always be ready.
With what is happening with the world today, facing one of the most challenging crises, there are a lot of people who lose their jobs, while others are suffering there are also those industries who are surprisingly growing — have you heard the news? tech companies are getting richer today.
Most traditional jobs are getting laid off, but the developers and other jobs that are built around the technology are surviving, thriving, and growing more and more.
So if you are part of the lucky ones, then you should be thankful, and you should not waste that opportunity and instead embrace it, be better at it, use this time to grow, to evolve and be better than you were a year ago, because there are a lot of other people who wish they started this career too.
Level up every advantage that you have, there will be a lot of opportunities coming, the world is changing, and it is going into the direction where developers will eventually change the course of things.
So if you are in the circle, if you have been in the industry for quite some time, keep learning, be so good at it that they can’t ignore you, be ready, more and more opportunities will come, the change is coming and it is going into our direction.
And if you had just started, keep pushing, outwork those who chill, outwork those who are still doubting themselves, focus on you, and just keep learning.
The big change is coming, you better be ready.
Soon enough your responsibilities will grow, your job will grow, and with just a blink of an eye you’ll have your team, your juniors, and you can’t teach what you don’t know.
Teaching is one of the best ways to grow, but to teach you to have to know what you are doing, to really understand how things work.
So try and learn as much as you can, to become a good Senior Developer isn’t just about how good of a programmer you are, it should be a total package.
Senior Developers is one of the highest-paid jobs, you better be a good one if you want that job, and they don’t just hire someone based on their technical skills, they don’t hire robots, but rather someone who knows what he is doing, a human, and a human who can teach.
So for now, focus on having a continuous learning mindset, it will take you further than everything else, it will be your ticket to the next level, be so good that they can’t ignore you.
“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” — Mandy Hale
One of my career goals is to become the Senior Developer I never had.
I’ve probably experienced one of the worst Senior developer in the world, someone who doesn’t teach.
and trust me, it’s worse than you think.
On my first developer job, it wasn’t the fact that I was working along with 8 other Computer Science graduate that made things difficult, it was my non-teaching Senior Developer, he was my boss, he was a good programmer but he doesn’t teach, he orders and give a few instructions, and the rest is for us to figure out.
So, I’ve learned a lot the hard way.
Of all the things that have happened along those years, I’ve learned valuable lessons, lessons that will help me move forward not just in my career but in life.
Being resourceful, being resilient, and most importantly, to be the exact opposite of him. To teach, to help every other Self-taught developer, and touch as many souls as I can.
I always believed that dreams do come true if you just stick around a little longer than you’ve thought, to work harder than you’ve planned and to believe in yourself when no one else will because that is just how life really is.
It’s the little choices that we make that will make us different from the rest, the choice between hitting that sneeze button or getting out of bed and making it all real.
In the end, it is that little voice in your head telling you to get up, to show up, no matter how hard and embarrassing it felt, that will help you make your dreams come true.
So keep learning, keep inventing, keep redesigning your life, keep reinventing, being a developer isn’t just a day job, you’ll have the opportunity to change the world, to make it better, to change lives, to save lives.
Being a developer is life-changing, it’s mind-blowing, being able to build something from scratch is surreal, so dream big, and don’t stop chasing it until you’re done, because, in the end, it will be worth it all.
“Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
Programming
Software Development
Technology
