5 Tips Aspiring Developers Should Know Before Breaking Into Tech
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When I was 25, I spent months breaking into tech after graduating from university.
While I broke into tech after a lot of trial and error. I made some realisations on the way, that would have saved me a lot of time.
Here is a list of them:
You do not have to go to university
University is an excellent route for breaking into tech, but it is not the only route.
University helps if you are not sure what area of tech you want to break into. But it is time-consuming and costly.
There are other ways you can break into tech, using bootcamps, apprenticeships, self-learning, and freelance experience.
Soft skills are just as important as tech skills
What separates good developers from great developers is their soft skills.
The ability to communicate and work well in a team is vital as a developer. No one wants to work with a developer who is a pain. And as you progress to more senior roles, communication becomes more important. Good managers will look for junior developers with good soft skills, as this is an underlying skill of a good senior developer.
Do not lie in your CV.
Previously, I wrote about the importance of not lying on your CV.
Lying on your CV leads to scenarios that can cause:
- A job rejection
- Early dismissal from a job
- Working a job you dislike.
Being honest in your CV helps you get a job that is right for your career.
Focus on one language at a time
There are many languages out there that work hand-in-hand.
It gets tempting to learn all these languages at once. But by switching priorities, you do not learn languages as well. Focus on learning one language at a time and learning it in depth.
You will gain a deeper understanding.
Good code is clear code, not clever
When I was breaking into tech, I thought the best code was complex.
I did not know what they were doing, but their code was so technical, it was bound to be good, right? When I look back at the code, I understand the person was just virtue signalling through code.
Make your code clear, using easy-to-read variable names and functions which clearly describe what’s going on.
