I graduated with a degree in computer science just over a year ago. I really liked my time in school, but most of it was focussed on theory and my first months as a professional SWE made me realize that I have no idea how to code. I really like the nature of programming, but I find it can be hard to keep up with others at work given the gap between us, so I've been reading and searching for different ideas to help me catch up to speed.<p>It might sound obvious, but my decision to start my own personal project (a simple database) on the side has really shown me to instinctually try to figure things out for myself, read tools' documentation and ask better questions to others. I've definitely noticed that this helps me when I'm at work.<p>What were some decisions you made that pushed you to become a better software engineer?
Writing tests. I got along years professionally without, employers weren't enforcing it. Over the years I think it made my code better structures, easier work/handover with other engineers, less feat to restructure code and ultimately it saved me from many small and big bugs. It doesn't have to be full coverage, or writing tests before code, any tests are better than none.
Not a "decision" as such, but getting more involved in open source has given me so much, and helped me build skills in:<p>- Navigating unfamiliar codebases<p>- Improving technical writing skills<p>- Keeping abreast of new tool/tech/methodologies/processes<p>- Maintaining and managing projects
When given the opportunity to work on software projects that I was clearly unqualified for, with engineers that were far more talented and smarter than me, I took it.