Thread by @dmokafa

It has been 10 years since I wrote my first line of code. Time flies!

Here is a list of 10 honest takes on the job and the industry.

🧵👇

1️⃣ Years of experience is a poor proxy for skill level.

It is not about how many years you spend as a developer.

It is about how much knowledge and experience you fit into those years.

2️⃣ The language-agnostic mindset is way more important than any skill in a specific framework or language.

The tools you learned yesterday can be easily deprecated by tomorrow.

Don't go behind cool frameworks! Go behind solid software engineering disciplines and methodologies.

3️⃣ We are short on good professionals

It's not true that there are not many engineers in the market. There are many of them.

But there is only a few who strives for quality and clean software solutions.

If you want to be differentiated in this market, then strive for quality!

4️⃣ Doing agile is not equal to being agile.

Having daily standups and other mandatory meetings won't make you agile.

Being agile is more about delivering value, being flexible to changes and practicing continuous improvement, rather than following blindly mandatory meetings.

5️⃣ Testability is everything!

Faster and stable releases at lower costs and with more satisfied end-users. That is what every company wants.

We can only reach this by having easily testable software solutions.

Neglecting the importance of testing should be never an option.

6️⃣ The most efficient way to write software is by taking babysteps.

Software engineering is a complex field. There are always many reasons that it can go wrong.

Therefore it's essential to work in short cycles, to get immediate feedback and to continuously verify our software.

7️⃣ There is no such thing silver bullet in this industry.

Software engineering is not black and white. Every problem domain requires different approaches and solutions.

Best practices are not always the best practices.

Pick your stack and apply techniques based on the domain!

8️⃣ Teamwork makes the dreamwork

It does not matter how hard you work, you can not make a big impact alone.

We can only reach incredible results by working in a high functioning software engineering team where it is a pleasure to work in.

9️⃣ Soft skills are equally important to technical skills.

You can be the best software engineer out there, but if you can not communicate and sell your hard skills then you won't be successful.

If you want to get far in this industry, then invest in your soft skills.

🔟 The journey is more important than the goal.

The goal of being a software engineer isn’t to acquire certificates or to finally release a product.

It's about who you become, how many amazing people you meet with, and how much fun and difference you will make on your journey.