Hi, I'm Vince
Hi, I'm Vince, a worldwide educator turned web developer.
That's me in the middle there in the above picture, when I worked on agricultural education project in northern Kenya.
These days, I'm building side projects, like Open SaaS pictured above, and working as a developer relations engineer.
Moving up in your Dev Career
The "10 Hard Truths" I'm about to present to you are, I must admit, not necessarily Truths, but rather opinions I've formed throughout my journey of switching careers. I'd like to think that my unique perspective may be of some value to aspiring devs and other career-switchers.
It’s well known at this point that software development is a viable option for someone looking for a new career without going the traditional education route. Because of this, and the fact that salaries tend to be very good, I think a portion of people making the switch might be doing it for the wrong reasons.
And once you establish yourself as a Junior it can often be difficult to know what you should be doing to advance your career. There are a ton of opinions out there (including mine) and juniors tend to develop a lot of misconceptions, as my colleague and I discussed in our recent Reddit post and follow-up video.
So, I put together this list of things you should consider when starting out a career in tech.
10 Hard Truths
1 👎 If you’re doing it solely for the money, you’re not gonna make it. True, you don’t need a degree or anyone’s permission to advance in this career, but you need ambition and mental stamina. A genuine interest is needed to maintain them.
2 🧱 Start building, ASAP. Find a problem that interests you and build the solution yourself. Contribute to Open-Source projects that you use. A portfolio of unique work speaks volumes about your abilities. Plus, there’s no better teacher than experience.
3 💰 You don’t have to pay for boilerplates, boot camps or courses. In fact, you’re better off tackling problems on your own and only asking for help if you’re truly stuck. There’s a wealth of free resources out there, and when you’re on the job, these might be the only things to assist you.
Speaking of boilerplates, we just released Open SaaS, an entirely free, open-source, feature-rich, React + NodeJS SaaS template to help you get your SaaS apps started quickly and easily.
If you've got questions about it, need help, feedback, or inspiration, hop into out Discord Server and introduce yourself.
4 😎 You don’t have to follow the trends. Follow what interests you. Like I said before, you need mental stamina in this field of work. Following your interests will keep you engaged and help avoid burnout.
5 👩💻 You don’t need to know a piece of tech inside and out, contrary to what some devs might want you to believe. The truth is, you are always learning, and there will always be gaps in your knowledge. Your confidence in being able to fill those gaps is what matters.
6 😱 Be fearless and seek feedback. Put your work out there and be ready to have it criticized. If you can stomach it, you’ll come out the other side a much better developer.
7 🧐 You should have a firm understanding of what you’re doing. Don’t just copy-paste someone else’s answer (or GPT’s) to your problem and call it a day. Question why things work, and figure it out for yourself.
8 🏋️♀️ You have to do the grunt work, unfortunately. Don’t expect high salaries from the beginning. And you’ll probably want to improve your portfolio by working on side projects in your free time, or you might stay a junior dev for longer than you wish.
9 🧗♂️ Challenge yourself. But not too much. If you don't seek challenges, you won’t improve. But if you take on tasks that are WAY above your current abilities, you'll suffer. Find that sweet spot and work on things that make you feel a bit uncomfortable, but you can still somewhat wrap your head around. Keep this up, and you’ll be surprised what you can achieve a year later.
10 🗣 Programming is definitely not the only skill you’ll need. Being respectful, communicative, conscientious, ambitious, and humble will put you in a different league and make you a valuable asset in any tech team.
Now Get to Work!
And that about sums it up from my side.
What do you think about these 10 "Truths"? Did I miss something? Am I just completely full of 💩?! Let us know in the comments below.
Top comments (73)
This is a good one! I especially like your story about how you turned your career around. Would love to read more about it one day, all the ups and downs. I'm sure it would be valuable to many who are on the same path as you.
I was gonna say this. It'll help a lot of people who are trying to get into the field including myself.
good idea! I'll definitely consider this.
I think this is especially important. You will start to work on a project with a tech stack of your choosing, and a week later, you will hear about how that tech is bad and that you should switch to a new one. A week later, you will hear about how that one is bad, and you should switch to a third one, and so on...
Remember that the tech is not as important as your skill. Much of the obtained knowledge can and will be transferable to other projects regardless of the tech.
yeah I totally agree. And if you're enjoying what you're working on, you're more likely to go deeper and gain a larger set of transferable skills
Number 10 is definitely up there, if I would put these in some kind of prioritized order!
So many are a) too hasty b) too lazy c) poorly educated on their communication skills, especially difference between formal communication by email compared to informal one-to-one messaging.
Also being respectful towards customers, even though their requests might sound weird/stupid. Customers are often NOT technical people, but it's easy to get caught in your own bubble of tech-driven people.
oh man, so true!
Last one is the best one, a lot of developers forget programming is just one part of the job, being respectful to others and humble will help you be a person other people want to work with, which pretty much will help you grow in this career.
yep. for example, being someone others would like to work with > being skilled and arrogant.
#1 is something I feel strongly about. You don't have to be super smart to become a good programmer but you do have to be interested. Sometimes I see people who hate programming struggling with it anyway because they think they will make a lot of money, but as long as they hate it they will never succeed, and just drag down the people around them.
If someone hates programming then their first step has to be finding out how to like it. Not sure how frequently anyone succeeds at that. I'm sure it's possible at least for some people.
hey brother , i know i love coding but sometimes it frustrates me and i avoid it :( does it mean i dont have love for it
No, getting frustrated is totally normal! Happens to me all the time. If you keep feeling drawn back to it, and keep wanting to go deeper, despite the frustration and difficulty, then I think that's a sign you do really love it, and will do well.
"10 🗣 Programming is definitely not the only skill you’ll need. Being respectful, communicative, conscientious, ambitious, and humble will put you in a different league and make you a valuable asset in any tech team."
Absolutely agree! While technical skills are crucial in programming, possessing qualities like respect, communication, conscientiousness, ambition, and humility enhances collaboration and teamwork. These interpersonal skills contribute to a positive work environment, foster innovation, and ultimately make you a well-rounded and valuable member of any tech team. It's the combination of technical expertise and these personal attributes that sets individuals apart in the dynamic field of programming.
Good summary. A point-per-point commentary from a greybeard:
Have a nice journey!
Absolubtelly agree. As admin DB nothing teach you as hard as a delete without a where clause. If you want to be a Linux Ninja should love terminal, open projects and hours over hours of bootstrap it. Every Developer should begin from 0 to hero first reading, then planning and finish with code
Very nice list ! However I am not sure about 3. I remember loosing a lot of times trying to learn with free resources without any progress. What really helped me was reading book and frontendmasters.com/
cool. yeah what worked for me might not work for everyone. thanks for sharing the resource!
I wrote about my journey a while back, and mine was drawing on my experiences working as a software engineer, in a company building software. I love that yours is more generalised and applies to anyone in tech.
Well said and very relatable!
Thanks!
I have found this article quite interesting, because due to fact that I can agree on majority of the points. However, I would like to highlight one more thing, there is a difference between someone that has a Computer Science degree and someone who has not followed traditional path.
Someone with Computer Science degree will be thinking in a different way than someone else, it is just the thing that studying computer science develop in an individual.
totally true. learning computer science fundamentals is always a good idea
😂😂😂...This guy worked in my country. I just love this piece...am still laughing, and the voices in my heads. Thank you @vincanger
A great place it is!
Yes indeed! You should visit again.
These are all great points, and accurate ones. After attending an intense bootcamp they seem like common sense, but helpful to go down the list to make sure my head is still on tight. The job hunt is brutal for Jr. Devs right now, so you figure out pretty quick its gotta be about more than the money.
nice. glad it was helpful!
Totally agree and love your story! However I think sometimes we need to read books and take some courses to dig deeper into what we’re doing.
This is a valid point
If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together! 🏄🏼♂️
wise words, brother.
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