Advice to Younger Devs (/me)
date
Mar 27, 2020
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advice-to-younger-devs
status
Published
tags
advice
life
summary
By the time of writing this article, I had experience of 4 years as a developer. I have made mistakes, had struggles and learned a lot of things in these 4 years. I am penned down crucial of those learnings, expecting they would be of help to someone.
type
Post
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By the time of writing this article, I had experience of 4 years as a developer. I have made mistakes, had struggles and learned a lot of things in these 4 years. I am penned down crucial of those learnings, expecting they would be of help to someone.
💼 PROFESSIONAL ADVICE
👌🏻 It is OK to be a mediocre
You are a fresh grad out of college and you know stuff and you may not be great at them, so what, that's enough, to begin with. You may not be that nerdy kid who is better at programming from age 10 and truth is you need not be. If you are good at what you do and not repeating same mistakes is all it needs
Be a better Mediocre than yesterday
🗣 Speak Out
You may be in early 20's and you don’t feel good offending anyone or anything. That's good, but not voicing your thoughts won’t hurt anyone as much as it does you when you don’t
Speaking out your though would definitely help you in :
- Reducing stress
- Negotiating your next job
- Saying out what works and doesn’t work for you.
- And you share something wrong and some one corrects you; Thats a win
and none of these happens unless you SPEAK OUT
💸 Money is as important
If you are aware of this dialogue from movie 3-idiots -"Don’t run behind success. Follow behind excellence, success will come all way behind you.”
Well, in the real world, Success is just a single word for a group of things, agree or disagree, mostly depended on a factor -- “Money”. So my advice, run behind Excellence (First) and Success (Money/Fame). And you will definitely see they complement each other when balanced.
Knowledge (Or Excellence) and Money always complement each other
😎 Learn to show off
Yes, you read it right
Showing your work to the world (Showing off) is the secret ingredient most people would miss.How do I know, well I am 4-5 yrs older than you and have probably seen hundreds of posts where people share their work.Point is, the world around you is running continuously and it is practically impossible for someone (especially in the professional life) to slow down, observe and appreciate your work (In-general).
So, Share your work and make some noise 🥁
🏢 Choose Work, Company, and Boss
If someone tells you - “choose your boss over anything” tell them that's bulls***.In general everyone would choose choose the company based on its fame, job security, package ... So, it is very unlikely that you get to choose your Boss (or Manager) before joining the company.
But what you can do is be good and create a great professional relationship.
Choose a company that fits your career goal.
And Boss is definitely important, but with unhappy work and an unsuitable company, he won’t be of much help too either.
❤️ PERSONAL
Health is [Wealth, Success, Happiness]
And with out health other three don’t make much sense. So, spend as much time, or even more time you spend in front of a screen on your health.
🙅🏻♂️ Learn to say NO
I have read at least a two dozen blogs on how to say NO and its very easy reading those blogs over a hundred times again than saying NO.
I have even heard such thoughts from couple of my friends on the thought of saying NO:
- “Saying NO to smoking or drinking will make my friend abandon me”
- “Saying No to an underpaid job will affect your career, at least I will have a job”
- “Saying NO to buying a Fancy Flat or Premium Car would isolate me from the society”
Yeah, your emotions use all tricks under sleeve to say you not to say NO.
Irrespective of you saying NO or not, people will stay only If they want to. So, saying a simple NO occasionally won’t hurt you and definitely won’t isolate you.
💪 Push the Boundaries
Come out of comfort zone 🚨
This is a dangerous trap and how do you if you have fallen into it ?
Tick the following:
Did you learn anything new (in last 3 months)
How many things did you cross from your TODO List ( in last 3 months)
When was a major hike in your pay check (in past 1 year)
What are your career goals
When did you share your knowledge with a junior ( in last 3 months)
How often you take your family out ( in last 3 months)
What was the recent risk have you taken (in last 3 months)
If you have checked more than 5. From my knowledge you can say you are in danger zone.
Push the boundaries by Exploring stuff, Visiting places, Meeting random people, doing crazy things, Taking risks, Learning things and Moving ON.
👊 Stay away from BS
Its simple
“Keep yourself away from people, stuff or anything that you would think is BS. 🙊”
That's all !!
😁 Finally, Don’t forget family and smile
As every day goes by, we get old and so are our family and friends. Spend quality of time with them. Because once gone these people are hard to get back (going senti. Aren’t I ? but that is the fact 🤷🏻♂️).
So, meet them often, crack stupid jokes, laugh over silly things, do crazy things, talk over politics or life, share stuff, have some moments and do spend quality time with these people.
And finally, life is a roller coaster ride, packed with bumps, surprises, twists, turns, setbacks, and victories. And dear young fellow ride through them with a smile on your face.
Cheers 🙌
KD