This isn’t about how to spot one. Its about how to BECOME one.
No, seriously this is just a quickly written story about what I think helps you get to a better position as a software engineer, based on my own experiences.
And let me just say I don’t believe at all in the 10x engineers as described by the tweet. I do think some people just ‘see’ code and it makes sense, and some don’t, and I do think some people have a technical ceiling, some lower or higher than others, which IMO is hard to shift, but not impossible.
Anyhow my tips for becoming a better engineer.
Find your Teachers
It’s really important you find good engineers around you to provide coaching and mentorship. This might not be anyone in your team.
Start a Study Group at Lunch
I did this with my peers when I was employed in London and it was really useful. We used to just talk about our interests, what we were reading, some of our challenges at work, etc. It just broadened our minds to do this with each other, and it felt like we learned to talk the ‘technical’ language. My study group didn’t involve again anyone I worked with daily.
Teach Others
Teaching other team members, and indeed passing on your knowledge will not only make you a valuable member of the team it will help advance your career. Because you won’t get so stuck in roles, you will be seen as helpful by those more senior, and if you can update a README, be proactive, add a new test, think outside what you are being asked (without spending a week going off piste) your tech/team lead is going to love you!
Do a Side Project
The problem with work is well sometimes its boring. You need a side project. I wasn’t particularly good initially at side projects, I’m very business focused so for me what I did was write tools to help me in my day job. These were scripts, logging tools, anything devops really (we are going back a few years here btw). In my case not only did they help me learn, I also found feeding these tools back into the team meant people started respecting me more and ultimately lead to me being promoted more.
Start Coding as Young as you can
I started coding at a very young age, and it has it’s advantages and disadvantages. I do think when you are younger you have more free time to play with things, so coding early is an advantage. By the time I went to college I was already a pretty advanced coder.
Just Start
I see a lot of beginner programmers who are afraid to code. Just code. Be prepared to be a bit beat up in reviews etc, but learn, keep asking questions and do. Don’t worry if you are 30 when you start, just do it. You can do it!
Stop when Tired
Never code when Tired. Write blogs instead :) Said at 12.51am on a Saturday morning…..
Testing is your Best Friend — Learn it!
You can be a terrible programmer, and if you can test well then you can get away with a ton more than a good programmer that can’t test. IMO you are not a software engineer if you can’t test, I dont care how good your code looks if it breaks the CI or worse breaks production then thats not good code. When I teach new programmers they learn how to test first. This also shows me if they will have the patience and humility to become a great programmer.
Decide who you want to be
See now I’ll tell you I’m not really a great programmer, I’d say I’m relatively average. What I can do is write code fast, am astute enough to spot the issues, and I can jump around languages/technologies/frameworks and work out whats happening. My career lead me down a path where I never sat in one language for any extended (10 year+) period, and I suppose I have always enjoyed hopping around. So the question is do you want to deep dive or not on a language?
Remove the stuff you don’t enjoy from your Resume
Although I coded C++ for a few years honestly I hated it. So I removed it from my resume :) Do what you enjoy.
Learn Devops
I really think its very important nowadays to be able to do basic devops. Taking control of your machine saves a lot of frustration for your colleagues. There is nothing worse than having to work out why someone can’t run bundle install or checkout a file from git. Yes I get we should all use docker etc etc etc, learn how to look after your machine (and ideally a bit more). That way also you start becoming independent, you don’t have barriers.
Be Flexible
Yes we know you are a great PHP programmer. But flexibility and a willingness to muck in honestly is one of the greatest attributes of any employee. If its not PHP don’t have a heart attack, you never know you might learn something.
Learn to Visualise code
This is pretty hard, but you will know when you get it, life becomes a lot easier. Code to me is very physical, I can see the pieces of the engine in my head, and I know if I unwrap something that I can take so much of it out before i have to start drawing a map of where it all is. That ability to visualise gives me an advantage IMO, and my ability to visualise fast on new concepts allows me to move quickly. To practice visualisation you should use a whiteboard as much as you can
Be Prepared to Study
This is a hard one. And today is different to 20 years ago, there is so much more material available. For me though I really really needed to make my development job work, and for the whole of my employed career I was definitely a bit of a workaholic. It was important as I was the major breadwinner, I wanted a better future and I was prepared to work for it. If this is you then don’t feel guilty about putting in some hours outside work, but do remember you are only in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s once so make sure you also enjoy the time you have. I did tricks like I would work on the train to/from work, or just play through scenarios in my 20 min walk to the station each night. But I also partied hard. Balance is key. If you are working outside of the office then make sure its on your own projects. Even now owning my own company I refuse to be pressured into working in the evening if I don’t want to, or to meet a deadline. Yes I have to compromise, but its on my terms. Well so I kid myself :)
Be Humble
When you do get to super stardom please don’t turn into a prat.
