Strategies to enhance your skills
Being a programmer sounds cool, but in reality, it's not everyone's cup of coffee. One must have a lot of passion, along with an extreme level of patience. Let's put it this way, "Being a Programmer is a never-ending process". Yes, I am goddamn serious. If you are thinking, why so? In that case, let me hold on to the answer. Let's just get started with our topic, by the end of the article you might have an answer.
1. Try to learn at least one new programming language each year
The software industry is indeed a competitive market. Every year the trend of programming languages changes. The likelihood of learning everything all at once might be challenging. Therefore, push yourself to educate yourself with a minimum of one programming language. Also, this will make your resume even more impressive. There are thousands of developers in the world, what makes you better is the knowledge you persuade.
2. Keep an eye on the latest updates
Take a glance at things around you. We are surrounded by gadgets which have software inside them. For each of them, there is a new upgrade or better version that is launched in the market often. Okay. Let's simplify.
You must be owning a smartphone. The evolution of smartphones occurred slightly over a decade, just think about the user interface (look and feel) of the smartphone you used a few years ago and one that you have now. Pretty much every year there is new software launched. With this new release, there are new libraries or SDKs that are also made available for the developer to improve the user experience. For that matter, you, as a developer must be aware of these updates, and must learn the new approach or framework.
3. Take a look at the projects of other developers
The learning curve is speedy if you have a reference point. Occasionally, try to visit other developers' GitHub or blogs. This will give you a different lens of coding style. One thing which I strongly believe, in the software world, one thing can be done in hundreds of ways. This means, if you are given a problem, you can write the code in different ways, and it's the best one that you did you finalize. However, the same problem will be written uniquely by another person. So, learn from other solutions.
4. Solve online challenges
"Practice makes the human PERFECT". There are thousands of challenging questions on the web. Some of the popular websites for the same are HackerRank, LeetCode, HackerEarth, etc. Try to solve at most one question a week. While solving a problem, don't just try to come up with a solution, rather try an optimal way to solve it.
5. Brush up the basics every year
Once you get engaged in multiple projects, which consists of different programming language, after a while you tend to forget the basics. Therefore, don't forget to revisit your basics. Concepts like inheritance, encapsulation, scope analysis, etc can be throughout your career. So, stick to the roots.
6. Learn to take criticism
The best way to grow is by taking constructive criticism rather than feeling bad about it. Of course, I am saying to treat every feedback equally important, if something doesn't feel good then let it slide. When you take the feedback you know what's the area which needs to be improved. Improvising will simply uplift you as a good human, and this is a path that leads you to your success.
7. Write the code and try to optimize it, until satisfied
So far, I have already mentioned it a couple of times, try to play around and polish your code. The more you try to optimize, the cleaner is the code. The way you write the code, explains a lot about the individual. A proficient coder writes well-structured and readable code. Try to study concepts like Big O. Big O is good to intersect the computation tie for the code. Such concepts make you understand your code through a different lens.
8. Be curious - Do something each day
I try to learn new things each day. It's not necessary you study just coding. Pick any topic. I study project management one day, the next day about data analysis, and the day after cyber security. You might wonder, it's absolute nonsense. Maybe not. Think of it this way, learning different things gives me domain knowledge too. If you read again, all the topics are related to IT. In simple terms, be street smart. Also, it just increases my patience and focus. Because they both are crucial when you have a bug that is unidentified.
9. A must-have 15-minutes break
We are not robots to function 24*7, or for that matter even 12 hours each day. When your mind is caught it's difficult to process even the simplest problem. Treat yourself with frequent breaks. This gives you some free time to breathe. We take a break from work. Likewise, while you study take 15 minutes to break after every 45 minutes. You won't feel overwhelmed ever.
10. Read coding books
Last but not the least, is the old-school approach. Undoubtedly you can find everything online. But the information is all scattered. Whereas in a book, you get wide details compact.
Thank you so much for your time!!!
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