I want to write a tutorial/guide that would help other programmers. There are a lot of quality _technical_ guides available and I don't want to write just another one. So I'd like to create something _non-technical_ (productivity, communication, work-life balance...?) that programmers would find useful.
There are some people that are magical. You go into a meeting with your mind made up, and then 30 minutes later, you leave the meeting with a completely different mindset. And you don't know how they managed to convince you so successfully. If you could figure that trick out, most of your non-technical career problems would be solved. I've personally never learned this skill of persuasiveness, but I'd pay a lot of money if someone could teach me quickly.
Leadership. No skill (rather, set of skills) will be more universally applicable throughout the entirety of your career and become more heavily weighted the higher you climb.<p>Are you an engineer? What skill(s) will you be leveraging most as a Director or VP of Engineering? Leadership.<p>Are you a designer? What skill(s) will you be leveraging most as a Director or VP of Design? Leadership.<p>Are you a <fill in the blank>? What skill(s) will...you get it.<p>Back in my time at Georgia Tech, Warren Buffet came to speak and told an anecdote about a media executive who would go play records at one of his radio stations in the middle of the night. Buffet said something to the effect of, "the farther I get into this business, the farther away I become from why I got into this business."<p>I started working professionally at small companies in 1997 as a "Web Developer." I finished my degree in 2004 and I've been doing software engineering since then. I'm currently a Director of Engineering at PayPal and, while my technical skills are useful, my primary role is centered around the leadership of a large team. I haven't written a line of code professionally in over a year. I share these same statements with my managers and engineers from my team. Always be developing your leadership skills--they stay with you forever.
What helped me most is to have conversations with strangers. Try it in real life. Talk to the guy sitting alone at the bar. Have small-talk with the other person pumping gas. This will help you professionally.
Public speaking. I joined Toastmasters [1] at the start of the year and highly recommend it. Friendly, supportive atmosphere. Challenging, assuming you're not currently comfortable speaking in front of groups. Lots of people who've been there a while comment on howit's improved their careers. One of the most useful bits is learning to evaluate other people's speeches, a skill which can be applied in a variety of situations, and (so I'm told - I'm still learning) leaves a very positive impression on people.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.toastmasters.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.toastmasters.org/</a>
Writing is far and away my number one suggestion. It's not even a contest.<p>A well-written developer is someone who can organize their thoughts and then express them in a way that others can understand. This requires mental discipline, clarity of thought, empathy, and intelligence, all of which are skills that will take any developer to new heights.
Emotional intelligence and all round empathy.<p>It's not a trait I started out in life blessed with but the older I get the more I realise that understanding <i>why</i> something is being said is frequently much more important than what is being said.
Most companies have the following departments, or roles:<p>Accounting, Marketing, Reporting/Data Analysts, Customer Service, Design/UI/Product, and Sales.<p>Weather your running the website or building the software you sell lots of these folks are going to have varying levels of contact with it. By understanding what these folks do (even at a high level) and the language they use, your going to be able to communicate with them and service them better. Building relationships in other departments can be as simple as being friendly to the people you meet, and getting them out of the office for coffee or lunch on a regular basis. Ask them lots of questions and build a relationship.
If the economy tanks, you might find yourself surrounded by people who didn't really deserve to be in their jobs, but floated up with the high tide of a buoyant economy. These are the people who will resort to nasty office politics to keep their jobs.<p>Ergo, learn to defend yourself from it.
Since you said "career" specifically, I would say communication. If you can tactfully ask and figure out what direction you need to develop in, or if you can be persuasive and make a compelling argument, your can be much more effective in advancing your career. You'll also make friends and allies along the way.
Technically creative and curious business analysts area an role that will be emerging in the next few years, having one group to do B1, and another to do tech is fast going out the window. Techies can learn business much easier than most business folks can learn tech from my observations and experience.<p>Why is this important?<p>The single most important skill I see needed in technical people is empathy to the problems people are solving. Just because it's trivial to one group to solve, or prioritize does not mean it's not valuable. Being able to put yourself in the actual shoes of the user, their needs, their perspectives to ultimately empower them, instead of taking the easy way of interpreting from a distance how they must do their job/task based on how you would approach it.<p>There is a great deal of intellectual capital in any organization where people have a "why" of how to do things a certain way that is not 100% the standard procedure.<p>These things form the competitive advantage that software developers, implementors, and consultants can kill in an organization.<p>Want to be a better software developer? Help people solve problems better in their terms, not our own. Whether it is a sales, marketing, production, design or management problem, being able to relate to the problem and how it's beneficial to solve is the single biggest valuable skill that I have landed on.
Branding/marketing oneself, how to make solid career decisions, and general job search type activities don't help you on a day-to-day basis like productivity and communication, but they can greatly impact the overall career trajectory and how you can maximize your chances of achieving whatever goals you have in your career (advancement, $, independence, etc.).<p>There are thousands of programmers who are incredibly good at what they do (programming), but aren't being considered for jobs because they don't know how to market/write/talk about their own experience. What to write (and leave off) on a resume, a cover letter/email application, LinkedIn profile, what to mention in an interview, how to define an accomplishment, etc.<p>Job searches, interviewing, negotiating, how to make good career decisions based on your goals - these are all things that don't happen every day, so programmers aren't all that likely to really get good at them. Most other professional industries don't see the volume of career change that we see in tech, where it's reasonable that someone could change jobs several times in a decade. Knowing how and when to change jobs, how to handle those changes, and making good overall career decisions is a skill many lack.
1) Time management, 2) Efficiency in learning in all endeavors, not just technical.<p>With those two skills, all other skills can be obtained more readily, including the need for better oral and written communication.<p>Empathy and salesmanship require a modicum of innate ability. Everyone can certainly improve on their potential. I've never met a career salesperson who didn't already have some proclivity for sales.
Learn to listen. Not just to your peers, but to everyone. Don't just hear the words they are saying, give them meaning, build a mental model, and be able to re-itterate their statements into your own language (even if you don't share these things out loud).<p>Listening skills are going to get you FAR in business and life, and your going to hear lots of stuff that has nothing to do with your job. Learn NOT to repeat every thing you hear.<p>Sadly offices have as much gossip if not more than your average high school. Once people know they can trust you to keep your mouth shut, a well spring of interesting knowledge is going to start to fall in your lap. Some times this is just personal drama, but knowing that person A has a grudge with person B can some times be a clue to how a situation is going to resolve itself.
Sort of career related: learn to live within your means, always trying to save some of your salary. This does a few things for your career: allows you to leave bad jobs, reduces worry and stress which should improve your job performance, and generally adds flexibility to your life.
Probably my number one recommendation would be effective public speaking combined with effective writing of presentations of ideas. If you can't communicate your ideas both effectively <i>and</i> persuasively, you will be severely hobbled in your career. Even for people on the technical track rather than the management track, as you become more senior, you'll be expected to explain your architecture / designs to junior engineers looking to your for guidance.<p>Even if you are severely introverted (I am) you need to make as much effort as possible to overcome it. People who can't communicate are effectively invisible, regardless of how well they do their jobs, and invisible people are replaceable people.
I've been reading:<p>TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking<p>Impossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions<p>Both are insightful and exciting.
Any kind of skill with huge benefits in almost any career.<p>Leadership, Public speaking, persuasiveness/sales, writing, copy-writing, storytelling, design, diet, exercise, mental focus, personal appearance<p>Maybe target ones that programmers typically lack.
Raise your EQ but don't spend too much time worrying about what other people think of you. The business exists to reduce transactional costs between the things needed to build and sell your product.
Would love to know how to go about finding places that build physical "stuff" both at a prototype stage and at scale. I have hardware + software ideas but I'm not clear on how to build customized hardware (even simple stuff like plastic casings).<p>Alternatively, sales. Working at large software companies has given me a lot of exposure to software engineering and product management, but I rarely get to see the sales process.
Being able to translate tech to non-tech people. People who have great ideas and financial backing are fresh meat to technical sales folk, and that is a big stress factor for those who want to genuinely build something cool but don't have the confidence to verbalise their technical requirements. Translating the jargon to make them feel at ease and in control of the next step goes further than you might think.
Read the book "7 habits of highly effective people" it will give you some great insight and maybe help you develop your idea more.<p>As for non technical things that have helped me<p>1. Saying No more often
2. Cleaning out the trash (Eating Healthy, Organizing my schedule/home/projects and Cutting Nonsense Relationship)
3. Finding my anchor (The things that ground me, keep me centered and give me purpose. Like family time, a cold beer with a old friend, etc)
4. Understanding my mission (This is something a lot of people struggle with because most people don't know what they want to do with life.<p>For me the most non technical thing that can help anyone is having the mindset to discover, explore and learn new things.<p>I would love to read what you come up with so when you have something send it over.
Sales/lead generation. I'm an independent devops consultant at the moment, and while I'm doing well for myself 'now', I'd be a lot more confident about the future if I was confident in my ability to scare up work on my own independent of referrals, word of mouth, etc.