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Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

By : Jordan Hudgens
4 (2)
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Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

Skill Up: A Software Developer's Guide to Life and Career

4 (2)
By: Jordan Hudgens

Overview of this book

This 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.
Table of Contents (5 chapters)
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Preface
Preface
What this book covers
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
I. Coder Skills
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I. Coder Skills
1. Discovering the Tipping Point for Developers
2. Are Developers Born or Made? – Debunking the Myth of Prodigies
3. Do You Have to Be a Genius to Be a Developer?
4. How to Study and Understand Complex Topics?
5. Effective Study Practices for Developers
6. Defining Deep Work and What It Means for Developers
7. Task Switching Costs for Developers
8. How to Use Willpower Limits Instead of Letting Them Use You?
9. Cramming Versus Consistent Study and a Study System that Works
10. Is Reading Important for Developers?
11. Learning How to Code – Getting Past Skill Plateaus
12. Developer Learning Curve – Why Learning How to Code Takes So Long
13. Slowing Down to Learn How to Code Faster
14. Mental Models for Learning How to Code and Improve as a Developer
15. A Developer's Guide for Hacking Procrastination to Achieve Success
16. The Problem with Procrastination for Developers
17. Practical Ways to Use the Pomodoro Technique as a Developer
18. The Power of Making Mistakes – Learning by Failing
19. Learn How to Code – The Guide to Memorization
20. A System for Learning a New Programming Language
21. Development Study Tips – Reverse Note-Taking
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II. Freelancer Skills
II. Freelancer Skills
22. Tips for Organically Growing a Freelance Business
23. Freelancing Tips – Knowing When to Fire a Client
24. Dodging Silver Bullets for Scalable Freelance Projects
25. A Freelance Guide to Managing Advanced Features
26. Freelancer Interviews – Practical Tips for Taking Over a Legacy Application
27. Five Tips for Taking Over a Legacy Application
28. Guide to Freelancing – Starting Over Versus Refactoring
29. Should You Use TDD on Freelance Projects? – Comparing Quality Versus Speed
30. Automating Client Updates as a Freelance Developer
31. Freelance Requirement Elicitation – A Guide for Feature Development
32. How to Remotely Demo Work for Freelance Clients?
33. Defining Project Success as a Freelance Developer
34. Top Project Management Tools for Freelancers
35. Top Freelance Bookkeeping Options for Developers
36. Learning the Secret to Get New Clients as a Freelancer
37. Managing Client Conflicts as a Freelancer
38. Examples of Freelance Portfolios That Help Acquire New Clients
39. Importance of Test-Driven Development for Coders
40. SEO Best Practices and Strategies for Freelancers
41. Client Communication Freelancing Tips
42. Outsource Web Developers Properly with System-Based Processes
43. How to Create Accurate Freelance Bids?
44. Freelancer Tips – Three Ways to Get New Clients
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III. Career Skills
III. Career Skills
45. Should I Learn to Code? – A Balanced Perspective on Programming
46. Following Your Passion – Good or Bad Advice for Developers?
47. How to Learn to Code from Scratch? – A Practical Strategy
48. How to Choose a Developer Specialty?
49. How to Choose Your Next Programming Language?
50. Developer Soft Skills – Learning How to Gain an Edge in the Marketplace
51. Developer Learning Options – A Practical Analysis
52. Is it Possible to Lose Your Coding Skills?
53. Is Writing Bad Code Immoral for Developers?
54. Inspirational Programming Advice from Howard Roark
55. Best Practices Versus Creativity as a Developer
56. A Practical Guide to Approaching Project Development
57. How to Practice Programming Techniques and Improve as a Developer?
58. What Does It Take to Become a Great Developer?
59. How to Stay Sharp as a Developer?
60. Developer Resume Tips – How to Create an Effective Resume?
61. Developer Salary Negotiation Strategies
62. Best Questions to Ask During a Job Interview
63. Answering in an Impossible Interview
64. Greatest Weakness Answers for Coding Interviews
65. Enterprise Software Job Strategy and Guide
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Index
Index

Chapter 20. A System for Learning a New Programming Language

In this chapter, I'm going to discuss how to learn a new programming language. I'll walk you through the five steps that I use whenever I'm learning a new language or framework.

Over the years, I've been hired by organizations such as Learn.co and AppDev to write programming curriculums for:

  • Ruby on Rails
  • Ruby programming
  • Python
  • Java
  • Several JavaScript frameworks

The only language that I really build applications in is Ruby, which means that I've been forced to become proficient in a number of language that I really didn't have much experience working with, sometimes in a very short period of time. And over the years I've developed a system for learning a new language or framework, and that's what I'm going to walk through in this chapter.

When I'm learning a new programming language I follow these steps:

  1. Watch a full tutorial series on the language. When I'm watching I don't try to follow along, I simply watch what the instructor does in the demos so I can get a high-level view of the language syntax and flow.
  2. Create a hello world application. I'll incorporate a few basics, such as running a loop, creating and instantiating a class, and any other high-level concepts I remember from the tutorial.
  3. Pick out a sorting algorithm and implement it in the language. It's fine if the sorting algorithm is a basic one such as selection or bubble sort. Sorting algorithms force you to use data structures, loops, variables, and functions. Combining each of these elements will give you a good handle on how the language works.
  4. Go through an advanced tutorial on the language and this time follow along and build the programs with the instructor.
  5. Go through coding interview questions for the language. Being able to confidently answer these questions will give you a good idea if you have a solid understanding of the language.

I've used these five steps for a number of languages and I can also tell you, once you've become proficient in a single language you'll find it's much easier to pick up new programming languages since most of them have quite a bit of shared processes, and all you'll need to do is learn the difference in syntax.

I hope these tips will help you learn a new programming language. Please feel free to write to me with any other methods that you've found helpful when learning, and good luck with the coding!

End of Section 21
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