5 things I wish I did earlier in my software engineering career.

INTRODUCTION.

So far, it's been an awesome time doing this thing that I love so much - coding.

When it comes to doing what you love, I truly have this to say -
"when you do what you love, you'll end up getting paid for having fun".

Even though I am very proud of the current state of my software development career, I must admit, that it has been a bitter-sweet tale. A story of ups and downs, moments of discomfort, and sometimes moments of fulfilling celebrations.

2022 was my best year yet in tech, and I am so confident that 2023 holds just wayyyy so much more.

I know for sure, that I could have been far better than who I am today as a software engineer. I also agree that I could have gone farther and faster in my career if only I did certain things better.

One of my greatest burdens in mentoring other upcoming techies today, is that they make so much less or even no mistakes, compared to the ones I made while coming up as a developer.

I wrote this article, to help you discover mistakes that I've made so far in my developer career. Mistakes that caused me delays, lost opportunities, and maybe - even tears too.

I wrote this article to help you see things that I could have done earlier to make my tech career a more fulfilling one than it is today.

I just hope you enjoy the read and learn a lot along the line.
Best of all, I hope you begin doing those things I missed to do early enough with immediate effect 🙏🙏🙏.

5 THINGS I WISH I DID EARLIER IN MY SE CAREER.

Here they are:

Fully embracing mentorship - earlier on the journey.

I've come to full awareness of the power of mentorship. My experiences taught me a lot.

As stated above, one mistake that I made as a beginner, was my inability to fully embrace mentorship.

• Mentorship especially in tech has so many benefits - Just so many.
• Mentorship enables you to learn and advance faster.
• Mentorship can help you to start earning earlier compared to folks without a mentor.
• Mentorship can open you to opportunities that would normally be hard or impossible to come across - thanks to recommendations and endorsements from your mentor.

The opportunities are just so many.

Currently being a mentor of a number of tech beginners, I can fully attest to the many opportunities that abound for tech newbies who have mentors - especially if those mentors are already well-established software engineers.

If you're currently a tech newbie, I highly encourage you to find a mentor.

While you go about trying to do so, here's a tip to help.

As a mentee who is seeking a mentor, you'll win a mentor more easily when you bring something to the table. Offer to return the kind gesture of mentorship with a promise to be highly committed and dedicated. You can even offer to do petty things like cleaning the office/work space for free.

Just ensure to have something to offer as well.

On my part, I actually had mentors, but for some reasons, I managed to not fully embrace all the good things that my mentors had to offer.

Two reasons that I believe made me fail to fully enjoy mentorship, are:

1. My confidence in my brilliance and abilities to do it on my own. Probably because of my "founder/startup" centric mentality.
   Tech is a thing you just cannot do on your own. You'll need help. You'll need the support of a circle or community.

2. My introverted nature: being an introvert, made me a huge fan of working alone. I enjoy and make much progress while working on my one - even in school.

As a result of this, I tend to stay on my own quite much.
While under my mentors, my introverted nature just seemed to not allow me free-up and associate as much as I could have possibly done.

Even though there should indeed be a time for private hardwork, the truth is - tech just does not support such levels of introversion.

I needed to come out of my shell and associate.

I strongly believe that these two reasons were reasons that made me fail to fully explore the opportunity of having mentors earlier in my tech pursuit. While other reasons might exist, I believe these are the most obvious ones.

If you find yourself struggling in any of the above areas and finding it hard to fully explore the blessings of having a mentor, pls learn from my mistakes and make a quick turnaround.

• Follow your mentor(s) instructions as much as possible.
• ALWAYS accompany them to tech events they're attending.
• Be around them as much as possible. Watch them code and do the things they do. You can learn certain best practices just by watching your mentor code.
• Build projects and collaborate with them.
• Lastly, be very open and friendly.

Beginning to connect and attend tech events - earlier enough.

This second mistake of my SE career so far seems to be the one that has had much effect on me.

I just seemed to have "played the introvert" so well to a negative extent.

My inability to associate, caused me to miss opportunities and valuable connections that I could have made.

I strongly believe that some reasons why new techies fail to attend meetups and make good relationships and connections include:

1. Being shy or introvertish in nature.
2. Being shy or ashamed to expose their beginner statuses.

No matter how much of a beginner you are, never be shy to begin attending tech meetups and events.

Just go out there, and you'll be glad you did.

Tech thrives on mutualism. Tech thrives on community.

Seeking real-world experience more aggressively - early enough.

This point is one point that has greatly affected me as well.
As a growing techie, it is important that you begin seeking real-world experiences early enough in the form of internships, and other related opportunities WHETHER PAID OR NOT.

Even if you spent only a week on the job, the importance of that role can be so loud on your resume to a point you don't imagine.
Real-world experiences are very important in tech. Begin pursuing experience as soon as possible.

A resume full of real-world engineering experience, will be very very instrumental in helping you land that first "big/dream role".
Just keep putting yourself out there. Keep seeking an opportunity to put that little experience you've got to practice in real-world projects - while working along with a team - preferably in a registered firm no matter how small it may be.

Start seeking now - I mean immediately!!!

Start aggressively.

Quick Tip: You can offer to start without pay. Once you get your foot in the door, you'll most likely remain to the point when they'll be convinced to start paying you -depending on how much value you bring to the team.

Beginning blogging, strategic social media engagements, and technical writing early enough.

🤦🤦🤦 - I just can't stress this point enough.

I greatly and deeply regret my failure/inability to explore the world of blogging and technical writing earlier enough.
With platforms like Hashnode, Dev, and Medium, developer blogging has been made so easy.

Having come to a very good knowledge of all the opportunities that blogging, social media engagements, and technical writing gives developers, I truly can't stress my pain enough.
Technical writing and blogging offer developers so many great opportunities like.

1. Earning your first income in tech through technical writing even before building your first project.

2. Blogging and technical writing might even serve as a MASSIVE side income while you continue in your SE career.

3. Giving you a voice as a thought leader in the tech social media space.

4. Opening you to even more opportunities. As you begin connecting and impacting lives.

As a tech person whether a starter or not, technical writing, blogging and strategic social media engagements can help put you out there in a big way you can't imagine.

These things(especially technical writing and blogging) can help make your progress in tech to be very smooth thanks to their abilities to help you earn by the side.

In case you're a beginner who is thinking about getting started with paid technical writing and blogging, just remember that tech blogs/platforms need beginner contents too. If you can properly present the little you already know, you might begin to land technical writing roles that can help smoothen your tech journey as a beginner.

To drive home this point, check out this article by Ankur Tyagi

Being more active in sharing my projects and progress on social media.

The tech global tech community is a generous one. Sharing your projects and progress on social media can spark some very loving reactions and comments that will be very inspiring.

Tech beginners need to shove off the fear or shame of thinking what they've built or the progress they've made is very small or insignificant.

The understanding that folks out there who know less than you do will appreciate and greatly celebrate that "little" achievement of yours, should be a driving force to make you put yourself out there.

Besides, someone might just be somewhere watching how impressively you're growing and how much quality your projects are beginning to have.

That "someone" might just end up hiring you.

We seem to forget that platfoms like twitter and linkedin are social media too. I mean those pictures, and videos of you - yes post them on linkedin and twitter too. Photos have a way of pulling attention - even on linkedin and twitter as well.

Simply post those photos of you, and add some professionally relevant text content along. Probably one about your progress or some challenges you're currently facing. Just ensure that you stay moderate and professional.

I bet you'll be gald over the reach that such posts will command.
So go ahead, and share that progress you've made, or that side project you just finished.

Just believe me and do it, then come thank me later 🙂🙂🙂.

WRAPPING UP.

This is life, and we're all prone to making mistakes. I've made my own share of mistakes, and I've learnt from them.

Thanks to those mistakes, this article is birthed.

I believe you've learnt a whole lot from these mistakes of mine.
Whether you're a beginner yet to begin making any of these mistakes, or you're already well on your way in tech. I encourage you to learn from these mistakes of mine and begin doing those things I failed to do IMMEDIATELY.

Let my mistakes and shortfalls make your career a way better one.
I promise that if you practice these things I've outlined, you'll experience a massive boost in the way you progress in your software development career.

I wish you all the best in your journey ahead.
Thanks a lot for reading this far.

Cheers to a fulfilling tech journey ahead.