How to level down as a Junior Engineer:<p><pre><code> 1. Start with the kool-aid: Read Hackers and Painters.
2. Appeal to your fragile ego: Read The Bipolar Lisp Programmer.
3. Learn actually interesting stuff: Read On Lisp, PAIP, Lisp in Small Pieces,
The * Schemer series.
4. Implement your own Scheme. With the help of your dog.
5. Further down the rabbit hole: Read SICP.
6. Unlearn Java, JS and PHP. Reject job offers containing such keywords.
7. Engage in CL vs Scheme internet flame wars.
8. Spend the most of your fertile years trying to find the perfect Emacs
configuration (spoiler: it doesn’t exist).
9. When the choice arises: Choose to learn Shen instead of Clojure due to the
latter being too impure for you.
</code></pre>
Congratulations! You are now unhireable. Not that you would like a job anyway.
My advice:<p>- Never call yourself a Junior Engineer. If you have experience, even just a little, you are an experienced engineer.<p>- Develop your communication skills. The barrier to entry to start presenting at meetups is extremely low, do that with the goal of presenting at tech conferences.<p>- Skip the side projects. Of the 10 or so water walkers I've worked with, 0 have github accounts.<p>- Don't buy into the last paragraph of this blog. Software development isn't hard, and the last thing you want to do is think you need to constantly keep up with the latest and greatest tech. If you step back it looks a lot like an industry that doesn't know whether it's coming or going, don't fall for the trap.
My continuing critique of posts like these is that they miss far more fundamental keys to "leveling up": energy level and psychological issues.<p>I bring this up because in my experience the people who outright fail to "level up" and are actively seeking out posts like this often lack the fundamental ability to follow through on any advice they're given, regardless of whether they agree with it or how good it is.<p>Perhaps the best example is side projects. The first thing you need isn't a good idea, "soft skills", or even being particularly skilled at coding. The first thing you need is enough time and energy to keeping going after an 8+ hour workday, combined with enough confidence to push forward.<p>For most people that means getting in shape, eating healthy, getting a full night's sleep every night, developing a growth mindset of some variety, dealing with anxiety, making day-to-day tasks more efficient, etc. Otherwise all the good advice in the world is only going to lead to fragmented, half-baked sputtering efforts that ignore the root of the problem.<p>As for the people who have all that stuff taken care of, then I guess this information is of some value if it's the first time they're seeing it. Otherwise it's largely a rehash of other innumerable professional development blog posts. Which doesn't mean it's bad, but the people who really need the help probably can't use it, and the people who can use it likely don't need it.
IME, as someone who leveled up from jr to eventually sr in the same org over a 10yr period, the best advice I can give is be confident in your skills and be willing to take calculated risks.<p>Teams are always chasing deadlines and resolving unforeseen issues as they arise. The go-getter willing to volunteer to fix a problem that isn't already on their plate gets noticed.<p>You won't be assigned 'save the day' type work outright as a jr, but the team will find itself in a tight spot, and you need to volunteer to go above and beyond to help fix XYZ even though it's outside your domain.<p>If you succeed, you have everything to gain. Fail? You're the jr, at least you gave it the old college try while chipping away at your key tasks.
In my opinion, side projects don't have to ship. Some people do need to ship side projects, some people do not. It's important to challenge yourself with code, absolutely, but enforcing deadlines on yourself is usually just met with disappointment when you don't do it. Additionally, by allowing yourself to stop working on side projects when you want, you can focus on doing the parts of coding that you enjoy which means you can find your preferences and passion.<p>However, I do believe that everyone should be able to set up a server and a web page to show off the functionality of any side project they make (or an app). The best part about any side project is taking your phone out with your friends and showing it off.
If you're interested in php and/or laravel I highly recommend laracast. He'll go through the exercise of creating a certain feature, and then refactoring that feature with an explanation as to why. And often, that refactor is the difference between entry level code that just works, to intermediate code that's scalable and easy to read. I highly recommend it.
This posting really irks me. It's reminiscent of those "agile coach" marketers that tell you "this is the REAL way to do agile".
The only thing I agree with is the mentoring. If you have a desire to learn and you can find a strong and supportive mentor, then you will go far. All the other stuff in the article feels like high school popularity contest tips.
You don't need to do all those things to "level up". Side projects are nice, but you'll find most people - especially in corporate/business software - don't have side projects. Nor should they have to. People have families and duties outside of software, so I hate how there's a cultural push to be a huge github contributor; it pressures ordinary folks to take time away from their other passions. Just be a good person and willing to learn, that should take you far enough.
"At least one per year that you actually ship (the hard part) at a minimum."<p>I would say that this would probably be on top of my list, because shipping a working and usable software is a testament to all the learning, communication, mentoring and pairing that you would get as you level up.
My opinion for the article:<p>Finding a mentor is good, finding multiple mentors is better, just like the article says you don't need someone to be with you at all times, you need to learn from someone, if you have the chance to learn from multiple experienced people around you please do.<p>Do not involve in the community just because you want to level up, do it because the community helps you and you want to contribute.<p>Reading should be advice for any human being, not just for leveling up tech skills, you could say the same for soft skills.<p>Side projects are not obligatory, but if you have the drive to do them you should, it can be a fun and learning experience.