Creating a Remarkable career in Software Development

by Chad Fowler

My own journey as a software developer has been fairly traditional. I’ve spent almost 100% of my career working in j2ee/java, mostly on web applications. One of my own personal goals is to be a java expert/ninja, and so, even outside of work, I do a lot of java related development. A book like The Passionate Programmer is great find for someone like me who is risking putting all of their eggs in one basket by working in a single area. The book is full of suggestions for getting out of your comfort zone, researching alternative career growth areas and growing a career outside of your 9-to-5 job. You may be familiar with a previous edition of the book, unfortunately named My Job Went to India: 52 Ways to Save Your Job.

My favorite part of the book was the “Act on It!” sections that give you suggestions for things you can do now to act on the concepts introduced in the chapter. If you are looking for a springboard of ideas on how to enliven and improve your career as a software developer, this book gives you over 50 concrete actions to move in that direction.

I am so excited about using these suggestions in my life; I have already started with some of them. Of the 50 or so suggestions shared in the book, the following are the ones that really stood out to me.

• Figure out how the internals of the vm you program for work. Determine how external libraries are loaded or imported. Take time to learn the mechanics of how source code is compiled.
• Be the worst musician in your band. This means that you should surround yourself with developers who challenge you, who are better than you are…. so that you are continually challenged and feel the impetus to keep up and perform at your best.
• Practice
• I love this one… Questions you should ask yourself and your boss
  • Was I worth it today?
  • How could you make your development team more efficient?
  • How could you creatively save your company money?
• Keep a development diary—what did you work on, why did you write it that way. I have started trying to do this and initally my ‘diary’ was more like a hit list of what i accomplished that day. What I have started doing differently is picking out some snippet that i wrote that day and pasting it into my diary post and then commenting on different lines.
• Try to do the boring stuff perfectly. I’ve tried this as well; it will add life back into your most tedious tasks.
• How to Fail
  • raise the issue as soon as you know about it
  • take the blame
  • offer a solution
  • ask for help
• One of my new goals after reading this book is to talk to all of the developers I work with face to face more often.
• Always have your “elevator speech” ready. What are you working on? Could you explain what you are working on to the CEO of your company?

I definitely recommend the book; it is inspiring and will silence even the whiniest of developers. While reading, you will want to take notes while you are reading or keep a to do list handy.

The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development (Pragmatic Life)