Every person dreams of earning more, and the developer is no exception. But to do this, you need to improve your professional level. What is the difference between a programmer professional and an amateur, and how to move from one category to another?
How to determine the professionalism of a software developer
I must admit that most programmers get stuck somewhere above a junior level and stay there forever. It is hard to call them professionals – instead, they are amateurs who think they have achieved something. Yes, these people can perform typical tasks, and often that is enough. But any deviation from the usual pattern causes many hours of “hanging out” on the Internet in search of a solution, which is likely to be of little use anyway.
The quality of code and speed of code execution by a professional developer may differ from amateur developers dozens of times. And simply spending hours at your computer will not give you the desired result because it’s not about how fast you type characters on the keyboard or knowing all the library functions by heart, but about understanding WHAT, HOW and WHY you are doing it.
Only two parameters can judge the quality of code written by a developer:
- Workability – not just the performance of abstract actions but the relevance of the product to the tasks the developer set out to do.
- Maintainability of the code – the ability to read the code, refine it, and tweak it, accessible even to a developer who sees it for the first time.
The question of operability is not even negotiable. If a program doesn’t work – there is no program. Consequently, we are not talking about its quality.
As for maintainability – without it, you can only be a lone developer, and with difficulty. Most projects are written by a team and are subject to revision and expanses of their development. Supportability is an essential indicator of the quality of program architecture. Its low level can significantly reduce the productivity of the whole development team and even paralyze the work on the project.
In addition to the ability to write “clean” and understandable code, a professional must possess many other qualities.
Let’s turn to program gurus and see what they consider key for a high-class programmer.
By Steve McConnell:
- Modesty
- Curiosity
- Professional honesty
- Readability of code
- Balance of creativity and discipline
- Effective use of laziness
By Robert Martin:
- Knowledge of the field
- Continuous learning
- Adherence to the “no harm” rule
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Understanding the customer’s interests
- Mentoring
By Joel Spolsky:
- Passion, interest, enthusiasm
- The habit of seeing things through to the end
- Coping skills
- Responsibility for your work
As you can see, many qualities are repeated in different variations in all authors. And note that most of these qualities are personal rather than professional. Therefore the central question of wanting to grow into an actual software developer should not be “What should I learn?” but “What should I become?
Software Developer: the components of professionalism
The main factors that will affect your development in the programming profession are:
- Interest
- Experience
- Personal maturity
- Demand
Let’s take a closer look to understand how an advance or slow you down on the way to professional development.
The Interest
Interest is primary in the development of all human qualities.
An active deep interest is the basis of professionalism. Ask yourself what it is that interests you and what inspires you. Programming in today’s world gives you a lot of freedom of choice. If you like working with numbers and mathematical models, choose Data Science. Go for application development to create systems and see how they work. If you want to make something beautiful, you should try 3D programming.
Professionals interested in their work will always be one step ahead of those who perform it. Note that the first place, according to the results of the above lists, was not the quality of the code, not the efficiency of work, but the constant self-development. This is the most critical factor in the programming profession. Technology changes very fast, and it is essential to be in the trend, to solve more complicated tasks than ever.
Interest is also about involvement, i.e. an indicator of the extent to which a person is immersed in specific problems. Specialists with a great passion for their work are always on the lookout for something and always set tasks that are a bit higher than those set by their supervisors. How is it possible to implement the algorithm faster? How can I make the code even more effective? What are the development trends in my line of work?
The Experience
If you’ve found your niche, gaining experience is easy. Gaining experience while pursuing your interest is the most effective and fastest way to become a professional.
In programming, there are many narrow niches in which few people work precisely because of their specificity, but this work pays well. Explore everything possible in your chosen direction. Do not be lazy to get to the basics. Many coders use frameworks, but 80% do not even look at the technical documentation.
The time spent studying the “basics” will have been worth it many times. This is where you start to understand what can be effectively implemented in the chosen technology and how to program it so that you do not have to redo everything repeatedly.
Personal maturity
This factor combines many qualities. This is your level of responsibility, the ability to complete the work, communicate with customers, work in a team, appropriately distribute the workload, and much more.
This can also include such an essential quality as professional honesty. A skilled programmer can estimate the labour intensity of the task and honestly tell the customer that it is impossible to perform the job within a given time frame or that its implementation on the selected platform will be inefficient.
Being a professional person who is pleasant to talk to and easy to deal with is crucial. An inability to communicate with colleagues and customers can be a significant barrier to getting to the top of your capabilities. A well-done task with two weeks overdue deadline is a poorly done task.
The Demand
In determining the vectors of your professional development, you need to consider the trends in the IT sphere. You must understand which areas are developing and which are on the decline and will not be attractive to anyone in a couple of years. This factor is not directly up to you, but the right choice is in your hands.
To determine this, you can, for example, look at the share of vacancies for these or those programming languages. Today, a quarter of all software engineers’ vacancies in the USA is in Java, and another quarter is in PHP. A smaller proportion is C# and Python. And a tiny share is Ruby, less than one per cent today, and its demand is falling.
The qualities we have considered are probably indispensable for achieving professional heights in any field. And they are quite capable of developing anyone; the main thing – is to understand the direction of the movement and act consistently.
A good programmer must meet the exact requirements for the product they create. They also need efficiency (performance of tasks) and supportability (the ability to have a constructive dialogue).
Typical mistakes of junior software developers
The Sisyphus syndrome
The inability or unwillingness to complete the started project is one of the main mistakes that can ruin your reputation and end your career. If you took on a project, bring it to an end, even if it was more complicated than you expected and took more time and effort. Employers value not only the ability to write code but also responsibility and reliability – no one wants to invite a programmer who can quit in the middle of the road to their project.
The workaround
If you want to become a software developer, learn to be a developer and work in that field. Don’t go into related professions to “get a closer look”. Many people believe that you can work, for example, as a tester (layout designer, system administrator) and then retrain. This is a big mistake. You lose time twice: first, to get into the work of a tester and then to retrain.
You can’t learn to drive a car by riding a bicycle or motorboat. The only way to find out if the job of a developer is right for you is to try your hand at it.
Going into management
It happens that a mid-level developer is offered a promotion to project manager. If you want to become a professional in programming, it would be a bad idea to accept.
A manager requires different qualities and competencies, so if you move into management, you will have to develop in another direction. If you are interested in a big salary – strive to become a professional in your niche, and your skills will be well paid.
Attempt to grasp the immensity.
Trying to become a pro in several languages at once and you will not achieve results in any of them. Holding on to too many projects simultaneously, you risk failing them all.
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The programmer’s way: tips for professional growth
We figured out the direction of the journey from an amateur developer to an experienced developer, and now we can move on to specific stages of this path.
Learn to code
The idea of “knowing how to code” includes not only knowledge of a particular programming language. The primary professional skills of a programmer should consist of the following items:
- Formalizing the problem is the ability to decompose a task into its components and formulate it so that it can be written as program code
- Designing is the ability to visualize the solution’s architecture, understanding what you want to achieve and how it can be done.
- Code writing
- Code understanding is the ability to read and understand someone else’s writing.
- Code refactoring – the ability to see bugs and flaws in the code and rewrite it so that it works better and is more maintainable. This is the highest developer activity form because only those who code well can do this.
Learn to learn and understand
Develop the ability to learn and the desire to acquire knowledge. Learn how to search for information correctly and improve yourself constantly. Professionalism is not an endpoint but a path of continuous development.
Learn how to make money.
Getting paid and making money are not the same thing. It’s important to understand that you’re doing something you need to do and getting paid for it. Your earnings should not be the result of multiplying your hours in the office by your hourly rate but should be a measure of how valuable a product you have created. You need to realize that you have developed a program that people will use, and then you will enjoy the results much more.
It is equally important to learn how to charge money for your work while adequately assessing its value. It would be best if you did not work for free because you have little experience – a completed task must be paid for.
Find yourself: understand what is exciting and what works
Find your work style, and determine what you’re interested in and good at. Do not evaluate yourself based on what John knows and what Steve knows. Do not compare a fish with an elephant in their ability to climb trees. Everyone has talents and skills; you have to find them in yourself.
Do not be afraid to admit that you dislike some project stages. Find ways to delegate tasks that you are not good at. For example, give it to someone else if you program the site but understand that you do not like the layout. This is not a sign of weakness but the ability to sensibly assess their capabilities. It is easier to hire a specialist than to suffer and spend time and effort on tasks away from your professional path.
Develop your strengths
This point logically continues the previous one. Do not try to learn all at once; cover all spheres, but improve yourself continuously in the chosen direction. Do not retreat in the face of difficulties; go deep.
If you are strong in backend development – become a super-backend developer. If you’re a java developer – study Java down to the source code, i.e. before the language itself, every method and every algorithm is written. If you have chosen your direction correctly, it will not burden you.
Conclusion
The way from amateur to professional programmers is possible for almost everyone. As psychologist Mikhail Litvak says: “Happiness is when “I want”, “I can” and “I should” have the same content”.
“I want” is the sphere of your interest, “I can” is the experience you have gained by pursuing your claim, and “I should” is the tasks you face, for which you are paid, and your relevance.
To combine all this, you need to have personal maturity, enough willpower and courage. And then the way to the heights of professionalism will bring you income and inner satisfaction, which is enough to become a happy person.
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