This unique book provides you with a wealth of tips, tricks, best practices, and answers to the day-to-day questions that programmers face in their careers. It is split into three parts: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, providing the knowledge you need to get ahead in programming.About This Book• Over 50 essays with practical advice on improving your programming career• Practical focus gives solutions to common problems, and methods to become a better coder• Includes advice for existing programmers and those wanting to begin a career in programmingWho This Book Is ForThis book is useful for programmers of any ability or discipline. It has advice for those thinking about beginning a career in programming, those already working as a fully employed programmer, and for those working as freelance developers.What You Will Learn• Improve your soft skills to become a better and happier coder• Learn to be a better developer• Grow your freelance development business• Improve your development career• Learn the best approaches to breaking down complex topics• Have the confidence to charge what you're worth as a freelancer• Succeed in developer job interviewsIn DetailThis is an all-purpose toolkit for your programming career. It has been built by Jordan Hudgens over a lifetime of coding and teaching coding. It helps you identify the key questions and stumbling blocks that programmers encounter, and gives you the answers to them! It is a comprehensive guide containing more than 50 insights that you can use to improve your work, and to give advice in your career.The book is split up into three topic areas: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, each containing a wealth of practical advice. Coder Skills contains advice for people starting out, or those who are already working in a programming role but want to improve their skills. It includes such subjects as: how to study and understand complex topics, and getting past skill plateaus when learning new languages. Freelancer Skills contains advice for developers working as freelancers or with freelancers. It includes such subjects as: knowing when to fire a client, and tips for taking over legacy applications. Career Skills contains advice for building a successful career as a developer. It includes such subjects as: how to improve your programming techniques, and interview guides and developer salary negotiation strategies.Style and approachThis unique book provides over 50 insightful essays full of practical advice for improving your programming career. The book is split into three broad sections covering different aspects of a developer's career. Each essay is self-contained and can be read individually, or in chunks.
- 302 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
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Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
Table of Contents
Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
Credits
About the Author
www.PacktPub.com
eBooks, discount offers, and more
Why subscribe?
Customer Feedback
Preface
What this book covers
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Errata
Piracy
Questions
I. Coder Skills
1. Discovering the Tipping Point for Developers
Tipping point for developers
My own experience
The doubt machine
The painful process
The tipping point(s)
The first tipping point
The second tipping point
The secret
The book
The solution
2. Are Developers Born or Made? – Debunking the Myth of Prodigies
Are prodigies real?
The Mozart case study
Are developers born or made?
The tipping point
Why we love the prodigy myth
3. Do You Have to Be a Genius to Be a Developer?
The running man
Do you have to be a genius to be a developer?
The way the mind works
The reason
A smarter approach
4. How to Study and Understand Complex Topics?
A system for how to study
5. Effective Study Practices for Developers
Why traditional study habits don't work
An effective study practices case study
The reification example
The hard way
Additional negative effects
The comprehensive study system
Summary
6. Defining Deep Work and What It Means for Developers
Definition of deep work
The deep work strategy for developers
Taking action
Removing distractions
Study hard and smart
Multiple sessions
Summary
7. Task Switching Costs for Developers
A system for decreasing task switching costs
8. How to Use Willpower Limits Instead of Letting Them Use You?
What are willpower limits?
How many decisions do you make each day?
Why is willpower important?
Are willpower limits real?
When the willpower well runs dry
Saving up willpower
One outfit to rule them all
Being a copycat
Focusing willpower
Summary
9. Cramming Versus Consistent Study and a Study System that Works
10. Is Reading Important for Developers?
Why is reading important for developers?
CEOs and reading
Compounded learning
A compounded learning case study
The CEO who didn't have time to read
My reading system
The reading schedule
Audio books are books too!
Books are too expensive
Summary
11. Learning How to Code – Getting Past Skill Plateaus
What is a learning plateau?
False ceiling
Getting past skill plateaus
Proper information/resources
Best practices
Challenging/new tasks
Frustration = skill
Summary
12. Developer Learning Curve – Why Learning How to Code Takes So Long
What is the learning curve?
The developer learning curve
Liftoff
The twilight zone
The zone
A unique journey
Summary
13. Slowing Down to Learn How to Code Faster
Learn how to code faster
Our default mind
Hacking the mind
Slowing it down
Bend it like Beethoven
From classical music to coding
A practical system
14. Mental Models for Learning How to Code and Improve as a Developer
Mental models for the Kouros
What are mental models?
Mental models for developers
Summary
15. A Developer's Guide for Hacking Procrastination to Achieve Success
Root causes of procrastination
Hacking procrastination
Hacking perfectionism
Hacking the fear of success
Hacking the plan
Summary
16. The Problem with Procrastination for Developers
The problem with procrastination
Instant gratification
Baby steps to knock out procrastination
Baby coding steps
17. Practical Ways to Use the Pomodoro Technique as a Developer
Practical ways to use the Pomodoro Technique
Taking a break
Lifestyle versus fads
A lifestyle of productivity
Practical implementation
18. The Power of Making Mistakes – Learning by Failing
The secret weapon to mastery – making mistakes
Making mistakes – memory steroids
Mistakes force learning
Mistakes kill pride
Summary
19. Learn How to Code – The Guide to Memorization
The guide to memorization
Repetition
Smarter, not harder
Visual mental mapping
Short-term versus long-term memory
Implementing visual mental mapping
Taking a real-world example
Finding patterns
Copy and paste is the enemy
Not everything has to be memorized
20. A System for Learning a New Programming Language
21. Development Study Tips – Reverse Note-Taking
The problem with traditional note-taking
Reverse note-taking
Benefits of reverse note-taking
Narrowed focus
Story-based mindset
Forced repetition
Summary
II. Freelancer Skills
22. Tips for Organically Growing a Freelance Business
Organically growing a freelance business
Referral requests
Blogging
Expert positioning
Open source contribution
Social media marketing
Summary
23. Freelancing Tips – Knowing When to Fire a Client
My urgent client
When to fire a client
#1 – being treated like an employee
#2 – tyranny of urgent
#3 – toxic environment
The joy of firing a client
24. Dodging Silver Bullets for Scalable Freelance Projects
The problem with silver bullets
Silver bullet customization
Becoming a sharp shooter with code libraries
25. A Freelance Guide to Managing Advanced Features
Managing advanced features
The talent pool
The process
Kanban
The result
Summary
A caveat
26. Freelancer Interviews – Practical Tips for Taking Over a Legacy Application
27. Five Tips for Taking Over a Legacy Application
Tips for taking over a legacy application
Creating a test suite
Adding new features via TDD
Breaking out specific features into microservices
DRY up the codebase
Summary
28. Guide to Freelancing – Starting Over Versus Refactoring
The legacy scenario
Starting over versus refactoring
#1 – removing the fear factor
#2 – analyzing the 80/20 principle
#3 – building an automated bug list
#4 – becoming the client
When should you start over?
Summary
29. Should You Use TDD on Freelance Projects? – Comparing Quality Versus Speed
Quality versus Speed
TDD on freelance projects
Making the decision
Giving no choice
Letting the client decide
Using common sense
30. Automating Client Updates as a Freelance Developer
Importance of daily updates
An example of client update
Automating client updates
Version control to the rescue
Summary
31. Freelance Requirement Elicitation – A Guide for Feature Development
Freelance requirement elicitation
How it started
The build
The problem
Who was at fault?
A better way
Step 1
Step 2
A better ending
Summary
32. How to Remotely Demo Work for Freelance Clients?
Why proper demonstrations are important
Review of services to remotely demo work
Screencast
A remote desktop
PowerPoint
Summary
33. Defining Project Success as a Freelance Developer
A clear end
What is scope creep?
When scope creep isn't scope creep
When scope creep goes badly
Based on requirements
Based on a story
The sign off
Summary
34. Top Project Management Tools for Freelancers
Top project management tools
Basecamp
Trello
LeanKit
ProWorkflow
Wrike
GitHub
Summary
35. Top Freelance Bookkeeping Options for Developers
Freelance bookkeeping options
FreshBooks
How it works
FreshBooks additional features
Weaknesses
QuickBooks
NetSuite
Summary
36. Learning the Secret to Get New Clients as a Freelancer
Where to find new clients
The challenge in getting new clients with outsourcing services
Getting new clients as a freelancer
Proposal material
Sending out constant proposals
The result
Summary
37. Managing Client Conflicts as a Freelancer
Strategies for managing client conflicts
38. Examples of Freelance Portfolios That Help Acquire New Clients
Examples of freelance portfolios
Social network utility
An API tool
An accounting application
A scheduling application
A frontend application ...
Table of contents
- Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career
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Yes, you can access Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career by Jordan Hudgens in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Computer Science & Computer Science General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.