3 Pieces of Advice for Someone Getting Started with Software Development Today
Towards the end of 2019, I had no clue what software development is or that I’ll be building a career as a web developer someday it’s funny how life happens and today we’re here writing code and all other things. Since I have spent over a year in my software development journey the three pieces of advice I would give someone getting started with web development is: choosing the tech path and resources, impostor syndrome and burn out is part of the journey and be part of more than one community to help you in your development journey through learning and other opportunities.
As you’re finally starting your software development it is good to note there are several tracks their either you want to be a front-end developer, back-end developer, or full-stack developer. If you’re attending a Bootcamp training or online course that has a laid curriculum your tech path will be pre-determined and you won’t have a hard time asking yourself which programming language or tech stack should you learn first but if you’re self-taught you should do your research and decide on the specific path you want to follow. Having a specific path helps you save time while focusing on a specific thing and identify the resources you’ll be using or even other people or communities that are learning or are experts on the given path you have picked. For me, while I was at Lakehub Academy, MERN STACK was the tech stack being taught i.e JavaScript together with its front-end library, React, and express for the backend which is node.js library together with MongoDB the no-SQL database. Currently, at Microverse, the learning tech stack is React for the front-end together with fundamental web development i.e HTML, CSS, JS, and Ruby on Rails, the Ruby framework for the back-end development together with PostgreSQL.
In your software development journey most often you’ll be learning while working on projects among other things and there will be times you’ll feel like you don’t know anything yet in the real sense you know and this feeling is imposter syndrome. When you experience it, try to be positive, engage other developers, and work on projects you’re passionate about to help recover self-confidence that you’re good at what you’re doing or learning. There will also be times when your productivity will decrease and you’re feeling low more often during projects, these are indicators of burn-out and at times it’s good to slow down by working fewer hours than usual or take a break as long as you don’t stop learning as a developer. This will happen once in a while and it will re-occur, try to watch what triggers it and what are the things you can do to handle it in order to get past the burn-out phase. All developers also experience burn-out and moments of imposter syndrome don’t feel like you’re alone they’re both parts of the journey and are addressable.
It’s important to join more than one community as a developer. There might be a community linked to where you’re i.e on a Bootcamp, online course, or self-taught either through a slack, discord, telegram channel, etc. Beyond here other developer communities you can join and be an active member by asking for help, share knowledge based on what you know, check the shared opportunities, contribute to open-source projects, or make friends with other developers learning like you, those who want to get started, or those who are more experienced.
Over my software development journey taking specific learning, the path has helped me stick to specific tech stacks and continue working on both front-end and backend tracks, having awareness of imposter-syndrome and burn-out has helped me identify ways to cope with those times and to tell myself that this is just a short-term problem and joining communities has helped me get opportunities for more learning resources, contributing to open-source projects, developer friends to share our developer wins or challenges with plus more and more gateways. Over time I’ll be using these three tips to grow myself in this tech career or even if I have to switch my tech path this will be helpful.
