Midlife crisis, skills transformation, forced overtime, life balance…… On the way up, programmers face all kinds of workplace traps, and they may fall on their toes if they don’t pay attention.
As a veteran of many battles, I offer eight pieces of advice: don’t get stuck on a fixed technology, don’t pursue technology monopolies, and don’t avoid office politics…… Studying these eight career pitfalls will surely help you along your technical path. Let’s find out.
If you love programming but have never thought about your career or business, it’s time to get real and think seriously about how to build a career in software development.
You need to change the way you think about your career. You don’t code for love anymore, you code for money. Save your love of programming for your side projects.
You need to go out of your way to make sure that at least you enjoy your work every day, and if you love your job that’s great. If not, go somewhere else while software development is hot.
Along the way, you need to think hard about your career, not just your current job. Here are eight pitfalls you need to avoid first.
Pitfall # 1: Staying too long on a technology
I know you like Microsoft C#, or Java, JavaScript, Python, Cobol. But most technologies go through a life cycle: they rise, peak, outsource, shrink and die. If you were in Cobol in the 1980s, you were pretty good.
If you have a problem with C/C++ one item is a very enthusiastic one (● ‘◡’ ●).
If you had worked in Cobol in the early 1990s, you would have faced the risk of losing your job. But if you had worked in Cobol in the late 1990s, the y2K problem solvers would have made a lot of money. But now? You may have to move out of your ocean view house, and your income may be lower than ever.
Trap 2: Become a technology monopoly expert
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It seems easy and safe to become an expert in a hot field. But then, when the technology is hot, you have to compete with everybody; And when the winds suddenly change, you need a plan to get out.
For example, I was working on C++ at Microsoft when Java came along. Everyone wanted me to get more experience with C or C++, and I learned Java. Java wasn’t mature enough to handle all the demands, but I learned it and abandoned the tight needs of C and C++, so I became an early Java programmer.
A few years ago, Ruby was a star in the making. For a while, it looked as if Perl could achieve parity with Java. It’s hard to predict the future, so risk aversion is the safest approach.
Trap # 3: Love a fad
Don’t tell the Groovy people that it’s dead. However, the Groovy magic is dead. No one wants to overpay for A Groovy developer. If your boss allows you to develop projects in Groovy, then either he doesn’t care what language you use, the language doesn’t matter and he thinks you’re happy, or he’s ignorant and doesn’t realize that the supply of labor is going down.
So by all means, get your hands on the technology and learn. Try to be the first to master a technology and become an expert on it.
Also, be prepared to jump ship when demand drops. Whether it’s languages or databases, there’s a lot of technology out there to love.
Trap 4: Avoid office politics
Every company, big or small, has some kind of office politics. So you need to hone your political skills. If you know nothing about office politics, you’re destined to be a pawn in someone else’s game. I’m not saying I want you to be a jerk who plays politics instead of doing your job, but you do need to be on your defense in the political fray.
Trap 5: Not interested in the business
“I’m just a developer, I’m not interested in the business.” That kind of thinking can kill your career. You need to know if the company is doing well, what are the major business challenges, what are the company’s most important projects, what technologies or software can help get them done, and where the company fits in the industry. If you can’t answer these questions, you’ll end up working at unimportant companies, on unimportant projects, for unimportant people, and of course getting paid “unimportant”.
Trap 6: Be prepared to leave at any time
It’s not the only time you’ve been in a situation where you say, “Slow down or we’ll kill you.” My advice is to do your programming, but always be ready for what comes next. This is a very common problem, and you can’t avoid it if you think about it with your toes.
Trap # 7: Not knowing or caring about your own worth
“I don’t like working for money.” Then find another hobby. Whatever you do, don’t work solely for money. But you shouldn’t get paid half as much for doing the same job. Know your value and go for it.
Trap # 8: Work for work’s sake
“It’s just a job.” No, this is a step in your career. You can’t stay at a job forever. So figure out what you can learn here, what to do next, who you ultimately want to be or where you want to work, and whether your current job will help you get there.
Knowing what’s going on in your industry is good for you and good for your boss. You will benefit a lot in the long run. It’s not just a job, it’s a life journey.