Essential Developer Skills not Taught in University
I was always baffled how little Universities actually do to prepare Engineers for the real world of Software Development.
There are many things that I see missing.
But here’s the top three Skills I see Graduates lacking:
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Using their Tools effectively.
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Properly. Documenting. Everything.
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Doing manual labour. Automate!
Code for long enough, and you’ll learn these to be true.
Let me elaborate ⬇️
Mastering Your Tools 🔨 🧰
“If I had 8 hours to chop a tree, I’d spend 7 sharpening my axe”
— Abraham Lincoln
Abraham already figured it out. Follow his Advice.
An Essential Toolkit every Developer contains:
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A fine tuned environment
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Effective Version Control
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Shortcuts / Commands / Scripts
So go sharpen your Axe! 🪓
Documentation is Key 📚
Quality Software Documentation improves Software Delivery, according to the State of DevOps Report 2021.
HowTo’s & Guides are prerequisites for Automation and Asynchronous Communication.
A crucial ingreedient for today’s remote working environments
Pro Tip: Version Control Serves as Documentation Too
Learn how to document your changes with Intent.
This is hard and takes time.
Get Started here:
https://twitter.com/ederbit/status/1620100060074676227
Automate 🤖
Let Robots do the work.
Write Scripts to automate your workflow.
Build Helper Tools for specific Use Cases.
Here are some Examples:
3 Workflows that I’ve Automated
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Launching apps with custom layouts for University/Work/Personal
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Applying System Configurations across all my Systems
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Auto-compressing any videos I upload to my Cloud
Pro Tip: Record Yourself Working
Rewatch after your work session with 2x Speed.
Do you notice any patterns? Do you repeat yourself?
Take notes and find ways to remove bottlenecks.
Quick Recap
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Learn to master your tools 🔨 🧰
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Produce quality Documentation 📚
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Automate. Automate. Automate. 🤖
First published as a Thread https://twitter.com/ederbit/status/1625196082610290689