Career Advice Thread 💼

[queenofcorgis]

If you’re a beginner developer, you may be awed by how many resources are out there and are unsure where to start. Or maybe you’ve gotten your feet wet and are now in search of specific advice. Comment below any questions you may have, an experience you’d like to share, or a resource that has helped you.

📚 Resources (We’ll be updating this list as they’re shared):

• Career tips for beginner developers
• How to Convince Your Boss to Open Source a Project
• How GitHub does take home technical interviews
• Junior to senior: An action plan for engineering career success
• Tech Interview Handbook
• Software Engineer Study Plan

🧠 Thought leadership from the Programming Help Category

• Why a bootcamp was right for me ⭐
• You might not need... bootcamp!
• From the NFL to Software Engineer at GitHub

❗As a reminder, we currently do not allow job listings on the Community on Discussions per our guidelines - posts containing or seeking those will be removed.

[HotCakeX]

With the integration of AI (GPT-4 at the moment) with Bing and GitHub, it's very easy to ask for help and get answers quickly. I suggest beginners do that, it's helped me a lot.

[abdurrezzakekidi]

I agree with you

[Aishwow]

أتفق معك

[jaedmunt]

Definitely good to learn but they still hallucinate a great deal. Would take caution and lean on the skills you’ve built. We’re still smarter than AI (for now!)

[DanDevel]

Contribute to Open Source: Get involved in open-source projects on GitHub. It's a great way to collaborate with experienced developers, improve your coding skills, and build a strong portfolio. Start by finding projects that align with your interests and skill level, and gradually work your way up.

Engage in the Developer Community: Participate in discussions, forums, and social media platforms dedicated to developers. Networking with other developers can provide valuable insights, learning opportunities, and potential job prospects. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and stay updated with industry trends.

Showcase Your Work: Maintain a GitHub profile and regularly update it with your projects, contributions, and personal achievements. Employers often review candidates' GitHub profiles to assess their coding abilities and commitment to the craft. Make sure to highlight your best work and demonstrate your skills.

Continuous Learning: Keep up with the latest technologies, frameworks, and programming languages. The field of software development is constantly evolving, so it's important to stay updated and adapt to new trends. Dedicate time to self-learning, take online courses, attend workshops, and read relevant technical articles to expand your knowledge.

Collaborate and Learn from Others: Collaborate with more experienced developers and learn from their expertise. GitHub provides opportunities to work on shared projects, contribute to discussions, and receive feedback. Embrace constructive criticism and use it to grow as a developer.

Build a Diverse Portfolio: Aim to work on a variety of projects to demonstrate your versatility. This can include personal projects, freelance work, contributions to open-source projects, or participating in hackathons. Having a diverse portfolio showcases your ability to adapt to different challenges and work on various types of projects.

Continuous Improvement: Embrace a growth mindset and strive for continuous improvement. Regularly reflect on your work, identify areas for growth, and actively seek opportunities to enhance your skills. Be open to feedback, be proactive in seeking learning opportunities, and dedicate time for deliberate practice.

Remember, building a successful career in development takes time and dedication. Stay persistent, remain passionate about learning, and leverage the opportunities that platforms like GitHub provide. Good luck on your developer journey!

[Aishwow]

هذا رائع

[Atharvk7]

I think networking plays an important role in the career advance We should give attention to meetups, collaborations and open source project discussions for that.

[MahdiAbbasi7]

"The expert at anything was once a beginner"
for begginer developers i'm suggest this sites :
Khanacademe.com
exercism.org
w3schools.com
also you should be read and check code of another developers.

[Flavio13Lins]

Thanks!!
Just a fix:

• khanacademy.org

[mammaddrik]

For beginner developers I'm suggest this sites:
roadmap
w3schools

[crazyvibes]

Agree roadmap this site help you alot.

[bizactive]

I would also recommend: https://www.freecodecamp.org/

[Afek-Sakaju]

In addition to all the great advices here on the technical side of preparing and learning new skills and tech
I think that in our days, A polished LinkedIn profile is really important part of finding a job, i would give it at least 35% of it..
Check out @jeffsu's videos on this topic, he is really good in explaining how to make your Linkedin much better and
with higher chances of getting job offers, and i really like his sense of humor

[NickKipshidze]

Just loving what you do, programming, and making your own fun projects and sharing it around may get you a job. Getting known by a lot of people is very important, especially when you know people in person. For example joining a Discord server and sharing your interesting project or a piece of code can get you in a conversation with other knowledgeable people.

I got my first job when I turned 15 years old. I got it because I was very well known in the bootcamp that I was going through at the time. I was always active and helpful to others and I spent a lot of time working and studying, showing a lot of activity on my GitHub profile.

Being a social person is a good skill to have.

[mrspecht]

My favorite advice for beginners is always the same: practice! Practice every day. Work on different projects, use APIs, contribute on GitHub, build your own website... Keep yourself busy. With time, you will feel more comfortable with complex stuff and more confident.

[queenofcorgis]

Great advice - practice makes perfect!

[dfiedlerx]

Learn to learn.

Yes, that's right, don't be like those who want everything chewed up. Understand the concept, the whys, not just how to do it. Don't be attached to any technology, see them as tools that, if used well in the correct context, generate results. Don't be like many who protect a favorite language and despise others.

Try to do projects based on the real world, for example, redoing your Instagram home, your Facebook home, an API that calculates the chance of you being attacked by aliens, things that make you learn and enjoy the process.

Test everything, databases, APIs, frontend screens, frameworks, AIs, don't just hear about something, live it until you can talk about it.

See each mistake as a source of learning, look at each bug as a possibility to become more specialized.

[Chris000117]

I agree with you

[queenofcorgis]

@balusena

We’ve clarified our stance on using generative AI tools like ChatGPT within our Community via this announcement. Please review the guidelines to ensure your post meets them as failure to adhere to those rules can result in action taken by our moderator team.  You can read our updated Code of Conduct and the announcement for more details. Thank you for helping us maintain an authentic and beneficial space for everyone.

[Xadly29]

i dont quite understand how developers as a job/career works? like you work on a company do they like lets say give you 2 months to create a website or something that they want and then what happens after that? do you like wait till they need you again or do they just fire you?

[ebndev]

Hi @Xadly29! The example you mentioned sounds more like a freelance or contracting role as a web-developer. A client can hire you for a website or project and your time will end with them when the project is completed. Doing this means that you will have to seek out opportunities and clients on your own (rather than waiting until they need you).

A full-time job as a developer or software engineer at a company usually means you are continuously working on their product. Some of the things you would be working on: implementing new features, fixing bugs, improving the current code, and maintaining the software in general.

For examples of new features / updates, check out GitHub's blog! Our changelog shows some of the new updates that engineers have worked on in the past.

GitHub's product roadmap also shows what the company is working towards in the next few months. Specific teams will create their own goals / projects to work towards as well.