Want to change careers and learn programming? You think it is a prospective career? There is much more to professional programming than just writing code. From working with a team to solving version problems, you will not reach the big leagues without other critical tools. We ask you, and other professional developers, what skills you should have, and this is what we learned.
With all that is said about learning to write code, it is easy to think that knowing a programming language is all that is required in a professional developer. However, as in other jobs, it takes more than one skill to be great. We can’t list everything that each programmer needs to learn programming, but here we name some of the most important skills (besides writing code) that you should work on if you want to be a good developer.
Learn to communicate:
While some media portray programming as a solitary work, the reality is that it requires a lot of communication and work with others. If you work for a company, you will be part of a development team and they will expect you to communicate and work well with other people. The knowing how to speak and write clearly and convincingly is even more important for the independent developer:
In your professional career, especially as a self taught programmer – if you want to learn how to program – you will spend a lot of time communicating clearly, concisely and convincingly – thinking from the perspective of the one receiving the message – in emails to colleagues, managers , clients / partners and hopefully one day with executives. And since you’re used to doing things twice as fast as others (we’re smart, right?) It’s frustrating, because it’ll take you twice as long to do it right. As an independent developer, this skill is indispensable – you will learn it by necessity along the way.
Develop your communication skills:
To eliminate this obstacle you will have to learn programming on the fly, you will want practice in the real world (just how you improved your code!). Post short articles, read emails aloud, face criticism and above all, create an experience for yourself; just like you did with your development projects. If you do not have the opportunity to develop a team at this time, consider taking communication, speaking and writing classes to learn it in the best way.
Improve your problem solving skills:
Many developers claim that understanding a programming language is only a small part of programming basics. Knowing how to solve problems is another important skill that is often needed in beginners. Compare software development with putting together a puzzle: you need to figure out how to connect one piece of your program to another, and it’s not always easy. This is the key of how to program.
However, solving problems is a difficult skill to learn. The practice is the key here. Take small projects such as developing applications to take notes, calculators or anything that interests you. When you do, focus on the logic behind the code, learn to think like a computer, instead of just understanding the language.
Problem solving is a big part of what we do. Computers are rare, and you’ll usually need to learn again what you know about problems. To be effective, you need to understand how a computer operates and understand how the CPU processes information. Personally, I hate to assemble, but I am grateful to have taken a course focused precisely on that. Programmers who know how to assemble a computer have a better idea of how to implement things.
Start learning some development tools immediately:
If you are in the University, you will soon start working as a team in learning to code. WindowsSVN and GitHub are two examples of development tools that teams use to work together when creating and updating open source applications. These are available to anyone, but companies use Subversion and Apache SVN, among others. You should come to a job understanding the basics of how these systems work so you can execute them and learn to program with your teammates. Learning requires time and practice, so you will be left behind if you enter a job without knowing how to use at least one of them.
