I never liked technical interviews. When I was a young developer, certain interviews made me feel so bad that I developed interviewingophobia – unconditional fear of all interviews. Instead of enjoying technical interviews and learning from senior colleagues, I tried to survive. Survive like prey, surrounded by all-knowing hyenas. Continue

I regularly meet young programmers who, after failing to complete a coding course, lose faith in themselves, and think that programming is not for them. They want to quit. When I started programming, I considered quitting several times, but luckily, I didn’t. You shouldn’t give up, too. When you are beginner, everything looks hard, and programming is not an exception. Here is what you can do to get through hard times: Continue

Everybody knows that software quality is essential, but when I ask why, many developers struggle to explain. In this article, I will describe three primary reasons why we should care about quality and strive for technical excellence. Continue

The list was updated in 2019. Instagram is becoming the next big thing in education. In addition to books, conferences and Twitter, I use Instagram to get access to the content you won’t find anywhere else on the internet. The content is a mix of coding tips, good advice and inspiring visuals. If you appreciate good photography and aesthetics, check out a list of 10 high-quality Instagram accounts that I follow: Continue

The list was updated in 2019. In addition to books and conferences, Twitter is my primary source of inspiration. Unfortunately, some developers don’t use Twitter because they find it too noisy. To improve the situation, I decided to compile a list of 20 high-quality Twitter accounts with good signal vs. noise ratio. No cats, politics, and selfies allowed. Continue

Every company on the market is looking for the best talent. Companies are waiting when “the talent” will appear from nowhere as if there were some secret talent factory. The ideal candidate will have all necessary technical skills, will be a good “culture fit” and will perform well with little or no supervision. Continue

Developer conferences are a great place to network with like-minded developers and learn from the best software engineers in our field. Thousands of conferences happening around the world, but not all of them are equally good. Below is my list of best developer conferences to attend. I personally attended every conference on the list. Continue

The list was updated in 2019. Books are your best mentor. If you read one good programming book every month, roughly ten pages a day, you’ll soon have a firm grasp on the industry and distinguish yourself from nearly every developer around you. There are thousands of books, but not all of them are equally good. Below is my list of the best programming books of all time. I will keep this list in sync with new releases. Continue

Some developers are worth more than others. The bigger impact you can make on the organization, the higher is your worth. To make a significant impact on the organization, the developer must keep 5 essential skills in balance: Technical skills Mentoring skills Process Organization skills Business skills Communication skills Continue

Today I had a phone conversation with my ex-colleague Alex. Alex works as a software developer in a fast-growing international organization. Me: “How are things going?” Alex: “My company is searching for a principal developer.” Me: “Did you apply for that position?” Alex: “I did, but my application has been rejected. CTO believes that I am not qualified for that role. He is searching for a better candidate.” Me: “Do you think that you are good enough?” Alex: “Of course! I have been writing code and solving intricate technology problems for more than seven years. I write clean code, proactively fix the technical debt and cut through JIRA tasks like a ninja. I am faster and better than other teammates”. Me: “I guess this is the exact reason why you don’t qualify.” Alex wasn’t happy to hear that, so we quickly wrapped up our conversation. I felt good because I hit the target. © Moneyball (2011) by Bennett Miller Continue

We love job promotion. The promotion gives us a sense of career progress: junior developer → developer → senior developer → principal developer → architect → senior architect → chief architect → CTO → CIO (Career Is Over). With every unlocked achievement, we earn more $, and our social status grows. We are moving towards our dream. We are happy, and life is good. But job promotion is a tool that employers use, to make us stay at the company longer. Continue

We are developers. We need to stay up to date with technology. Every day, we learn programming languages, frameworks, and libraries. The more modern tools we know — the better. Keeping up to date with Angular, React, Vue, Riot, Ember, Knockout is fun. But we are wasting our time. Continue

When I became a developer, I thought that my job is to write software. When my customer had a problem, I was ready to write software that solves that problem. I was taught to write software. But what customers need is not software. They need a solution to their problem. Your job is to find the most cost-effective solution, what software often is not. Continue