What I learnt after 6 years, working in the IT industry
In November of 2021, I completed 6 years in the IT industry. It was a weird journey, having its ups and downs. On multiple occasions I have been confused as to what I wanted from my career, as there are so many options like backend, frontend, dev-ops, full-stack and the list just goes on.
I started my career as a .net(C#) developer with Infosys, and being a naive fresher I thought C# was amazing and especially after using Visual Studio and the amazing IntelliSense it provides, I wanted to become a .net expert. Now after 6 years, all of my experience has been working with JS and building frontend apps in AngularJS(the OG one), Angular, React, and now will be transitioning to Vue.
This is me sharing some of the things I have learnt and feel are important to me and helped me grow, hope it might help you as well.
1: Play around with new technologies
You can only find the best flavour of candy, once you have tried most of them. Not a lot of people like to move out of their comfort zone, you just can’t say some technology is bad because others say it is, you have to try and get firsthand experience. Before landing to JS, I had worked on C#, Python, SQL, but it was when I used JS extensively with an AngularJS app, I realised how easy, fun yet complex JS is. I still take out time to learn new languages and technologies, who knows I might pivot to some other technology one day.
2: Take the deep dive
One thing is knowing what to use to solve a problem, but the difference between good and average coders, is knowing when to use some things, let’s say a function and how(the inner workings) that function actually works. For example Closures or IIFEs in JS, most people know what they do, but not a lot use them (as there is no use-case guide), and only a few will know how JS manages them. If you know the when and how the use-cases are simpler to create.
3: Variation is key
Let’s take basketball as an example, 100 people can dribble after some days of practice, 80 of them would start shooting from close range, 60 would start shooting from mid-range after some weeks of practice, 40 would start shooting 3 pointers after months, but only a few would be able to do all of them efficiently in an actual game. What I want to say is, after learning a new language say JS, try different flavours like NodeJS, React, Express, Vue, Angular, this helps you deep dive as you learn new design patterns and you get a better feel for what actually suits you more like you might be a better close and mid-range shooter.
4: In the early years, invest in yourself
This according to me is important, spending on your growth is an investment, it might look like a short-term loss, but the long-term gains are too high. The growth in the first 10 years of your career is exponential, once you cross that mark the growth curve starts to fall. So investing in courses and certificates can help you learn new skills and also help you define a better career path.
5: Find a mentor
A mentor is someone who has already walked the path, which you are trying to start. They can guide you and share the shortcuts which took them years to find, helping you reach your destination a little faster.
6: Be a jack of all trades, but also a master of one
In developer terms be a generic developer, who can mould easily to any framework, but then also have a domain which you’re a master of. For example, a Python developer whose expertise lies in Machine Learning. He will be able to write Flask APIs if required, but when it comes to ML he’s the expert.
7: In the long run, having Sector expertise is important
In the starting, it won’t matter much which sector (travel, assurance, retail, manufacturing, cyber security) you work for, as you are learning how to create scalable apps. But after one point your expertise and knowledge in both technologies and sectors can help accelerate your growth. Understanding the business behind the requirements can help you better understand the product you are building, but also increase your worth to the employer or better open new doors.
8: You define your worth, interviews are a must
There is a reason why all companies have the same policy, never share your compensation, as two people with the same skillset and experience might have different salaries, or in rare cases, your juniors might be better compensated than you. A company has its own standards when they define what you cost to them or in short your CTC. After reading No Rules Rules by Reed Hasting, I learnt that in Netflix, it’s your job to find your worth. No one can stop you from finding other opportunities, so if you can find a new offer, they will match it if they think you are worth it. And I feel interviews are the best thing you can do for yourself, if you clear it, you have a new opportunity and if you don’t, you get to know your weaknesses and learn areas you didn’t know about.
Hope this might have been useful to you, if any questions or things I could have explained better, please do share.
