Andy.Writing

Software is a team sport. It rarely only takes one person to create software from start to finish without relying on skills from other disciplines and experience levels to make it possible. To get the most out of your team and juniors, you should aim to enable them and foster an environment that is safe and supportive and you should aim to aid their professional (and personal) development in different ways.

I never once had a vision of what I was building. I knew vaguely what I wanted to achieve and what I needed to allow the user to do, but no thought at all was given to how it would look or feel like. I knew that I wasn't good at making things look decent and I would get frustrated at trying so I just lost interest in improving. Could I actually get better though?

Exactly a decade ago I'd just finished my first semester at University studying Computer Science and I'm not going to lie, I didn't take too well to it. I was convinced I'd never get the hang of anything and I was seriously contemplating dropping out. I'm glad I stuck with though it because 10 years later I'm living in London working as a senior software engineer with a tech blog where you're my 5th reader this year! Look at me now, mum!

I've been a full-stack developer for the past 2 years, of which I was the only full-stack developer on my previous project. I feel that it suits me. I don't like staring at the same thing for too long and it scratches that itch that I have; the need to know how something works from back-to-front.

Nobody should get too comfortable in their job, especially in the tech industry. Getting too comfortable normally means a decrease in learning. The learning curve has started to level off and you've become content. This may suit your situation, but it shouldn't.

I'm a backend software developer by education and trade. Sure, I dabble in full-stack and have cobbled together a few frontend projects in a hobbyist sort of way, but the main chunk of my knowledge and experience lies in (but is not limited to) Java and C technologies.

Tech moves fast. No duh, right? This is not new information, and I was fully aware of the momentum of the industry that I'm in. This is also not my first time at Silicon Milkaroundabout. Silicon Milkroundabout (which I'll shorthand to SMR) is a tech job fair which boasts to be like none other, with around 200 companies ranging from big names like Facebook, StackOvervlow and the BBC, to smaller start-ups going through their first round of funding to more established start-ups who are becoming well known and already making their mark.