How to Keep Your Development Skills Up to Date
If you are a software developer, you work in one of the most dynamic fields. You have to keep your skills up to date in order to stay marketable. But if your company is a “laggard,” how do you prevent being left behind? Adam Seligman, vice president of developer relations at Salesforce.com, asks enterprise developers four questions to test their marketability. Don’t worry if you don’t like the answers; he also provides advice on what you should be doing and how to get there.
What Am I Working with?
Development practices have changed; applications are now apps, code is tested constantly, and projects happen in days not months. Developers need to be using the modern process and the latest frameworks (i.e., Rails, Django, and Play). If your organization is not developing this way, you have an opportunity to become an advocate for change. Make sure you start small so you increase your probability for success.
How Often Do I Put Code into Production?
To a non-developer this might seem like a strange question, but change management has dramatically transformed in the past five years. No longer is code delivered yearly or even quarterly; now code is released in small chunks, in very short time frames.
Developers working in a traditional waterfall shop have a huge adjustment to make when moving to these short release cycles. To make this transition, Seligman recommends reading Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup for a complete understanding of how this process works as well as for tips on introducing these processes into your organization.
Is My Organization a “Laggard?”
How difficult is it for you to deliver innovative products to the business’s end customer? Are company policies outdated for today’s mobile/social app structure? Again you will have to push for change. Focus on an app that delivers very specific and measurable value to your company’s end customer. When you succeed, more opportunities will open up, but first you must demonstrate the value of the technology and processes.
Do I Have a 2002 or a 2012 Resume?
So you read The Lean Startup and used the twelve steps for change but you are still in the same boat. It is probably time to move on to a more innovative environment. According to Seligman, your resume is no longer a piece of paper; it is “A browser search. It’s your LinkedIn page. It’s probably your Facebook page.” Your online presence defines you to everyone in your field and should show you are passionate about software development.
As someone who hires developers, I can tell you that passion for the work is the most important characteristic I look for in a candidate. Run a search on your name and ask yourself if you would be excited to hire that person.
Seligman’s questions provide an excellent guide to preventing career stagnation. Staying up to date takes effort, but the best developers love to code so it should be more fun than work. Keeping your skills sharp makes you more marketable and puts you in line for the best projects. Would you prefer spending all day correcting TPS reports or creating your company’s first mobile app?
There will always be a market for skilled and passionate developers. So make sure those words describe you.
