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Gergely Orosz
Gergely Orosz

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at Medium

Growing as a Developer - Advice from Dan Heller

At Uber, my colleague, Dan Heller is a developer who moved to being an engineering manager, then back to his roots as a developer. He wrote up advice that he would have given himself when he started his career as a software engineer. He shared this as advice for people on his team. It went viral within the company and after many requests to do so, he also shared it online.

His advice is something I still frequently refer to for new starts on my team, as well as when people ask me for tips on how to grow to be a great engineer. This advice is evergreen for anyone starting work at a tech company, a startup or working as part of a team, within a larger organization. I also could not agree more with the advice on writing: writing well is one of the very much undervalued skills for developers.

Read his ten principles for growth as a software engineer here and you can follow Dan Heller on Medium.


About me: I'm an engineer turned engineering manager, working at the intersection of Silicon Valley & European startups and tech companies. Follow me here and on Twitter. I write longer essays on software engineering on my blog, The Pragmatic Engineer. I also send a monthly newsletter with extended notes on software engineering and tech leadership topics.

Top comments (5)

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hongtat profile image
Yew Hong Tat

Awesome, I wish I could read this article when I just started my career as an engineer. I started to realise the statement below after I became a senior.

Your job isn’t just to write code; your job is to make good decisions and help your company succeed, and that requires understanding what really matters.

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chrisachard profile image
Chris Achard

Great list - I agree that writing well is probably the number one under-appreciated trait that you can work on.

I also like how 9 out of 10 things on this list have nothing to do with the technology itself! But rather, it's all about how you think about yourself as part of the business, and how you work well with other people.

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sergsoares_15 profile image
Sergio Soares

Great tips, thanks for share.

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jamesmh profile image
James Hickey

Fantastic. Love this statement:

Pursue mastery of your craft. Your career should be a journey of constant growth, but no one else will ensure that you grow.

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smartnodeautomation profile image
SmartNodeAutomation

Nice Article