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The Career Advice I Wish I Had

Ali Spittel on October 21, 2019

There are so many things I wish I knew before I became a professional developer. Or a professional at all. I know I'm in a position of privilege as...
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Andy Zhao (he/him)

A lot of this is super relatable to me as someone going through their "junior to mid" level phase. Thanks for sharing!

Btw awesome cover image :)

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Brian Rinaldi

Great advice Ali!

Since it seems relevant to the idea of "making friendships in the industry", I am running a free, online meetup this week with Wesley Faulkner specifically on the topic of professional networking this week. He's going to discuss how to help devs get over the awkwardness they may feel networking. cfe.dev/events/networking-for-deve...

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Alexis Ortiz Ojeda

Hey Ali! Thanks for this amazing article with very valuable information. I couldn't have asked for a better article right now that I am in the job search process. I will definitely be applying all of this along the way! Keep up the great articles, they are extremely helpful! Thank you again!

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Saphirah J Pociluyko (she/her)

Hi Ali a TA in my full stack web dev bootcamp forward me your article. Thank you for writing this article on career it has been very helpful. I was wondering what was the name podcast you were referring to in your article. I notice the link was broken.
The reason is I want to explore more into writing desktop apps that send people to space.
Or just write code that get me into space.

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João Vítor Monteiro

This is a great article, we need more career advice in this site.

Because the IT industry grows so much, there's people from diverse backgrounds learning tech from tutorials and guides, which draws a great focus and importance to the tech stack and knowledge. But, at the end of the day, it is also a job and they'll have to deal with job problems.

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Tim Downey

Lots of great advice as usual! 🙂 One part that caught my eye in particular was the section on T-Shaping your knowledge.

It can be tempting to learn all the shiny new things that come out, but it isn’t necessary. Learn one thing in depth, and then from there carry that knowledge over to other topics.

One thing I struggled with starting out (and honestly still do even though I'm solidly into my career) is figuring out where to go into depth. When everything is so appealing its hard to make the conscious decision to focus your efforts on a particular topic -- and even once you've made that decision there is the ever lingering FOMO.

I'm curious how you (and others here as well) chose where to dive deep.

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cloudier

I completely agree that it's not easy to find this sort of career development advice. I also worked out a good number of the things on your list for myself and I'm looking forward to trying out some of your other tips – thanks for taking the time to write this up! :)

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Zaynaib (Ola) Giwa

This was an enjoyable read. I resonated with the "Find the right niche for you" advice. I spent so much time doing front-end development when it gave me no joy. I wished someone would have introduced me to backend programming sooner. Well, you live and you learn.

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kurisutofu

The question about salary may be illegal in the US but not everywhere else.
This is a question that I am asked regularly, close to every time.

I usually give an inflated number.

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Salman Kazmi

This is great advice. Thanks for taking out the time to put this all up. Really appreciate.

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nancysellars

Such an inspiring informative and very helpful authentic post. Thanks so much. Nancu

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Ayush

So awesome 🚀

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Tori Crawford

Amazing advice Ali. There were a few things in here that came for me at the perfect time. Thank you for sharing.

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negue

Wow , such a deep topic (s) , I guess I'll have to read multiple times until this ... "mantra" is manifested.

Thank you.

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Ardalan

You wrote you trusted wrong people was you right?

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drdougtheman

Can you explain your private repository? I'm curious!

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Wilfred

Wonderful article with so much wisdom 🙏

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Pearl Oyunbaatar

Great advice :) Thank you Ali!

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Biron Clark

This is great advice, and really in-depth! Thanks for putting this together.

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Zoe-KL

Thank you so much! I'm just starting out & the advice here is invaluable!

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dorothykiz1

Thanks for this Ali , glad I get to keep this for reference to guide me on this journey

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Cyprian

Thanks for all you do man