Book Image

Developer Career Masterplan

By : Heather VanCura, Bruno Souza
5 (1)
Book Image

Developer Career Masterplan

5 (1)
By: Heather VanCura, Bruno Souza

Overview of this book

Written by industry experts that have spent the last 20+ years helping developers grow their careers, this book offers invaluable insights and guidance tailored to the specific needs of technical professionals. By discovering the secret of continuous learning and adapting in the ever-evolving field of software development, you’ll explore various learning paths with formal and informal methods, as well as gain an understanding of the value of certifications to validate your skills. This book will teach you the significance of building a strong support network, holding crucial conversations, and taking ownership of your career growth. You'll delve into acquiring both soft and hard skills, becoming a well-rounded and sought-after developer. Packed with practical examples, stories of successful developers, and real-world applications, the chapters will equip you with actionable advice on how to push beyond your comfort zone and embracing communities to enhance your teamwork abilities. Additionally, you’ll uncover the benefits of joining open-source projects, speaking at conferences, and building a personal brand to amplify your visibility and reputation. By the end of this book, you'll have a well-laid-out long-term and short-term plan for your career progression, equipping you with advanced technical skills, strategic thinking, and the ability to effectively manage relationships within your organization.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1 The Basics: Learn and Practice the Technical Skills
7
Part 2 Get Involved: Participate in the Community
13
Part 3 Create Impact: Share and Lead

Reading code

Reading code is a fundamental ability for software developers. It is the basic skill that you need for everything in your developer career. Knowing how to read code in different languages and versions, with increasing levels of difficulty, and implement multiple patterns and architecture are critical to your success as a developer and also your ability to contribute effectively to open source projects. This skill – being able to read code – is the basis to help you achieve all the other skills!

As the name implies, the basic freedom that open source gives you is the freedom of reading the source code. Imagine what that means. No matter what you are going through right now in your development, regardless of the language, library, or development problem, there is some piece of source code, somewhere, that you can read.

This skill will give you access to insights, experience, and art and craftsmanship. It is going to help you understand the problem better...