If you are not clear why, despite all your efforts, you can not evolve in your career, it is very possible that you are failing in any of the following points.
Below I show you a list of the ones I have seen that are the most typical mistakes when it comes to focusing on the professional career of software developer, and what you can do to avoid them.
1. No Specialization
Specialization is absolutely necessary today. In a world so saturated, we need to highlight somehow to become referents in that specialization.
If your work is easily repeatable, rest assured that someone will do it for less money than you do in some other country on the planet .
You need to emphasize on something, although of course you can not leave aside the rest of knowledge. You have to be a good developer in general, but differentiate yourself from others into something.
2. Not knowing yourself
How will you know what you want to do with your life if you do not know yourself? Self-knowledge seems vital for me to create a life for you .
3. Not having a course or plan
If you do not know where you want to go, it is impossible to take a few steps to get there. Think about your long-term goals, and then write your way to get there .
4. Do not persist
The human being has an awesome ability to get emotional and get involved with things, almost as impressive as the one he has to abandon to the slightest difficulty.
Becoming a better person and a better professional requires a lot of effort . I would not call it a sacrifice because it is an exciting journey, but it does require effort. And at first it will seem that you do not advance even if you put a lot of effort.
It is in that perseverance, in not abandoning before the first stumble, where transforming is the key.
5. Not willing to continue learning
The course or module you studied was just a starting point. In a career like ours (and this can actually be applied to any profession nowadays) we must continue to be formed continuously.
The world changes so fast that in order not to become obsolete you will need to be continually learning. And not just in development. Today skills like marketing, finance or personal development are necessary to be able to move through the time that we have lived.
6. To think that the work will come to us doing nothing
Programmers are a lucky group. We continue to live in full technological explosion, which means that it is much easier than any other to find a job.
But let’s not fool ourselves. If we are not savvy enough and stick strictly to resume and resume LinkedIn, we will be very difficult to access jobs in which we can enjoy our profession.
Good companies look for passionate professionals, who live the development , who enjoy learning and taking to the limit. And you have to show them that you are capable of all that.
7. Believing that you will succeed without exposing yourself
It may happen, but it is very difficult. Most professionals recognized in the world of programming write blogs, give talks, attend events, get involved with the community …
The fear of exposing oneself, to criticism, is always there. But you have to stop thinking about what others think and fight for what you want.
To me writing a blog changed my life . There are people who prefer to give talks, or write books, participate in free and open source software … There are a few alternatives, and the more of them you practice, the better you become.
8.Thinking that the quality of the code does not matter
“If it works, why touch it?” This phrase we have heard it thousands of times. If you do not care about the quality of the code, you will not be able to feel passion for what you do. When you discover concepts like Software Craftsmanship, programming becomes almost an art.
And that’s where you’ll discover the pleasure of writing clean code. It is also very interesting to know concepts such as design patterns, testing, SOLID …
conclusion
If you want to take your career and your life to another level, you need to break with certain beliefs, overcome many fears and leave your comfort zone.
If you manage to avoid these mistakes and take action, I am sure you will be able to move much faster towards your goals .