Survival guide for new developers

If you started to learn programming and decided to go serious — or you’re fresh out of school with no job experience — this is the perfect article for you.

I will address key points and hidden truths I’ve accumulated over the time working as a developer.

It’s not you — Coding is difficult

No one said coding is easy — If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. If you can code on a basic level — congratulations! You are in a club with very few members.

We all have been there facing a new road — no matter the subject. A senior developer is a junior developer who never gave up. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt is a white belt who never gave up.

Embrace what you’re doing is difficult and very few can do — enjoy and have fun with it!

“person's hand burst out of box holding assorted-color pens” by Lucas Sankey on  Unsplash

A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.

Persistence, persistence, persistence! I can’t stress this enough. Find what you love doing and stick with it.

The universal truth to mastering skills is simple; Keep doing it and never give up. It’s completely natural and human to feel burned out, stressed or lethargic. But never — ever — give up…unless you really want to.

Learning to code on a very basic level can take up to years, and many more to become prolific. Keep learning, coding and reading everyday — at least 1 hour. Make it a part of your life and habit.

Make friends and find mentors

The coding road is hard — It’s almost impossible alone. Find people you like and get together. Easier said than done, I know. The trick to this is going to gatherings focused primarily towards developers.

Find a meetup near you and join it. I literally just go to random events and explore as much as possible. Great way to do that is meetup , type your location and interests and whala! You have tons of events in front of you. Meeting new people out of the comfort zone, it’s not as intuitive for everyone but you’d be surprised how friendly the developer community is.

Find balance in life and outside of coding; study smarter not harder

Brazilian jiu jitsu dojo at Zürich (DM me on Twitter if you want to join — it’s hella fun!)

Study smarter not harder is a cliche, but it’s also an truism — for a good reason. Having hobbies outside of coding has helped me tremendously with career and personal life. Whenever I feel frustrated and tired of coding, I hit up my local dojo and train, after training I feel super refreshed and ready to go back at it.

Just do it mentally

“greyscale photo of DO What You Love signage” by Jason Leung on  Unsplash

Just do it, literally. Don’t find excuses, don’t back down — just do it! I find myself hard to motivate at times, but whenever I started cracking and chipping at the problem, I get in the groove. Coding is a lot like surfing — you need to motivate yourself to catch a wave, but once you caught a wave it’s a high like no other.

If you have no idea where to start, I got you covered! I prepared lists of ideas just for you to start doing. Pick one and do it! Curious to see the results via twitter or comments.

Master the day

Master the day

There’s an ocean of information out there, it’s impossible to remember it all. Take it one day at a time. Slow down, and consecrated — like really consecrated. Think about the problem, think about the approaches to coding and then start coding. The hardest part of coding is the thinking and planning. Good planning and thinking will shave off years and save you quite a bit of time.

My favourite trick; When I’m finished with my day and ready to fall a sleep — I list all the concepts I learned today and try to remember and repeat them. This helps to cement the material.

Getting one’s foot in the door

Photo by Loverna Journey on  Unsplash

Find a job as a new developer can be extremely frustrating. Most companies want seniors because they think their problems are unique, but it’s often not true. There’s a huge shortage for seniors because…as you guessed it, everyone wants a senior. At the other hand not a lot of companies are willing to train juniors to become competent due to fear of “talent flowing out”. In simple words, training a junior requires time and investment, and a lot of companies are not willing do that. If you do manage to find a company that trains juniors, you’ve found a great company.

I would recommend finding an internship, preferably paid internship. I’ve seen many internships grow into prosperous relationships and employments.

Don’t be afraid to be the intern, no one is going to abuse you or humiliate you. I always treat my interns on the same level as full time seniors, no matter who you are, you’re still one of us. If a company mistreats its interns, find a new one that treats you with respect and lets you grow.

Also internships show what the day to day life looks like for a developer. Having access to this information can be life changing since you get to decide if this is something you truly want. You still have time to pivot if you don’t like it.

So there you go folks, to capture the message:

• Coding is hard… but do it everyday and never give up. A senior dev is a junior dev who never gave up.
• Find mentors and friends. It’s a lot more fun together.
• Find hobbies outside of coding to “recharge batteries”
• Find an internship to get feet wet
• Keep it positive and have fun with it!

Now off you go and fly!

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something. Feel free to reach out to me with questions or show your progress.

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