What does it take to go from being good to being great?
When you are new to the software development industry, searching for relevant information can be quite overwhelming. With so many programming languages, frameworks, and tools to choose from, where do you even start when wanting to develop your skill set?
What do all the best software developers read?
It should of course be noted that each developer’s journey is unique and the resources they need to upskill themselves will depend on the skillset they wish to develop.
We’ve compiled a list of our favourite resources to keep up to date with the latest and greatest developments in the tech industry as well as to keep inspired and motivated to learn over time.
We highly recommend reading Philip Joubert’s personal blog post: “How I discover and read books”. This is a great guideline on how to find books that you will be interested in. The blog post also has great tips and tricks on how to keep your reading momentum and how to finish a book when boredom strikes.
For devs specifically, we recommend “The Pragmatic Programmer”, a classic must-read that explores the essence of software development in a manner independent of any particular language, framework, or methodology.
Blog posts are great sources of information as they are typically quick to read and typically cover a single topic or answer a single question. A great way to get hard-hitting information in a short span of time.
Finding a blog that you enjoy reading on a regular basis is a personal thing, everyone’s preference will differ based on what information they are looking for.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
Podcasts are wonderfully convenient. It is easy to listen to one even when you have a busy schedule.
A trick that some of our Specnites use when they don’t have time to read a full book, is to search for a book review on a platform such as Spotify and listen to it in the car on their way to work.
Here are a few podcasts to get you started:
Podcasts on JavaScript: The JS Party and JavaScript Jabber
Podcasts on Python: Talk Python
Sometimes, when you want to deeply explore a new topic, completing an online course can be very useful. The combination of different types of study material (e.g. video lectures combined with skill assessments) provides a well-rounded approach to learning. It will allow you to take in information, and ensure that you have correctly understood the content by providing a practical test, specifically relevant to what you’ve just learnt.
Online platforms to look at to help with deep skill development include:
In the world of content creation, Social Media can be a great resource to discover new topics, tips and tricks as a software developer.
Our developers like using Twitter and keep up to date with accounts such as @fireship_dev and @shanselman. This is a great way to discover articles one wouldn’t necessarily stumble across with a simple Google search. Following these types of accounts helps us to stay informed, and form a more well-rounded perspective of the tech world.
As a bonus point, we wanted to highlight the importance of working on your own pet projects to gain practical experience, solidify your learnings, and learn to think independently of any prescribed material.
Pet projects allow you to try new concepts and code, and it can be a great way to boost your creativity and out of the box thinking. It is also sure to pose many problems along the way of creation, and will thus teach you invaluable problem-solving skills.
So, what does it take to go from being good to great?
Consistency in improving your skillset. It is the realisation that you can always learn something new - you will always have the opportunity to grow
There are numerous ways to improve your skillset, but it is your commitment, approach and the quality of your resources that will play a big role in speeding up your progress.
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