Reddit reviews Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual
We found 22 Reddit comments about Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Here's my list of the classics:
General Computing
Computer Science
Software Development
Case Studies
Employment
Language-Specific
C
Python
C#
C++
Java
Linux Shell Scripts
Web Development
Ruby and Rails
Assembly
Some book recommendations:
Others that are great and related but not as "necessary" as the above three:
Unrelated to "better code" but still great:
This has been my biggest focus for the last few months.
1st realization was "Networking events" weren't a place where you join the hive-mind, exchange emails and share secrets on openings in the job market. You're basically are making friends. Get them to think: "This would be a good person to work with. I better answer his message so they'll answer mine"
John Sonmez (Author of Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual): https://simpleprogrammer.com/
Toastmasters: https://www.toastmasters.org/ This is like a public speaking club for anyone to join. My place is filled with 8 nice sweet, old people who want to speak better at church. I feel pretty comfortable speaking there.
This has been my 3 step plan:
My youtube story telling playlist
Books/Audiobooks:
You'll see this one recommended a lot :
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It's a classic and for good reason. I always find myself going back to it. In fact there are quite a few books I'd argue that build upon it
Another very good one is by Leil Lowndes called
How to Talk to Anyone. It gives a lot of useful tips on how to make conversations exciting and vibrant.
Also, John Sonmez's books are really good too because they focus on communication skills from a developers point of view. I really liked these because it also teaches how to develop your career and start your own brand:
These are just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are plenty more. Hope that helped!
Yes!
i'm mostly self taught, on and off for years - got burned out and decided to do a web development bootcamp (online). I worked really hard juggling it and a full time job with a crazy schedule. I got very lucky and landed a great job before I even finished the bootcamp.
Learning the skills is a challenge, but overall it's not all that bad, and if you do not want to keep learning for the rest of your life, then this is NOT the job for you.
Learn things and BUILD STUFF. Make some webapps. Come up with an idea, and make it. Set some small goals like "make an app with Vue.js" or something like that. The more you get some hands-on the faster you will make mistakes and the faster you will LEARN. Mistakes are essential to learning, do not be afraid of them - embrace them!
The real important part is just being competent and having the soft skills to work with people. My previous job I had to deal with a lot of things and I learned a lot - that came in very handy coming into this role for sure.
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READ THIS:
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397
It's a great overview into how to just deal with being a software engineer. Very high level and not technical at all, it will give you some insight.
They seem a like reasonable starting point I think. Repetition is the mother of mastery, the more books the better (in addition to applying what is learned).
Since Mosh is calling out learning fundamentals as important to becoming a good C# developers, I would personally also recommend some general (non C# specific books) too for who are starting out in software development:
There's a ton more, but those are a few that stood out to me. Essentially the more the merrier in my opinion - books, courses, videos, tutorials, and so on. The books I'm recommending here focus on adopting the developer mindset and being successful at it. That's part of the puzzle.
The other part is understanding the technical details including the programming language and frameworks you intend to use.
And finally, for learning about C#, I do highly recommend Mosh's videos/courses (some are free on YouTube, others available on Udemy). He's got a unique ability to explain things clearly and simply in a way that beginners can pick up quickly.
What I'd do is check out his free content first, and if you agree his style is ideal for learning, an investment in one of his courses is well worth it since he'll cover a lot more breadth and depth on each of the topics and they're organized into a super consumable package rather than scouring the internet for various topics.
If you know social skills are your problem area preventing you from getting a job, then why not work on them? Despite what you seem to think, social skills are not some innate ability, they're learned, just like any other skill.
Try putting yourself in more situations where you're forced to interact with people. Read some books on the subject. Find and join a ToastMasters group. If you need a job and at least some semi-relevant experience, try getting a low level help desk position.
Honestly, its the interviewers job to figure out if you will be able to handle it. They have more information on the job than you do at this point (usually). Interviews dont have to be stressful. Just go into it and talk about what you know, what your experience is whether its theoretical or practical, and be personable. Highlight things in your past that show you genuinely enjoy learning and the field and you'll show that you're willing/able to close the gap in knowledge in a timely manner. If you don't get the job, no sweat. Keep learning, keep looking.
Don't go into interviews trying to convince anybody you're the best man for the job, go into them to have a conversation with the interviewers to determine if the job is a good fit for you.
I strongly recommend this book, even for non software developers.
It talks about how to approach interviews, how to decide is you want to work for yourself or for someone else, and a lot of other useful non technical skills that can boost confidence: https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397
Don't limit yourself to android developers, this is something all programmers have to face so there is advice from everywhere :)
/u/VasiliyZukanov recommended me John Sommez's "Soft Skills" book recently.
Chapter 3 "Learning how to Lean - How to teach you yourself" is very good on this topic
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397
Crucial Conversations
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-Second/dp/0071771328
A Seat at the Table: IT Leadership in the Age of Agility
https://www.amazon.com/Seat-Table-Leadership-Age-Agility/dp/1942788118
Soft Skills
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1617292397
Trust
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/184046531X
I have two books I want to recommend. They aren't the best books aimed at your specific situation. But they are really good books that helped me immensely and they will probably help you as well.
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397
This book isn't about PHP or programming at all. It's about everything you should know in order to be successful in your programming career. A big focus of the book is how to become better at learning so that's pretty much step 0.
http://learnyouahaskell.com/
This book is about learning an entirely different programming language that you're probably never going to use. The thing is this book made the single biggest impact on the way I think about programming out of anything I've ever done. The goal of reading this book is not to be able to switch from PHP to Haskell but to learn about functional programming and learn how these things could help you in your daily life. Also the book is incredibly entertaining and funny so even if you don't end up using any of the information in there (which would be hard for me to believe) it will be a very entertaining read.
I highly recommend you check out the book Soft Skills: A Software Developers Survival Manual. I think it's what your looking for.
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478458351&sr=8-1&keywords=Soft+Skills%3A+The+software+developer%27s+life+manual
One idea is reading more about soft-skills and process stuff, rather than nitty-gritty tech stuff. Books on Agile for example are great. I also listen to a lot of podcasts in that kinda scenario.
Some books that might be good for you:
- https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Agile-Basics-Robert-Martin/dp/0135781868
- https://pragprog.com/book/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition
- https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397
- https://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Project-DevOps-Helping-Business/dp/0988262592
Quello che dici è vero.
A nessuno piace, la gran parte degli sviluppatori ha un immotivato ribrezzo per le virtù relazionali e affronta le ricerca di lavoro navigando tra una job board e l'altra o rispondendo alle email di qualche recruiter. I migliori lavori (leggi: quelli più pagati), e dispiace anche a me dirlo, non vengono mai pubblicizzati o messi in mano ai recruiter.
Consiglio una lettura molto interessante: Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual. Fategli un po' la tara e non prendete tutto come oro colato, ma è un libro che trabocca di buon senso.
Congratulations! That's a big step. Be proud that you were able to make the switch. Not many people manage to transform ideas into results.
I think there are four areas on which you need to focus, in order to go from mediocre to great. Those areas are:
Now, these areas don't include things like marketing yourself or building valuable relationships with coworkers or your local programming community. I see those as being separate from being great at what you do. However, they're at least as influential in creating a successful and long-lasting career.
Let's take a look at what you can do to improve yourself in those four areas. I'll also suggest some resources.
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1. Theoretical foundation
Foundational computer science. Most developers without a formal degree have some knowledge gaps here. I suggest taking a MOOC to remediate this. After that, you could potentially take a look at improving your data structures and algorithms knowledge.
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2. Working knowledge.
I'd suggest doing a JavaScript deep-dive before focusing on your stack. I prefer screencasts and video courses for this, but there are also plenty of books available. After that, focus on the specific frameworks that you're using. While you're doing front-end work, I also suggest you to explore the back-end.
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3. Software engineering practices.
Design patterns and development methodologies. Read up about testing, agile, XP, and other things about how good software is developed. You could do this by reading the 'Big Books' in software, like Code Complete 2 or the Pragmatic Programmer, in your downtime. Or, if you can't be bothered, just read different blog posts/Wikipedia articles.
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4. Soft skills.
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Some closing notes:
- For your 'how to get started with open source' question, see FirstTimersOnly.
- If you can't be bothered to read or do large online courses, or just want a structured path to follow, subscribe to FrontendMasters and go through their 'Learning Paths'.
- 4, combined with building relationships and marketing yourself, is what will truly differentiate you from a lot of other programmers.
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Sorry for the long post, and good luck! :)
There's a lot of good general coding advice on here so I'll keep my post relevant to life stuff. I came into web development after being an undiagnosed bipolar alcoholic for several years. Originally, I wanted to become a web designer but I quickly grew fascinated by the back-end development of a site and my skill set grew quickly.
One of the hardest challenges you will face is when this stuff is no longer new and exciting. You will have moments when it's hard to push yourself to code but like running, you have to push past the wall. A good book is Softskills for Software Developers https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397 you should check it out.
First off I would look at what companies in particular you want. You could even start networking if they have an online presence, but at the very least you could find out what is booming in Iowa or KC based on the actual job market. Learning a language for the sole purpose of learning the language is kind of a waste of time, since it seems like you already have years of web dev experience in one form or another and aside from basic familiarity with an IDE and source control I doubt there's much difference to an employer who wants to know if you're a good fit with the people and team(s) you'll be working on.
Specializing is always good, but this is something that you can write your resume to reflect. Remember it's not a meritocracy. Companies don't hire best candidates, they hire best impressions. Becoming a "Master" in any language in the span of 7 months without actually working on a project team is basically impossible. But you could learn the fundamentals of a few, take a few Udacity courses for instance...
This and more is covered in a really good book by John Sonmez called Soft Skills http://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397
Ah Midwesterner! Ok Chicago is a great midwest market! Maybe the current market there needs enterprise web developers more so than PHP developers for example.
On learning the business side it sounds like you should pick up some books on the business side of software development Soft Skills is a good one!
Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual https://www.amazon.com/dp/1617292397/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fLMdzbJG99MF3
You can consider about market yourself.
You can get started with this Soft skill for developer book
And this is the author's youtube channel.
I would highly recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Skills-software-developers-manual/dp/1617292397
I would also look into joining a local Toastmaster's club.
If you do those 2 things you'll definitely develop some great soft skills.
Besides the Soft Skills book I also like the Soft Skills Engineering podcast
Amazon - Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual
Publisher - Overview of chapters & free chapter downloads
Give it a look, especially section three about learning. The book goes over a lot of things that can possibly help you out. If you end up wanting to buy it, you can sign up for an audible account and get the audio version for free.