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.
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.