How to become a developer who will like the employer

Evan Campbell recently wrote an article for employers about "How to find the perfect web developer . " In this article, we will give some tips on how to become something of a developer that Evan and his readers would like to hire.

1) Do not become a "specialist" in a narrow sphere

Trends on the Internet are changing rapidly. If you spend five years working exclusively on Drupal, you will “unexpectedly” find that overnight everyone has decided that they need a WordPress site (or vice versa).

2) Continuous learning

You must be sure that your skills and qualifications are relevant in modern conditions. Nobody talks about sitting down at a desk or going somewhere. There are many resources to help you keep up with the times. The speed of development of the industry is so high that the time spent on learning new technologies should be taken as a necessary investment.

3) Learn to build communication

The stereotypes paint the developer “slightly” unsociable and unsociable, therefore good communication skills will positively highlight you in the eyes of the employer. To do this, follow some simple rules:
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Be punctual. No one likes to wait. If you have questions and suggestions about the schedule, discuss them. Most employers will be prepared to accept your schedule if you discuss this with them. When something happens that causes a delay, report it as soon as possible.

Be polite. There is a saying “Good manners are worth nothing”, and most of the time this is true. Strive to ensure that the people with whom you work, always had positive emotions from communicating with you.

Be brief. Explain everything clearly and simply using the minimum number of words that is needed in this situation. In addition, try to limit the use of jargon, because the jargon does not make you smart, it makes you incomprehensible.

4) Make the code easy to understand.

If you present a code to a potential employer as an example of your work, strive to make it very easy to understand that each section of code is designed to perform one specific task.

Use verbose comments. Perhaps in the framework of the previous project, your abbreviations were clear and accessible, but now the situation is slightly different: make sure that the employer can understand everything you have written.

Do not comment on each line, it just infuriates. Start each block with descriptive comments and comment out the lines only if it is critical to understanding the code.

Use clear variable names, something like RF = 250 may make sense to you, but rocketFuel = 250 makes sense to everyone. Use a uniform naming and formatting style.

Spend some time structuring the code. Of course, this will not improve the functionality, but it will make the code neat and easy to read.

Make sure your code samples include a comment with your name.

5) Remember that code is not everything

Of course, it is important to impress employers with a breadth of technical knowledge and a high level of coding skills, but any employer will look for much more than that. An employer who is looking for a really good developer will be interested in your creativity.

What does it mean? Well, of course, this is not about layouts and design, although it’s fine if you can do it. It is about ingenuity, i.e. ability to solve extraordinary tasks.

So think about the really difficult projects you have worked on and the problems that have arisen. What did you do to solve them. Then formulate this information so that non-programmer understands what you are talking about.

6) Show your project management skills

Even if you pretend to be a developer, the demonstration of these skills will not be superfluous and will add you another “+”.

These skills include such things as:
• Planning;
• Time management;
• Definition of terms and stages;
• Implementation of solutions;
• Search for bottlenecks and bugs;
• Delegation of authority.

7) Do not criticize

This council covers three different areas:

Do not criticize former employers, even if they deserve it. Your new employer does not want to hear sad stories or excuses.

Try not to criticize a potential employer. This may seem too obvious, but in fact, potential employers sometimes provoke you to criticism. Do not fall for it.

Avoid self-criticism. Again, employers often try to lure you into this trap, and this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

Always look for positives.

And finally, the last tip ...

8) Never work for free

It is important. There is nothing wrong if an employer asks you to provide a sample of work, but this should not be a full-fledged project. In other words, the task should not be related to the current projects of the employer.

Otherwise, you risk becoming another guy who did part of a larger project for free.

Another reason why you should not work for free or sell your skills too cheaply is harm to the whole industry. The only exception is if you do something for charity. Do not confuse charity with non-profit organizations, as there are many organizations that are non-profit and use this status to get something for free that they really do not deserve.