It Is Hard to Stand as Software Developer

To become a software developer is easy, but it is hard when we want to become a great and successful software developer. There is no easy way if you want to reach that. In order to get you there, you need a lot of hard work, dedication, perseverance and passion.

In my journey in the world of software development, there are some obstacles and challenges to become a reliable software developer. So, based on my experience, there are a few things that you need to pay attention if you want to become a reliable software developer.

1. You need to comprehend with programming language or the framework that you are using

It is not about memorizing the framework documentation but understanding the concept or understanding how the framework works. I saw some developers are afraid to look deeply into the framework’s source code. “Look deeply” means to analyze the existing code in the framework and to understand how it works and then asking yourself about why these lines can do this and why those lines can do that.

2. Start to read more code

Some software developer doesn’t want to spend more time to read code from another developer. They just want to spend time writing code that only they already know. If you only do that then it is hard for you to become a reliable software developer.

You should try to learn and comprehend the source code of open source application or open source library that has been written by other developers. Then you can try to modify something in their code and do some experiment with it.

3. Consider to learn a different programming language or framework

Instead of spend your time with one or two programming language or framework, it is better for you to learn something else. Because this can make your programming skills even more honed. It can polish your current skills to the next level as well. And also it can help you to understand better about the programming concepts.

4. Be a perfectionist

Perfectionist here means making the code that you have created really really the best version. If it is not perfect yet, then you need to improve the quality of your code until it become perfect — You can learn about how to develop a clean code.

So, don’t settle for the code that you have now. Learn more about programming concepts and look for the code that are less perfect and need to improve.

5. Make a target you want to achieve

If you don’t have a goal then your journey will not touch the finish line. Or the worst thing is that you only running on the spot, you’re not going anywhere.

So, you must make a target that you want to catch, and promise yourself that you must achieve it no matter what. For example: “I want to create an to do list app using React JS as frontend and Node JS as backend in 7 days. I am going to start today.