When I look back, I see more clearly the complexities and difficulties when starting out as a web developer. I also better understand the frustrations I sometimes ran into at my early career stage – and therefore have a natural sympathy towards newcomers. Hence I’ve decided to share some good tips to address the problems of earlier stages of web developers or web designers.
Self-Confidence
In college days, techies are learning coding through theories and examples provided by professors and books. This is enough to get started in learning coding, but not enough to do programming in a real life project. Therefore, when we face the real life exposure during our interviews or perhaps sometime in an apprentice program, we may manifest some sort of complex. We think we are inferior in terms of knowledge.
This kind of psyche is normal in all newbies when they look at modern developers’ work on the web. Plus, there are the latest trends of development and coding floating out there, every week. Novices find their e-mail inbox flooding with information regarding new tools and technologies. Each morning, they receive tweets and then get networking on social media for new tricks and tweaks used by seasoned web programmers. Over time, these experiences can induce a kind of inferiority complex or lack of self confidence in those new to the web development sphere.
This kind of psyche may persist in your early career if you don’t take steps to minimize it or eliminate it at all. First is patience, and realization that other experts have got their expertise over time. You may find some fast runners who are ascending the career ladder quickly. If you observe them closely, you will find that they are always active in their respective communities of interest or domain of proficiency. Thus, being active and engaged are a must. You should develop your own opinions and exchange your thoughts with others freely. If possible, write some blogs or invite guest bloggers.
Beware of Over Confidence
On the other side of the coin, if you are already active and have acquired sufficient knowledge, beware of over confidence. Don’t look at others as inferior to you; otherwise, you will someday see bad consequences. Moreover, if you are familiar with lots of tech terms, use them sparingly even with like-minded fellows, and avoid such jargon among general audiences, as this really is not a good way to demonstrate your proficiency if they are not capable of understanding you. You need to win the hearts of all, and not only other techies. So treat others friendly.
Do Standard Coding
It is true that coding practices and language itself changes with the pace of time. Yet, always try to do coding via standard practices with clean, compact and comprehensive code. Suppose you are working a portion of code, but you are not completely satisfied with it or feel less comfortable; avoid that mash up and try to find other simpler code. There are times that you have to revisit your code after six months, or even you colleague has to.
Respect Other Disciplines
In the web design industry, we fragment our work under different titles like designers, UX designers, programmers, QA personnel, etc. and this is good in adding value to our different levels of expertise. Nevertheless, this can be a bad approach if we leave the responsibility of success for the project on the other shoulders, on the name of disciplines or expertise. We must try to get others’ perspectives and make efforts to accomplish the project successfully, with all our possible contributions.
In short, you have the knack to learn other things outside your domain of expertise, so do it. This can help you now as well as in your future career.
References & More Reading
Careers in Web Design – Become a Professional Web Designer
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