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I’ve worked in IT for over 10 years. Here are 5 things I wish I knew when I started

Sergei Vorniches on June 09, 2024

Hello, dear Dev.to community. I need to get some things off my chest, so here I am, hoping to share something useful with young IT professionals. O...

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Ben Sinclair • Jun 10

If you systematically dedicate time to development and job hunting – you will succeed.

There's no guarantee anything you do will ever make you "succeed" and I worry that this outlook is dangerous. It's "Disney thinking" - hard work will make you rich and respected (and possibly royalty; their movies are quite misleading).

The problem is that when you don't succeed, the logical inference is that you didn't work hard enough - you're lazy, or defective somehow. And since the majority of us won't get that golden dream, it's extremely unhealthy to hold this belief in the long term.

Idris Gadi • Jun 10

"Disney Thinking" is a nice metaphor I must say, distills to the point.
I think the main issue is how many define success, usually success is defined as an end goal that needs to be achieved, and it can be quite damaging.
Anyone who is reading this, remember anything from which you either learn, unlearn, or learn that this thing doesn't interest you is a success.

Red Ochsenbein (he/him) • Jun 10

Yep, exactly this type of 'toxic positivity' got me into downward spiral of 'more work -> less energy -> still not succeeding -> more work -> less energy -> still not succeeding' until there was no more energy left. I was asking myself 'how should I put in more energy when there is nothing left? and I still can't make it!'... go straight into Burnout... do not go over 'Start', don't take any money.

Shaobo Zhang • Jun 25

Quite. There're all sorts of factors out there dragging you away from the so called success, like the industry you're in and the persons you're working with. Being positive is vital, but understanding the environment is also a must-do.

Martin Baun • Jun 10 • Edited

Well said.
But learn to Pivot. There are loads of successful professionals out there, few of whom will tell you they didn't work hard and didn't analyze and then adjust. Know when.

George Johnson • Jun 14 • Edited

As someone coming up on just over 35 years in the IT biz, what's helped me survive is being a "jack of all trades", stay flexible and adaptable, close to #5.

If something calls to you and you feel it's something you want to work with then do it, even if it becomes a dead end and you have to walk away then you will have expanded your experience. I must have coded in close on 30 languages, used operating systems people under 30 have probably never even heard of, let alone will ever work on. Everything I've ever worked on from my first micro at age 9 in 1981, to messing around with my first PC in 1986 as a teen, right up to literally today working on Terraform with AWS and Azure, it's all just constant experience and exposure. I love working on certain things, automation is my "safe zone go-to" when I need to just chill at work and still get something done but I almost never say "no" to anything.

Just see everything you do as expanding your experience. It's the reason my manager has let go of many people but kept me and a colleague I've known for 25 years now, the second our manager says, "Guys could you take a look at....", me and my mate will be off and trying to out do each other on who can learn the nifitiest tricks about whatever it is! Even if it gets canned 3 weeks later, so what, we learned something.

M. Akbar Nugroho • Jun 10

+1. Your client is human. Learn how to speak with human. Many beginner only focus to sharpen their technical skill. Well, it's good, but for long terms career you should sharpen your softskill

Jake T. (Vampeyer ) • Jun 9

Thank you , this is truly pro content.

jacekgajek • Jun 11 • Edited

I'd add one advice, especially for people in USA. Don't do overhours. Never. If your "full day" is 8 hours, then after 8 hours turn off your computer and do something else, whatever you like to do in a spare time. In two years the only people who will remember that you did overhours will be your kids (or family in general).

Why USA? Well, because of stuff I seen on social media so I may have a false view, but it seems that in USA there is a mindset "put more hours -> earn more". No. If it works in some countries then it can work everywhere, just be assertive and don't look at your colleagues who maybe do overhours. It's their problem. It's easier on home office but I can't relate because I never did overhours (I'm a software developer with almost 10 years of experience).

Jan Küster • Jun 10 • Edited

6.) If you sign a contract as consultant developer, make sure that there is a clause that regulates payout/benefits if your efforts are used during a sales process. Otherwise all the benefits will go to the sales person while you're the one doing the actual job.

M.K. Kotrotsos • Jun 14

But you’re getting paid for your efforts leading up to the sales right? Never heard of this clause, been a consultant for 15 years. Interesting idea tho :)

Cesar Aguirre • Jun 10

Point#3 has been my worst career mistake: staying too long at a stagnated job hoping and praying for things to change without any action on my part.

Bereket Lemma • Jun 9

Thanks for sharing.

Michael Olusoji • Jun 10

Thank you for sharing 🙏🏿

tony • Jun 10

Thanks for sharing. I have also worked for 10 years in the IT field. In my opinion, every opportunity is valuable. I once left a job due to low salary and high effort, but I now regret that decision. After all, we are all human and everyone faces challenges. Many insights come with time. Consistency and perseverance teach us to endure and become more resilient. And not everyone may achieve success, but no one can succeed without effort.

Rajiv-Rago • Jun 11

Thank you for this! As a fresh graduate, one question I still have, though, is how to know when I should stick to a technology or pivot into another. IT is such a broad topic and I know I won't be able to learn everything, but should I pivot into technologies or roles that many companies need like test automation? Or do I stick to my strengths, say web development, even when I know it's harder to find a job?

Peter Vivo • Jun 10

Over 30+ years working experience: you are totally right, thx 4 share.

JAKE • Jun 9

thank you very much.
very useful.

Abijith Dhayananda • Jun 23

I liked the content but the way everything was phrased seemed a bit low on enthusiasm. I mean sharing was a really good option but, some points are really on the positives and why talk about negatives when you can gain a ton of experience from it? If a developer hates losing then I would say he has not joined the field out of his own free will or interest

mlr • Jun 19

I just read and listened to everything, googling every unknown word and term.

This is excellent advice. More generally, reading a lot (and listening to podcasts, YouTube videos, and other sources) builds new connections between the different knowledge bases you have and helps form an understanding of new topics and concepts. The more I've read, the more I've advanced my knowledge and my career.