Developers spend a lot of time in isolation, focusing on their code and the challenges associated with it. With so much thinking time dedicated to one project, developers need to share their learnings, insights, and progress with others in the community.
If you’re reading this article, you already understand how important it is to share your knowledge. You don’t need me to tell you why it’s necessary; that comes naturally as part of your development process.
However, if you’re unsure why blogging is so beneficial as a developer or have no idea where to start, keep reading.
This blog post will cover four reasons why every developer should blog and the value that blogging can provide.
#1 Developer Community Is Vital 🚀
The developer community is a powerful tool in your developer tool belt. It not only helps you improve but also allows you to collaborate and work with other developers. Forming a community online is challenging, but there are many ways to do it.
Once you have a following, you can use your blog to communicate updates, provide code examples, and generally connect with others in the developer community.
If you have leant a new programming language or a concept, you can help people learn more about it.
#2 Strengthen Your Resume and Skillset 💡
Writing blog posts is an excellent way to demonstrate your coding skills and strengthen your resume. If you’re looking to prove your skills, blogging is a great way to do it. When you write blog posts, you can include screenshots of your code or walkthroughs of how certain functions or components work.
You can also use your blog to explain complex concepts in a way that’s easy for others to understand.
Be sure to use relevant keywords to boost your visibility. This can make your posts easier to find by recruiters and hiring managers looking to strengthen their teams with top talent.
#3 Collaborate With Other Developers 💯
One of the biggest reasons why you should blog is that you'll be able connect and collaborate with other fellow developers.
When you write a blog post, you are helping other developers learn from your experience and expertise.
If there’s a specific issue you’re passionate about, blogging can facilitate dialogue, bringing people together around common goals.
#4 You'll Have a Voice in the Community 👋
Unlike many other business environments, you'll have a voice in the developer community. This is important for developers who want to be part of the conversation.
Hiring managers look for candidates who have an online presence and can contribute their thoughts & ideas to the broader community (DevRel roles).
This is a way to show your passion for programming and make a difference. The developer community is diverse and complex. You can use your blog to become a contributor and bridge the gap.
Conclusion
Blogging is an essential component of any developer’s career. It allows you to share your learnings, strengthen your resume, and build a brand for yourself.
You can use your blog to collaborate with other developers, customers, and create valuable content. Whether you want to improve your skills or share your knowledge and expertise, blogging is an excellent way to do it.
Top comments (22)
This argument seems to assume that developers work on open-source software. I'd wager that most developers work on closed-source software and so can't blog about it publicly.
This argument also seems to assume that all developers are good writers. Based on many blog posts on this site, they're not; or the writing itself is OK, but the formatting is terrible and becomes too much of a distraction.
Lastly, not all developers want to blog. It's often difficult just to get many developers to write comments and documentation!
Yeah, not everyone should blog.
Writing good blogs takes a lot of time, which is fine if you like writing and are fairly good at it. Blogging can also be a good idea if you want to improve your writing skills. But you shouldn’t blog only because you feel you have to; bad blogs can even harm your chances of getting hired!
Fortunately, there are plenty of other things besides writing that one can do to “build a brand” (which in my experience isn’t actually that important).
It is very possible to blog about concepts you learn at work without sharing your "not for public" closed-source software.
A good way way become better at writing is by practice. Improving communications skills through writing will help in a developer's career.
Fair enough. Sometimes I don't want to code but oh well, it pays the bills.
Very well said Paul! 👏
Thanks for bringing this up, exactly what I had in mind (about NDA and stuff).
Totally agree with this, I personally tried many times to start blogging, but due to lack of time, I failed to do so. But will try to be regular and give back what I learned from such an amazing community.
Yes, you are right. It's really difficult to be consistent with blogging. :)
These are all solid arguments. I try for everyone to blog I know that not everybody is going to be keen to go down this route. But in one case you become better at reading and writing your own documentation.
Yes, right Andrew!
Every dev should be writing! The medium is not as important as the action. The biggest benefit is personal and cognitive. There are a number of studies that show how writing, using a pen is best, improves retention, allows the brain to categorize and organize thoughts and patterns. So, get out the pen and paper, or stylus and tablet and start writing.
Also, the act of writing does have a positive impact on ones communication skills.
Whether it is private (journal) or public (blog), writing is an essential tool in anyone's life.
It definitely takes time blogging, I agree that it provides a timeline of your journey and when you stuck referring back to your own works feels so good.
Exactly :)
Don't forget... a developer could build their own blog, so it's another project idea :p
Well Said Brad :)
I think opening an own insta page and post coding or tech related content is also a good thing.
@mbarre @dougniel @pluaki @spencer_forrest_opt @ronan_euzen_eeae443fab62c @sverolle : this is the way 😎
Writing here count as a blog?
Of course, you are free to select any platform, or perhaps you want to develop your own 👀
blogging takes a lot of time and energy, you have to do it for years, also you should think about making your own business and not strengthening resume for all your life, making your own business is best item in resume
Another thing is that a lot of the blog posts I see are flat out wrong. In many cases, they even get the simple stuff wrong. (If I had a nickel for every wrong explanation of
constin C/C++, I'd be rich.) And then such blogs cause the wrong information to propagate. The value of traditional reviewers and editors in peer-reviewed publications has unfortunately gone way down ever since blogging became a thing.If you're going to blog, please make damned sure that what you're writing is actually true. Check the language standard or specification.
I totally agree with you on this Paul. Before you post anything to educate others, it's important to make sure the content is right for the end reader.