"You need to code in your spare time to be a good developer" - I've been hearing this all the time during my career. When I had just started, I heard it a lot. After almost 10 years of working in the development industry, I'm still hearing it. I hear this phrase when I read interviews of some CEOs and they are saying: “I will never hire a developer who doesn’t code in their spare time”. When I go to interviews with some companies they ask me: “Tell us about your side projects” with the hopes of some nice story which I don't have.
But more often, I see how developers doubt themselves because they don't code in their free time, especially when their colleagues and friends are doing the opposite.
But is it that important? Does everyone expect it from me? And do I really need to code in my free time to be a great successful developer?
My answer is no.
“But hey, I love to write code and I’m passionate about it”
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind if someone codes in their free time. It makes a lot of sense in various different situations like with junior developers who obviously need to learn and practice. Or when you need to learn a new language or a new technology. Or when you are preparing for an interview (especially for big companies). Or when you just like coding and it’s your hobby. Or when you work on your own projects. And so on. All these situations and reasons are wonderful and great, there is no reason to argue.
My question is a bit different - why do some people expect that I will code in my free time if my circumstances are different?
Just to give a bit of context about myself - it happens that coding is not my hobby although I do like it and do my work at a high level. I really enjoy it when I see the result of my work. It's an amazing feeling to see how people interact with interfaces that I’ve built. And I love it even after 8 years of developing.
But I spend 8 hours per day for work, a third of a day goes to sleeping, and as a result, I don't have that much time left for something else. What about my hobbies? Family? My friends? I need a lot of time for all these. I need a balance. I don’t want to tell my wife something like: “Yeah, I will be right there, just finishing one more small bug” when she asks me to join the family dinner. Because I know that in that case I will have dinner alone and will eat something cold. I don’t want to miss really important moments in my life.
My hobbies are slightly related to computers. I do like practicing yoga. I enjoy bicycle trips. I like baking (even though I’m not very good at it). I’m trying to learn how to play the harmonica. I want to try new things and new hobbies, I want to feel the life outside of these computers. And how can I find enough time for all these hobbies when I have so little time left in the evenings?
My hobbies and my interests don’t make me a bad developer
Hobbies and interests which are not related to the IT industry make my brains work and think broader. I can find a lot of similarities and approaches that I can apply to work-related processes. My imagination works better. Having different hobbies also teaches me how to find that balance and spend my time accurately.
Besides, I need to rest after a full time working day spent in front of a computer. Well, my grandmother still believes that it's nonsense: “How can you ever be tired, you are just sitting and pressing buttons! And for some reason, you even get paid!” I’m quite sure that she would prefer me to find some real proper job with a lot of hand working. Because only then I would be granted the right to complain that I’m tired.
Anyway, maybe my body is not that tired but my mind and my brains are. We are not robots. I just can’t bring myself to code for another 1-2 more hours. My productivity will be low, I will probably just spend an hour opening the IDE and just building my project. My mind wants to rest by doing something different and I understand it. How often was I able to find a solution to some problem at a completely random time while doing something different? Quite a lot of times!
When I was a bit younger, I was sure that the word “burnout” is something fake just to get paid days off. I was not able to understand how work-related stress could affect anyone. But then I’ve seen it a lot of time - when people put their best, maximum energy into coding and then they were completely empty. They were so tired and bored.
So, why would my need for rest make me a bad developer? It doesn't and it will never be like that.
“That sounds great, but when to learn and study new technologies and languages then?”
I believe it should be done during working hours. Because both sides are interested in it - you want to learn something new and become better, and your employer wants to have experienced and happy up-to-date developers.
There are a lot of situations when you can try something at work. New product launch? Show a little initiative and argue your opinion on why you should try new technologies. Maybe it will improve product performance or maybe it will make the company more attractive to hire new developers. Local hackathons are another good example to try and learn new things. Ask about the study budget and allocate some time for that - online courses, conferences, just have some reserved time for it.
Of course, not all companies have these possibilities. For example, I once worked in a huge bank with a lot of specific legacy code. And a lot of bureaucracy on top of that. Unfortunately, I don’t have any nice advice on how to deal with similar situations. I just left that company, but I still learned a lot.
“Alright, but I want to catch up, I’m feeling that I’m out of new trends”
And that is totally fine. Because we can never do that - progress is way faster than we can keep our knowledge actual. We are just humans and we cannot know everything. The more I work, the more I understand that I’m getting paid for my experience building applications, not for my knowledge of the latest technologies. Yes, of course, some new grades can know all the new hyped technologies but they don’t have real life production experience.
Just want to mention it one more time - I’m not against coding in your free time. I’m not asking anyone who is doing it to drop it immediately. Not at all. Everyone has different situations and everyone should do what makes them happy. We are all different.
I’m just saying that no one should feel bad or shamed only because they have different priorities and dreams.
Maybe I’m missing something important there, some important details when someone says: “Sorry Maxim, we can’t hire you, we are hiring people who code in the evenings, bye.” Maybe I’m just not very smart. But I believe that my knowledge and especially experience (not just as a developer but my whole life experience) makes way more sense. My mindset and my abilities to learn and my flexibility are important, not the fact that I don’t write code in my free time.
And I’m not calling these companies bad places, it’s totally fine that our expectations are not aligned. It happens all the time in this industry. I cannot look nice for everyone in this world, it’s just impossible. And it’s fine if some companies think that I’m not a good developer and I’m good for nothing. It’s ok. Because, at the same time, there are a lot of companies who think the opposite and their values are aligned with mine.
Yet another banal thing to say - life is short. I just don’t have time to do things that don’t make me happy or don’t move me closer to my dreams. It’s quite sad that I realized it quite late after I had brain surgery (but I’m absolutely healthy now, no worries), but it’s better late than never and I’m very happy that I came up to that.
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So, do what makes you happy and what is really important for you. Follow your dreams! Do what you love and what you are passionate about! And don’t let anyone make you feel bad about it.
Oldest comments (98)
Great advice, I feel guilty when my coworkers are working (sometimes) till 10 or 11 pm. I don't know what to do 🤷🏻♂️ . I literally feel like I am not in the discussion of some decisions because they are taken out of office hours
I think that's different. That's an indicator of a toxic work environment.
If you're staying up to 10/11pm working on a side project that isn't work related, no problem, do that.
But if you're staying up to that time doing work for the company outside office hours, that's a problem. For one, you have an issue with burnout. Two you have , like you said, the problem where decisions are being made behind closed doors, because they're happening at a time when noone else is around to weigh in.
That alone can lead to bad practices slipping into the codebase and work environment.
I wouldn't say it's a toxic environment as my friends are too passionate and putting extra effort, which will save me and others time for other tasks.
It may save you time now, but it can come back to bite the team later.
How do you guys work out estimates?
It'll take x number of days to get User Story A done.
But wait, a "day" of work should be 8 hours worth of work, or something to that extent. If your team mates are working 12 hour days, then the concept of a piece of functionality taking a day is askew, and it could lead to incorrect estimations and increased stress when deadlines roll round.
"You said it would only take 2 days to get this feature finished, 3 days later and you're still working on it? We need to ship it out today!"
2 days of work for your team mates is 24 hours worth of work, but for you it's only 16 hours.
Another problem is the "expectation" that your team mates are working ridiculous hours to get work done, and when that's done it'll be expected for them to do the same for the next piece of work, and the next piece.
Then you can get a resentment building in the team.
Why are we constantly working 12 hour days when the other people in the team are clocking off at 5pm?
Or worse, others on the team start to feel like they need to start working longer hours because they feel guilty for not doing it as they "aren't being team players".
Part of our job is proactively managing expectations to allow us to continually and consistently deliver work and value for time.
Working till 10/11pm doesn't mean that you're productive. Even if you're productive, it doesn't mean you bring value to your customers.
Our goal should be to be more efficient and to bring real value. It means doing more in less time. This myth of "I work longer so I'm more valuable" is total crap, leads to bad quality, bugs, unhappy customers and mental problems.
Our job is to automate things, for us and others to have more time, not being a code monkey for 10 hours straight.
Great article and great advice , thx <3 <3
I agree with you. Personal life is more important than work. I love what I do (I’m a developer, too) and I spend my spare time coding and deepen my knowledge. So, in my case, passion and work go hand-in-hand. But even under these circumstances, I want that after 6PM I do what I want. That “what I want” will still be 90% related to development, but that must be something I decide.
It's a great article, and I totally agree with you. In my opinion it is very important to get some variety with your hobbies, maybe you will get some new ideas for your work.
No! Maybe in the beginning when you're just getting into it and in full "learning mode", soaking up knowledge like a sponge. But once you're employed and busy fulltime at least 40 hours per week (likely more) then why would there be a requirement to do coding in your spare time as well? There's that thing called "work-life balance", spending time with family, sports/workout, recreation, hobbies, there's more to life than coding :-)
I'm often working at home on personal or open-source projects because I love that.
Some of my dev friends stop coding once they pass their office door, and, yeah, I understand it !
We're all human, a job is a job, not our life !
You don't put that sort of pressure on other jobs so why you do it for devs ?
You won't say to a HR (Human Resources, I don't know if we call them like that in english) to work from their home to be a good HR... It makes no sense why it does for a dev ?
If a dev don't work at home, it doesn't mean he's not a passionate. Even footballers don't do football on their spare time.
Personally, I am very passionated into the open-source world and I can't afford my time for it during my office-time since "it's not my job". So I did it at home when I don't have anything else to do like, you know, social things for example.
Passing my own office doors, "code" and "dev" is not anymore in my language when talking with people even with devs-one (except in a meetup or when coding at home ofc).
I agree that you should not be required/obliged to code in your free time, that’s for sure.
If you work where you can learn new tools on company time (like mentioned in this article), good for you. If you are happy about your where you are right now (as in your programming skills, achievements, career prospects), you probably don’t need to code in your free time—unless you want to.
I had a late start into my programming career, have no mentoring or feedback system, and I tend to progress slower than (many? most?) others. Thus I need to work harder to catch up. “Work harder” could entail many things; for me it includes coding in my free time, which is very important for me.
That said, too much coding & not enough rest leads to burnout, which will be counterproductive to my goals. So I balance coding with social and community activities, and maintaining my mental & physical health.
Hi I'm totally new here in fact this is my first comment. I'm recently very interested in coding am learning JavaScript now (first week). I was thinking to change career path to become software engineer. but the thing is I have commitment so if I gave up the job now (self-employed roofer) to start to work as full time Dev my income surely could not match with my old income.
do u face similar issue? as u mention u staet ur Dev career late I thought maybe u can share ur experience with me. thanks!
I learned to code outside of my previous jobs, eg. at night or whenever I had time. Initially I did not even think about changing career; was doing it out of interest.
Gradually I started taking small projects as a side gig (setup & customize Wordpress sites for friends' small business; worked for super low rates on freelancing sites like Upwork and Fiverr)--so I was essentially learning while getting paid, albeit low amount. Only when I've saved enough backup fund and was confident I could make as much as my previous jobs from coding did I go to full-time coding.
However, at that time there was no bootcamp with income sharing agreement & job placement in my country. If I were in your position now, I'd probably consider this option.
thnak you so much for your sharing. much appreciated. :)
I've done a bit of full circle, used to be a dev, went to be a teacher, then came back.
the expectation in most careers is you "do a little more". Teachers work until 9pm most nights in term time and then at least a few hours every weekend. yes we got ATTO (all that time off), but we took work home with us to do in that time (in my 6 weeks holdays, i used go back to work after week 3).
I think most careers where you are well paid there has to be a little bit extra, where you keep up skilling with trends, but over time that becomes less.
first time as a dev, i used to spend my nights reading and practising CSS/PHP etc. but over time that got less so i didn't have to slog it out ever night (which is the same in most sectors as you get more comfortable in the job). as the author suggests he's a Senior, it would be expected he has mastery over the tools, now it would be less work to keep on top of the skills.
as some have mentioned - it's a work-life balance, but there will always be an expectation to put in "a bit more" in your free time.
I'm a Senior Developer, my partner is a High School Teacher.
She has a degree, and teaches 3 subjects to classes of 30 or so kids, at GCSE level. I don't have a degree. I paid more Income Tax this month than she received Net.
Don't even get me started on the types of behaviour from the kids (and parents) that she has to put up with, as well as working weekends/school holidays, sleepless nights worrying about the vulnerable kids in her form group that she knows Social Services have been to talk to at home etc...
I clock off at 4pm, and with the odd exception of major incidents, don't do anything that my employer isn't paying for (or giving time in lieu etc).
In some professions, such as Teaching, sure, they expect you to care about the kids... and you can't exactly mark homework while teaching a class... Some might say that 9-3 allows you a few hours per day to do the work, but then what about Teacher Training sessions? What about the parents that want to report the fact their child is being bullied to you? Similar applies to Nursing... are you really going to let someone die just so you can go home & feed your cat on time? Probably not... Would a Priest kick you out of a confession because the soaps were on TV?
Then there's development... sure, I write code in my own time & don't earn an income from it. Sure, I keep up with trends, which thanks to Google Now is a matter of unlocking my phone & swiping left. Sure, I think about architectural patterns etc in the shower.
But, other than me being slightly more productive in work, nothing I do in my spare time directly benefits my employer.
I think the difference is a job vs a Vocation. Software Development is a job you get because it's relatively easy & keeps your cat getting fed. Teaching (etc) are Vocations, that you get into because you want to make a difference to other peoples lives. No-one will die if I don't write 30 lines of code today.
Teaching, as you likely know all too well, is definitely not well paid. Maybe some got suckered in on a bursary, but the difficulty of the PGCE will quickly turn them into drop-outs.
as an addendum...I will say....I never worked as hard as when i was a teacher. Dev-ing is about self motivation and self-study. Teaching is constant and if it doesn't get done, there is trouble + all the additional stuff you have to do to keep on top of it.
I'm with you, and every other reply so far.
Nope, it is not a requirement, and in fact if it's stated as such by an employer during the interview process, thanks, but that job is not for me.
Companies/CEOs/CTOs that demand a passion for coding outside of working hours is simply an old mindset.
Sure, I write code at home, and don't earn an income from it, because I'm passionate about it. But if you require me to do so, then our views aren't aligned & I wish you luck with your business.
This sums it up perfectly. 💯
I think the biggest argument for coding in your spare time is the willingness to better yourself. That's why I do it. That's why recruiters look for it. To say you are never going to do it because your life experiences are more important in my opinion puts up a big barrier to your own personal development. If you don't have time make time. Unless of course you know everything you need to know already. Or work for a company who is prepared to allocate and therefore pay for personal development. Not everyone works for a company with that luxury.
True and agreed, up to a degree - if you think it's important or even necessary, and you enjoy doing it (that's important I think) - yes, then by all means go for it - but only if you think that it's valuable and important for yourself, not because someone else says so.
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