Building a successful career and building a positive reputation are syonoymous in my eyes. Having a solid reputation will open up new opportunities for you as well as shielding you in the tough times. When you have come to be known as a positive, effective team member you will surely find that doors open for you over time.
There are a few simple things you can do to ensure that you earn the reputation of someone who makes a team better and drives projects forward. By making a conscious effort to approach each day with a positive attitude, working hard to become a true professional in your field and treating others with respect and dignity you will always have options in your career.
Attitude is Everything
I was once interviewing for a job and I was explaining my belief that the way you say something is often just as important as what you are saying. I explained my view that each interaction leaves the other party feeling a certain way — positive, negative, or somewhere in between.
As I was talking, the interviewer responded by quoting Maya Angelou. It was something along the lines of "people will forget what you said and forget what you did, but they'll always remember the way you made them feel".
I think that is a great way to sum it up. Here's what I think this means as a developer:
Don't make people feel stupid or inferior
A lot of times developers have a habit of coming across as cold or unfeeling. They can get too locked in on finding the correct answer and forget that there is often times a human interaction at the core of it all. If you make people feel stupid or inferior it will add up over time. If you have built up the knowledge to be in a position to help others frequently, be sure you leave them with a positive feeling after your interaction.
Keep Calm When the Pressure is On
Problems happen in the world of software and technology. Over your career you will build an appreciation for this, but it can be frustrating to get to that point. When times get tough — when you get called overnight or have a weekend get interrupted because on on-call duty — remember that it is temporary and that things will return to normal.
By staying calm to begin with, you can give yourself a better chance to deal with issues in a clear-headed, timely and effective manner. Being known as the person who can maintain their cool when the heat is on will definitely be a good thing for your career.
Basic Manners Still Matter
I can't tell you the number of times I've seen somebody leave feedback on a pull request that sound like demands. This is an environment where we are expected to build team morale and a sense of community. And this is just one example. There are many opportunities for disagreement and correction in software design and development, but we must remember that basic courtesy and manners are still table stakes.
Don't lose sight of this in pursuit of the most correct or efficient solution. The common theme in all of this is human interaction, and in a business environment especially, individuals should be able to expect a basic level of decency in every interaction.
Become a True Professional
I was talking to a friend recently about the interview processes we've gone through in the recent past. The topic of live coding exercises came up. We both agreed that these have become much more common, but we didn't really agree on the level of preparation and performance that is to be expected.
He made a comment that he shouldn't be expected to maintain a computer that can run a web-based code editor (think something along the lines of CodePen or JsFiddle). He also alluded to not wanting to spend any time outside of work actually working to perfect his craft ("I can't code all the time, I do have a life", or something like that).
This comment was very disappointing to hear. If you want your career to blossom to its full potential, I truly believe you must spend your own time and energy to maintain and enhance your skills. And in the case of software development, this means keeping an up-to-date computer on which you can run a basic IDE. Realistically it doesn't take much to be able to run VS Code and build a web app.
I responded to my friend by telling about a recent interview experience I had. The interviewers sent me a link to an online code editor and asked me to build a star rating widget in react. Unfortunately the editor was not compiling their sample and so we couldn't get the coding session going.
Fortunately for me, software development is my passion, hobby and job (in that order), so I had been working on the exact functionality just days before. I was able to say, "it's too bad we can't run this scenario, how about I walk you through a star rating widget I built in React the other day?" If you're wondering, I ended up getting an offer for the position.
Make Everyone's Life Easier
I have long held the view that, as an employee in a corporate structure, a big part of my job is to make the life of my manager easier. Some might call it politics or trying to seek favor, but I have seen too many examples of employees who would rather argue for what is "right" than help their leadership achieve goals that are put in place.
Layoffs have been a relatively constant threat throughout my career. I have survived about a dozen "workforce reduction" events over my career. I have never been "impacted" by one of these events to this day. I truly believe this is because I understand my responsibility to leadership within the organization, and I give their plans a chance rather than questioning every decision.
This same logic can be applied to anybody in any organiation. Treat people well and it'll generally do good things for you over the course of your career.
Above All Else, Treat Others with Dignity and Respect
This one should go without saying, but I think it's worth spelling out in more detail. As I've said, it can be very easy for teams or individuals to become hyper focused on the goals of the team or the solution to a problem. This can impact all areas, from design to development and all the way through implementation and support.
Don't get too focused on the solution and forget about the human aspect of everything. That is the most important aspect at the end of the day, and if you focus on that it'll set you on the path to success in your career.
Wrapping Up
I have slowly but steadily formed this opinion over 15-plus years in the software industry but I suspect that it would be true for just about any profession. Keeping in mind that we must serve others in order to succeed will go a long way toward helping you in your career and life in general.
By being the kind of person that others want to work with you will achieve anything that you can set your mind to.