The development environment is huge and it’s always getting bigger. It’s the Ideal place to build your career, whether you want to be a freelancer or get a permanent job at a company, or whether you develop websites and apps or back-end systems and games.
However, the dev environment can be quite competitive. It can be difficult at times for people trying to get into the field. To make it a little easier, we’ve put together 5 tips you can use to boost you coding career. If you’re already in a dev career, you can use these tips to take your career to the next level.
Market yourself on social media/ build your person brand.
The world is a massive place. It’s too easy to get lost in the crowd. If you remain anonymous in the crowd, the world is never going find out who you are and what you have to offer. The idea is to put yourself out there and market yourself. In this industry, it’s one of the easiest tasks in the world. Just be active on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Constantly put yourself out there. Tell the world your story. Make it know who you are and what you do. This will greatly expand you network and expose you to greater opportunities, but it’ll also increase your reputation and add credibility to your name.
Show don’t tell.
Actions speak louder than words. It’s that simple. Showing someone what you’ve created has a far greater impact that telling someone what you can create.
It’s not all about what qualification you have. Clients and employers are far more interested in what you can do. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s only one effective way of doing this. By showing them.
I’d highly recommend building a portfolio website for yourself. Make it the best website you’ve ever created. Constantly add to it and improve it. On your site, show case all the projects you’ve done. This should include projects you’ve completed as part of your studies, projects and experiments you’ve done in your own time and projects you’ve completed for previous clients.
Work cheap/ free when starting of
When starting of as a developer, you’re probably going to run into this issue. Companies might be reluctant to hire you due to a lack of experience in the field. Ironically, you won’t be able to get experience if no one hires you.
An effective way to combat this and break that cycle is to start of working for free, or for really cheap. Take on development work from NGO’s or small businesses. This will add some experience under your belt and build up your portfolio. Additionally, your future clients will have references to contact. This will give a giant boost to your credibility. Finally, with your higher experience, you’ll be able to charge a lot more in the future.
Keep your skill set up to date.
As developer, your greatest asset is your knowledge and skills. These are why people hire you. These are what your reputation is built on. So always take time to expand your assets and keep them up to date.
Take time out every day to expand your knowledge on the technologies you already know as well as to learn something completely new. The tech space is constantly changing and evolving. You need to make sure to keep yourself up to date with the latest changes and trends.
Be ahead of the curve.
Keep on the lookout for opportunities.
World is full of opportunities. You just need to be on the lookout for them. Learn how to identify and capture opportunities. This might be tricky at first, but over time it becomes second nature.
However, you need to keep in mind that not all opportunities that present themselves should be persuade. Learn to identify which opportunities are worth looking into. Don’t be afraid to walk away from certain opportunities. There’ll always be more opportunities.
As the late Tony Hsieh, Founder of LinkExchange and former CEO of Zappos wrote in his book “Delivering happiness”, a business is more likely to die of suffocation than starvation.
Although the dev environment can be challenging at times, it’s an extremely enjoyable and rewarding field to get into. It requires a lot of dedication and patience and, if you play it smart, you can accelerate your growth and jump start your career.
So go out and make your dreams come true.
