Discussion on "7 Lessons From My First Year As a Developer"

James Tucker · 2020-09-28T17:01:04.004Z

A few months ago marked my first year as a professional software developer after switching careers. I've learned more than I can remember, but seven things stick out. My hope is that at least one of them proves useful for your own journey as a develo...

Thanks for the insights! The ones that hit hardest for me are notetaking and mentoring others. Teaching others really is the best way to learn. My question to you is: did you have a mentor when you started out? If so, how did you select and approach them, or did they select you?

I didn't have one when I first started - I was (and still am) at a startup as the lone dev besides the CTO. It was pretty brutal, to be honest. About a year in, we hired some more experienced/senior devs, and one of them has sorta taken me under his wings. Didn't even ask him to. I'm starting to realize that if you make it obvious and public that you're:

keen on learning
you're humble
you'll run away with any feedback you're given

someone will often notice and want to mentor you. But if this doesn't happen, another thing you can do is find someone at a meetup and ask if they'd like to get together and talk about their experience.

James Tucker Glad you found someone who's interested in helping! I tend most often to find myself in the mentor position rather than mentee, but will take your advice to heart and try to be more vocal about wanting to learn from others. Thank you!

How do you write your notes, I often struggle to keep it clean?

Hi Dinys Monvoisin, great question. For the longest time, I too have struggled to keep my notes clean.

I recently started organizing my notes and thoughts in a similar fashion to what Nat Eliason does here. If you want a free alternative to Roam, Obsidian is a great choice.

I'm sure you could also follow a similar note system structure using tools like Notion as well.

I will have a try and update you how it goes.

James Tucker, Thanks for sharing. This is cool. Especially point # 5 and #7, help one to grow.

A Couple of things that I learned(not from my first year though, after a few years),

Value for time. Cutting down on unnecessary tasks helps to get time in personal life.
Building a circle with like-minded folks. Most of them are dear friends too 😃.

Thanks for sharing your insights, Tapas Adhikary. The last one is so important to remember - in the end, the most important things are relationships and people. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of that when working in tech/trying to advance a career.

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7 Lessons From My First Year As a Developer

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