Do you want to know a little secret?

You can get a highly-paid developer job without tons of experience in 2023.

Now, before you call me crazy, let me explain.

For the record, I’m a self-taught Senior Software Developer, who mentored 230+ JavaScript developers, helping them fill their technical gaps and land high-paying jobs in record time.

So yes, I’ve been around the block a time or two.

To understand how you can stand out in the 2023 developer’s job market we need to understand first what is going on in software development right now…

Current Situation

Inflation, recession, war, and a weak global economy pushed tech companies into making massive job cuts.

Tech CEOs became obsessed with efficiency instead of growth. Layoffs became increasingly common, with every big tech company getting rid of hundreds of developers at the same time.

This created what I call the “perfect storm” and flooded the job market with thousands of developers, many of them very experienced.‍

If you’ve been looking for a software developer job recently, you know what I am talking about. Hundreds of applicants for each position, long interview processes that go nowhere, code challenges, and technical interviews that don’t give you any feedback.‍

Even Senior Devs are struggling to find jobs. Junior Developers, CS students, and Bootcamp Graduates became literally invisible in the market.

And just when the market showed signs of recovery, AI came over. Promising to automate more coding tasks, eliminating more developer jobs. The wet dream of tech CEOs was about to come true.

All these factors have added pressure on the developer job market making it one of the toughest moments to land a good software developer job. And the less experience you have, the harder it gets.

The Good News

Don’t despair yet, there is some good stuff coming up. It’s been over 12 months since the first round of layoffs. Companies are realizing that, yes, cutting costs and getting rid of coders kind of stabilized them financially.

But if they want to keep on making money, they need to keep delivering value (a.k.a. features) to their customers. And to do that, they need developers.

What’s more, even if AI and low-code/no-code platforms are the new shiny toys around the block, they won’t replace human developers any time soon. They actually proved not to be really precise.

Just like a toddler trying to write an essay, AI models writing code need tons of supervision.

So, how do you land a software development job in this new crazy market? And how do you do it when you don’t have tens of years of experience writing code?

The thing is, most online advice about how to stand out and how to find a developer job is close to useless. It is either too generic or makes no sense in the real world.

Things like updating your CV, showing your side projects, and networking are simply what every other developer out there is doing.

Number one, because the market has changed and is changing faster than ever before. So, what used to work doesn’t anymore because everyone is doing it

Secondly, most YouTubers and Tech Influencers out there don’t have any “skin in the game”. If their advice is crap it doesn’t matter. You’ve already watched the video and given them what they want, your attention.

They won’t help you stand out from the crowd.

Particularly if you are a Junior Dev.

When your developer career is at stake and you need to pay rent, you need concrete proven advice on what actually works. This is what this article will be full of.

I tried to cover things with the maximum amount of detail. But if you are missing something, feel free to drop me an email. I am pretty busy, but I try to answer all of your questions.

The first thing we will talk about is Mindset.

Because I can share with you the best tips and tricks on how to get a developer job. But if you procrastinate, get distracted, don’t execute, and don’t take action on this stuff, it is as good as nothing.

Remember, information doesn’t mean transformation. You learn by doing, not by reading.

This is why the first thing we need to fix is your Mindset.

1. Fix Your Mindset (Or Fail Before You Start)

The market has changed, things that worked a few years ago don’t work anymore. You need to approach technical interviews and the market with a whole different attitude:

1.1 Quality Over Quantity

Getting a software developer job in 2023 is not a number game anymore. But numbers still matter.

Inflation, recession, and layoffs mean that companies are getting a lot pickier about who they hire. And a lot pickier about who they invite for a technical interview.

Think about it this way.

Let’s say you have a bad CV and LinkedIn profile. You read online that to get a developer job you need to mass apply. So you apply to 100 jobs and you barely get any answers…

Would applying to 1000 more make you successful? Probably not. Because there is a certain level in the market that you have to be above. And if you are under, you go to the Spam folder. You get nothing. Not even a thank you email.

So, in your CV, LinkedIn profile, and job application you need to prioritize quality over quantity.

Don’t confuse this with perfectionism. It doesn’t mean personalized cover letters or spending hours on job applications (another waste of time).

It means putting a bit of extra effort into crafting your job artifacts (CV & LinkedIn profile). After that, we go back to the numbers.

1.2. Focus

There are only 2 things you should care about during the job-hunting process. Getting technical interviews, doing technical interviews.

Everything else is secondary.

I will repeat, EVERYTHING else is secondary (side-projects, learning new shiny frameworks, or whatever comes your way). Don’t invent work to avoid what you know you have to do. Jump straight into the water and stay there until you learn how to swim.

Think about it like this.

If you are in the jungle and the night is coming, learning algebra won’t help you. It will kill you. What you need to make a fire and find something to eat!

If you need to find a job in the next 3 to 6 months, and you are a JavaScript developer learning Kubernetes won’t really help you.

The only way to get better at finding job positions si by searching for jobs. The only way to get better at technical interviews is by doing technical interviews.

Not by stopping and learning some fancy new framework, library, or concept that might or might not help you. Stay focused and keep your priorities straight.

🚨P.S. Are you looking to fast-track to the Senior level with quality resources, feedback, and accountability? Click here to join our Free Community — The Senior Dev Academy. 🚨

1.3. Ignore Most Feedback

Or, better said, take the feedback from companies with a pinch of salt.

Here is how the story goes…

You do a technical interview. You do your best but you don’t pass. For whatever reason. You ask for feedback and you get feedback like “Oh you don’t seem Senior enough… you should look at Web Performance more”.

So you jump in and spend another 4 weeks learning Web Performance. In the next interview, you get asked about Data Structures instead. You have no clue. You jump in and repeat the cycle.

After 6 months, you learned a lot about many things. But you still don’t have a job and money is running out. Big, big failure.

When a company gives you feedback, analyze it and see what you can learn. But, don’t change your whole strategy because of that. If a bunch of people point out the same, then it might be worth it to put a few hours in it.

1.4. Ego Is The Enemy

Looking for a developer job in 2023 and doing technical interviews is an emotional rollercoaster.

No matter how good you are, you will find yourself on the spot all the time. There will be constant ups and downs messing with your emotions.

One day they are ready to make an offer, the other, they want to invite you for a third technical interview. If you want to stay sane, you need to develop a Stoic Mindset. Don’t invest your ego into the process.

Don’t invest too much energy in companies that don’t invest back. Your time is better spent applying to jobs and talking to people who are truly looking for great software developers like yourself.

1.5. Leave the “Scarcity Mindset”.

Despite everything you see on the news, software companies are desperate to hire great engineers. They want to make profits and for that, they need to deliver products.

The challenge companies face is too much noise in the developer job market.

With every coder out there claiming to be an expert programmer, is hard to make the difference between developers that can do the job and the ones that don’t.

Forget all the other developers complaining about the market. That is a scarcity mindset. Sure, things are not as easy as they used to be. But, there are plenty of great opportunities out there.

All the AI noise and the recession mean companies need to release more applications and integrate AI into them.

And what do you need for that?

Developers.

Now that you got rid of limiting beliefs that sabotage most developers, you are ready for action. Let’s jump in by first avoiding critical mistakes during the job hunt.

2. Avoid Killer Job Hunting Mistakes

Before we dive into what you should do, let’s talk about what you should not do. Here are a few major mistakes you should avoid when looking for a developer job in 2023…

2.1. Lack of preparation.

The first and biggest mistake I see developers making in 2023 when looking for a job is not spending enough time making sure their application is solid.

Look I don’t want you to fail, I want you to succeed. And I am here to tell you that if you want to get a developer job in this market, you will have to push yourself a bit.

You will have to work a bit extra, to be a bit more prepared and a bit more sharp than any other software developers out there.

And every interview is won before is done. The interview is done while you are researching the market, improving your CV and LinkedIn, crafting good interview answers, and of course, polishing your technical skills.

Now you know it. So don’t procrastinate. Do the work.

2.2. Giving up too early

Most developers either give up silently. For me, both of those options are as good as quitting. Due to lack of preparation, they get few calls.

Then they invest all their time and energy in the two or three companies they are having calls with. And when those opportunities fail, they are devastated and quit.

They stop pushing and tell themselves they are waiting for the market to get better. Or they settle for a salary that is less than they deserve. Or even worse, they go back to a job they hate.

Developers who will succeed in this job market have a “Whatever it takes” mindset.

The truth is in most cases if they just persisted a bit more, they would have been successful. Look, regardless of how prepared you are in the job hunt, there are hundreds of variables you don’t control.

Companies have their own timelines.

Budgets change. Some better candidate gets in the pipeline. No matter how confident you are, you should prepare for things going nowhere.

This makes getting a developer job a matter of statistics.

Statistics is more about big numbers than precision. The bigger the number of hands you play, the bigger the possibility of getting that developer job you are looking for.

You can’t win if you don’t play. So keep on playing.

🚨P.S. Are you looking to fast-track to the Senior level with quality resources, feedback, and accountability? Click here to join our Free Community — The Senior Dev Academy. 🚨

2.3. Not Keeping Track Of Things

I know that logging the jobs you are applying for in an Excel sheet is a time-consuming task. It is also very boring. I know that.

But if you don’t track your numbers, how will you know what worked and what not?

How are you going to know how many applications you need to do to reach your goal? Or know who and from what company is calling you?

All the effort you put into logging your applications will pay off. So do it.

2.4. [Junior] Relying on Side Projects or Portfolio

Nothing screams “I don’t have enough experience” like listing side-projects on your CV.

Do that and you probably won’t even get invited to technical interviews. Instead, learn from Senior Developers. Integrate “side-projects” experience into professional experience.

Quantify impact, show the technologies you’ve worked with, and put them in context. Don’t use side projects as a replacement for experience. Make them professional experience.

2.5. [Junior] Not Understating Power Dynamics

As the interview process develops, the power shifts from the company to you, and from you to the company. By power, I mean the ability to influence a certain outcome, to get what you want.

For example, when you send your CV to random companies, they have all the power. They are not looking for developers, and you are looking for a job.

Or when you spend 15 hours on a code challenge, and they say “We will get back to you” and leave you hanging for a week, they have all the power.

When they look for someone with exactly your skills, you have all the power. When you get an offer letter, you have all the power.

Understanding the power balance during the technical interview process will allow you to adapt your strategy and minimize your losses (time, energy, and emotional investment).

3. Getting Technical Interviews

Being able to get technical interviews is the most important skill you can develop. Even more crucial than passing those interviews.

Because if you know you can get as many interviews as you need, you will be more relaxed during the process. You will get more opportunities to practice your skills.

And if you get an offer that doesn’t match what you are looking for, being able to get technical interviews with ease will allow you to negotiate.

In fact, every developer that I know that struggles with interviewing, actually struggles with getting interviews in the first place.

So why do most developers struggle to get interviews right now?

To understand that, let’s first take a look at the normal interview process at an average software company:

‍

If you are not getting interviews there is something wrong with your CV.

The thing that is mostly wrong with developer CVs is a perceived “lack of experience” in the required tech stack. Especially for Junior Devs.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, companies are getting pickier and pickier. With dozens of candidates at the door, they only want to hire software engineers who will deliver. Experience is an indicator of that.

Back in the day getting rejected because of lack of experience used to happen only to Mid-level and Junior devs. In the current market, it happens to Senior Developers as well. It will probably be the main obstacle you will have to work around when looking for a job.

Okay, so how can you work around it?

Should you lie about your experience in your CV? Should you make up stuff? Should you write a blog? Should you work on open source?

None of these things.

Let me repeat this: you should not waste any of your precious time with open source, side projects, or anything else that is not applying for jobs and doing job interviews.

The most effective way to get interviews is to apply for job positions with a relevant CV.

That’s it.

A highly optimized CV and LinkedIn profile are the ONLY things you need to go to market. You should only spend time on making these two better.

You should obsess over them. Anything else is procrastination and wasting time.

LinkedIn will make sure people contact you and ask for your CV. Your CV will make sure they invite you for a Screening Call and open the hiring process.

Because your LinkedIn profile is mostly a reflection of your CV, I will only dive deep into the first one. I will clarify how to use the CV to update your LinkedIn profile afterward.

🚨P.S. Are you looking to fast-track to the Senior level with quality resources, feedback, and accountability? Click here to join our Free Community — The Senior Dev Academy. 🚨

The Anatomy Of A Great Developer CV

The #1 quality of a good developer CV is relevance. Relevance means that it matches as well as possible the requirements of the job position.

And that it uses well quantified proven experience to back that relevance up. A great developer CV answers two questions:

1. Do you have the relevant skills for the job?
2. Do you have the proof to back them up?

This proves the final point, is it worth it to call you up for an interview or no?

That’s it.

Too many devs get distracted by fonts, colors, and formatting. When in fact the only thing that matter is the content. It is what’s inside the sandwich, not the packaging. Show them the bacon and the cheese and they will buy the burger.

Tip: Keep your formatting basic and focus on the content.

This brings us to the three stages of building a developer CV & LinkedIn that get you interviews.

1. Research
2. CV Writing & Bulletproofing
3. Linkedin Update

Okay, so let’s start with the research part of things. Remember, preparation.

3.1. Research

The first and most important step to do when writing a relevant dev CV is to know what the market wants in the first place.

How can you do this? Simple.

Go to LinkedIn and search for the kind of developer job you are looking for. Save around 10 to 15 jobs that you think would fit you best.

Look at the kind of technologies they are looking for. The salaries they offer. And anything else that stands out. Take notes.

When you do this analysis keep in mind the 80/20 rule. We want to pick skills that the market as a whole needs, not only a specific company.

For example, let’s say one company wants a full-stack developer who knows Kafka. If you are a full-stack dev, this is not an invitation for you to go and learn Kafka (that would actually be bad advice).

Another example. In 2023, most frontend developers for example besides having Senior level skills in the frontend are also required to contribute across the full stack.

The better your research, the more relevant your CV and LinkedIn will be.

Does that mean you as a frontend developer need to learn some Scala or Go? Nope.

That will take months and we are looking for the 80% remember.

If what you want is to find that developer job fast, you will want to discard any skills that take more than a few days to master. Now it is time to sell, not to build. You can invest in long-term skills after you get the job and your rent is paid.

Okay, keep all these notes at hand, you will use them soon when we are going to write that CV. Now on to the second step…

3.2. Developer CV Writing & Bulletproofing

By now you should have a clear idea of what companies are looking for and how to better express that in your CV. It is time to go write that little baby.

But still, you will face one big obstacle…

What if you have nothing to write about? What if you are a fresh graduate?

Or a Junior dev with little to show? Or a Senior Developer who got stuck in a dead-end job with little to show for it.

Don’t worry, either way, I got you covered.

I. If You Have NO Experience Writing Code Professionally

My advice here is to get the best side project you ever had and describe it in the same way as professional experience. In the job position, you can say self-employed and put the name of the project as your main project.

And now comes the interesting part. You will want to dissect this project and quantify everything you’ve done here just like if you were working for a real company. Talk about the tech stack, the number of features, talk about the infrastructure, logging, monitoring… Etc.

Given that team contributions matter a lot, you can also ask one of your friends to get involved in the project so you can also talk about teamwork (a key skill for working in bigger companies).

You also want to answer the main questions about the project. What was the business goal? What is the tech stack and architecture? How is the team looking? What is your role there?

The less experience you’ve got, the harder it is. But you have to really think that you are self-employed working on this software app as a technical co-founder.

One last note for the writing part. Do not use Chat GPT to write your CV. At least fully. People will realize that and discard you from the beginning.

Senior Dev Tip: If you get stuck writing the CV, you can use ChatGPT to help you. Tell it the experience you have and ask it how would it quantify it. What else would it add? And use those ideas to move forward.

Senior Dev Tip: If you are a Bootcamp graduate, use that as professional experience as well. Don’t put it into the education section. Add it as “Software Development Trainee”, and describe what you were building and learning as professional experience.

II. If You Already Have Experience

Let’s say you are a more experienced Junior Dev or a Mid-level dev who has some experience but not enough to cut it. Or maybe even a Senior Developer who has been told the same.

What you will want to do is to break your experience into pieces. After that, you want to multiply it.

Think of everyone you worked with, and of every piece of technology you worked with. Technologies, web services, infrastructure, frontend backend. Write down everything you have your hands on.

Quantify it and extend the hell out of it. Oversell. Trust me, in the current developer job market, you are never overqualified.

Senior Dev Tip: to write the bullet points in your CV, use the format “Achieved [X] as quantified by [Y] through doing [Z].”

3.3 Updating your Linkedin

Once your CV is finished, you want to check for red flags one last time. After that, you are ready to update your LinkedIn profile.

This should be a simple copy-paste. One exception is the skills section where you should go back to the notes you’ve made in the research section.

4. Pass Technical Interviews

Contrary to what you’ve been told since writing your first line of code, hiring decisions in software engineering are very, very binary.

Companies say they hire for attitude and culture fit. But only after you prove you have the technical skills to do the job. Sure, they might claim something different on social media. But if you want to succeed in this world, look at what people do, not at what they say.

The usual interview process looks like this…

You apply.

Then you get a call from an internal or external recruiter. Also called a Screening Call.

Depending on how you do there, you will be asked to move forward. The next step is either a live coding interview or a take-home challenge.

I know most developers hate live coding because of the pressure to perform. But I will explain why live coding challenges are the number 1 technical interview type you want to get good at.

You see when you do a coding challenge, you get some instructions, work on it for like 30 hours, send it back, and nothing (remember power dynamics during the interview).

Because once you send that thing over, the company has all the power. Most times they have 5 people working on the same challenge.

Chances are high that you will get some generic feedback back and no invitation for an interview.

There are 2 solutions to this…

Number 1: Get Good At Live Coding Interviews

Wha? Yes. I want you to get good at the one thing you probably hate the most. Writing code under pressure with strangers staring at you.

Live coding interviews are the best interviews you can make. Because, in a live coding interview you only invest 1 to 2 hours max of your time.

‍

And you get instant feedback from the interviewers so you can improve and move on fast. You also get to know them a bit and build a relationship which makes ghosting less likely.

Number 2: Deliver Great Take-Home Challenges With Minimum Effort

By having a structured process not just jumping into the code you can be 3x to 5x more effective when it comes to doing take-home challenges. And you want to spend as much time building it as “selling it”.

That can mean deploying it to some Cloud provider.

Making a short Loom video about it. Make sure the readme is well written, some tests are there, and make sure you explain what you would do if you had more time.

If you want me to write a full article about how to solve a take-home challenge, let me know.

Summary & Next Steps

At this point, you should already have done a few dozen interviews and some of them decided to make you an offer.

Congrats! You made it! Make sure you celebrate and best of success in your new position!

Congrats! You made it!

If you are not there yet, then go back to applying to jobs, doing screening calls and technical interviews.

There you have it.

The complete guide on how to get a software development job in 2023 with little or no experience.

If you follow the steps I outline in this article, you approach the job market with the right mindset, sell yourself properly, and master the Technical Interview…

You will land a well-paid developer job in 2023 and beyond, even if you have little to no experience.

🚨P.S. Are you looking to fast-track to the Senior level with quality resources, feedback, and accountability? Click here to join our Free Community — The Senior Dev Academy. 🚨

Oh and by the way I wrote a full paper about that builds up on this, where I go much deeper into what’s happening right now in the development market and give you specific tips on how to stand out.

From Mindset, to how to Write your CV, and what structure to follow during the application process. You can read it for free here.

You can also sign up for our free community where we help JavaScript developers just like you level up with quality resources, accountability, and feedback.‍

Best of success,

Dragos

P.S. If there is any topic from this article you want me to deep dive into, let me know in the comments :)

P.S. If you want to work with me and my team to help you personally during the developer job search, or fast-tracking your skills to the Senior level so you confidently get the pay and recognition you deserve as a developer, apply here for your Premium Mentorship.

Are you asking yourself, what should I do to get to the next level?

Every day, I talk to developers from all corners of the world. With different backgrounds and different tech stacks.

Do you know what they all have in common?

They want to grow.

Yes.

All of them are interested in continuously improving their skills, not getting stuck, and reaching their full potential.

That is not always because of money.

Of course, they want to get paid fairly. But, the thing they care about the most is mastering their craft.

They love what they do and want to do it even better.

The problem?

Despite the hundreds of articles about “how to be a better developer”, getting to the next level is still a mystery for many.

That’s because most of the advice is too vague.

Like “help your teammates” or “code every day.”

Isn’t that what most developers do? They write code, and they do so in a team. Tell me something new…

And then you have the plain BS advice like “work on open source”.

Picture that you have a 40hrs job, some hobbies, or a family (another full-time job). When the heck are you going to find the time to work for free on open source?

Maybe 1% of developers will have the time and flexibility to do that. But even then, most would like to work on their side hustles.

Anyway, the point is most stuff out there is pure garbage.

The internet democratized information, but it also democratized mediocrity. Just look at Tik Tok, Snap Chat, and all the crap people are being fed these days…

Okay, let’s stop the ranting.

Where I am heading is that there is a higher need than ever for quality information proven to work in the real world.

And here is the problem.

Because technologies are so diverse, I cannot give you specialized advice that will 100% work for you. Everyone is different.

What worked for someone might not work for you (which is why mass-market online courses don’t work well and Personalized Mentorship delivers much better, if you are interested, check it out here).

But, what I can give you is guidelines.

Everyone is different, but success leaves clues. Looking at all the developers I worked with, I realized they have some things in common, no matter how different they are.

By emulating those, you can reach the top quickly and achieve mastery.

Here are 7 qualities of exceptional Software Developers that will get you in the top 5%:

• Technical Depth — this is the biggest lack I see in the market. Technology is becoming more complex, and most devs fail to keep up. Look at the JavaScript world, TypeScript has become the industry standard, yet many developers still struggle with it.
• Big Picture Understanding — the nerd programmer that can only build a REST API in Node won’t get anywhere. Code crunching alone is almost useless, with AI around the corner. Expert developers can contribute across the stack outside of their core expertise.
• Clear Goals — confidence does not always come from competence. Sometimes we might lack the skills but still be confident we can deliver. Why? We know we have what it takes to learn the skills, and we have clarity. Great developers have clear goals and work towards them every single day.
• Discipline — plans and goals are great, but if you don’t do the work, they are just silly dreams. Great developers have mastered the art of discipline. They follow a schedule, and they follow a diet. They go to sleep at a particular hour and wake up at the same hour. They know the key to making the most of your day is discipline.
• Long-term thinking — the developer community is full of shiny objects fighting for your attention. Great developers stay away from the hype machine. They consider the “new” as bad and the “old” as tested and proven. They rarely fall victim to the new trend and focus on the things that won’t change. They are long-term thinkers.
• Focus — in hand with long-term thinking comes their ability to say no. Time is limited. You only have a few hours a day, so you can’t know too many yeses. Great programmers say no, and they say no a lot. They understood the only way to achieve more is by doing less.
• Visibility — great developers know that without someone to pay for their skills, they are just starving artists. They keep an eye on their CV, LinkedIn, and connections in the industry because regardless of what you’ve been told, what you know matters as much as who you know.

This is it, but I could go on with a few more.

Coding is easy.

Software development is hard.

Because it is not only about getting an application to compile…

It is about building a career. A life. And in the case of some of us, a legacy.

I will leave you with a quote I read a few days ago:

“It’s not about recognizing talent, whatever the hell that is. I’ve never tried to go out and find someone who’s talented. First, you work on fundamentals, and pretty soon you find out where things are going” — Robert Lansdorp, tennis coach of number-one players Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin, and more.

Now, take care of yourself :)
Dragos

P.S. 15 days for you to secure the old price in our mentorship. If you enjoy my emails which take me around 1 hr a day to write, think about working with me and my team side by side every day on your career. It is much better than guessing or staring for hours in online courses hell. Check it out here!

In my 3 years of training and mentoring over 200+ software developers, I observed a strange set of patterns.

These patterns determine whether a developer will succeed or fail in their quest to reach their full potential.

Some of those principles are obvious, others not so.

Developers that ignore these patterns end up burned out and confused, never reaching their true potential.

On the other hand, if you use these principles, you will progress much faster. You will reach the best developer positions, job security, and high salaries. What I call “The Good Life.”

In this post, I will share them with you so you can do more things that will help you succeed and less of the things that will make you fail.

Number 1: no goals & no plan.

Most developers don’t wake up thinking what can I do today to be more productive. To achieve more.

And the ones that do, come up with a big goal like “I want to become a Senior Developer” but have no plan to reach it.

Success in life is rarely passive.

It doesn’t happen to you. You make it happen.

Having a clear goal will already put you ahead of most people. Having a plan attached to that goal means it won’t be only an aspiration, but it will become a reality.

So how do you do that?

Success in software development, like in most professional careers, is probabilistic. It is a matter of doing the right things for a long enough time.

You have to ask yourself: What causes will generate my desired outcome?

After that, success is a matter of pure commitment.

You can start by looking at people that already reached that outcome and reverse engineering that. Or by applying first principles thinking to the outcome you want to achieve.

Number 2: getting burned out and depressed.

Most times, when looking ahead, we only see the work we have to do.

Take getting to Senior Developer as an example.

One needs to master a whole different set of skills. From Fundamentals to Testing, Data Structures, Infrastructure, and System Design, to name a few. Faced with this reality, most developers fall into despair.

Why?

They only focus on the gap. The things they lack.

A better approach is what I call “seeing the gain.” Look back to 2 or 3 years ago.

Where were you at?

Most likely very much behind versus where you are now. I bet you made some progress. And even if you didn’t progress, I bet you learned something.

To avoid burnout, focus on that growth!

Number 3: no unfair advantage.

You see tech influencers on YouTube and Instagram telling you how they went from frying chicken to Senior Developer in 3 years and that you can do it too. That is a lie.

Trying to emulate their behaviour so you can reach the same outcome will only lead you to failure.

Why? No person is the same.

We are all different.

Different strengths and weaknesses. Different personalities. Different starting points.

That is why trying to imitate other people doesn’t work.

Linus Torvalds was a great programmer. He was also very demanding and, in many cases, a real jerk. So if I am a jerk, I will also be a great programmer. BS. Won’t work.

Instead, you should look at the resources and environment that Linus Torvalds had around him. How can you mimic that support System?

Nobody ever slayed a Dragon by themselves.

They had tons of mentors and help on the way. So, when you look up at other developers, think about their “unfair advantage”.

Who did they get advice from? What resources did they tape in that you don’t?

And talking about unfair advantages, a community like Software Mastery, with like-minded developers on the same path as you and dedicated mentors helping you all the way, might be just what you need.

I have dedicated the last 10 years of my life to one thing: mastering the causes and effects behind becoming a Senior Developer.

Of course, I am still learning and have a long way to go. But after more than 10.000 hours doing this thing, I think I have achieved certain mastery in helping developers reach that next level.

And we would like to help you if we find a fit.

But two things have to match.

First, you have to be committed. Second, you have to hurry. Because as you know, the first eight people that join us every month get an “incentive” price with a considerable discount.

We are close to capacity, but if you apply now, we might still be able to get you in. You can check a free training I’ve put together and see if you qualify using the link below.

You can apply here now to see if you qualify.

Take care,
Dragos

P.S. I plan to write more, as many of you requested. But these posts take time to write as I want to ensure you get value from them. Let me know if there is anything, in particular, that you want me to talk about. Just comment or DM me, and I will answer personally.

“Senior Developer is not a title. It is a way of thinking.” — Bogdan Nedelcu

If you’ve worked with real Senior Developers before, you know that is a fact.

Yet, at the same time, most tutorials and courses out here focus on teaching you the latest, shiniest frameworks, instead of teaching you how to think.

But while technology changes constantly, principles and mental models rarely do.

For example, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” was valid 2000 years ago and will still be valid 2000 years from now.

No worries, I am here to help you 😊

In this post, I compiled a list of 9 Mental Models I use daily as a Senior Developer to make decisions. Keep in mind these are non-technical Mental Models. They don’t include any architectural or design patterns (that is for another post).

Here are 9 Mental Models that will help you think like a Senior Dev:

1. Pareto Principle — 20% of causes will give 80% of results. As a developer, 20% of your work will give you 80% of the leverage. 20% of the features you will work on will provide you with 80% of recognition. 20% of companies will be worth working for. Etc. The Pareto principle applies everywhere in your life. You must identify and focus your effort on the 20% that pays off.
2. Parkinson’s Law — you will spend all the time you give yourself to do something, regardless of the time it takes to complete. Giving yourself 100 hours to do a side project will take you 100 hours. Even if it could have been done in 10 hrs only. Same with any course you are doing, feature you are working on, or even your job hunt. This is why you need firm deadlines. If not, you will fall prey to Parkinson’s law and never finish.
3. Type 1 vs. Type 2 decisions (one-way, two-way door decisions) — type 1 decisions are irreversible, so take your time. Type 2 can be undone easily, so don’t overthink them. For example, choosing between a SQL and NoSQL database is more of a type 1 decision. Once all your data is structured in a certain way, it is difficult to migrate back. But choosing between using Axios or Fetch to get your data in a React app is more of a Type 2 decision. You can always switch back. And you can do it gradually. Same with your career. The JavaScript framework you specialize in is mostly a Type 2 decision; you can always switch back. But, choosing between staying as an individual contributor or becoming an Engineering Manager is usually a Type 1 decision, as it won’t be easy to keep your technical edge (a program like Software Mastery can help you there).
4. Conway’s law — the structure of a software system will tend to mimic the design of the teams and organization that creates it. Better organization, better structure. If you look at software teams, they are built around the technical skills of each member. You have Frontend Engineers, Backend Engineers, Database Admins, and DevOps people. The software they make will reflect their communication structure. The Frontend and Backend, for example, will be separated by an API that both teams must agree on. And so on. Whenever you are in a software team, pay attention to how they communicate and organize. The structure and quality of the software they produce will be similar to that.
5. Circle of Competence — this one comes from Charlie Munger. It means knowing what you know and what you don’t. And stick to what you know until it expands. Munger advocates for staying in your circle of competence and mastering your discipline. Most developers have enough talent and intelligence to reach the highest levels, but few will. Why? Because they don’t understand their circle of competence and work to improve it. They get distracted by shiny frameworks, jump from one thing to another and make a Frankenstein monster out of their career. The path to Expertise is simple, focus and consistency. Identify your circle of competence, stay within it, and work relentlessly to expand it. We can help you do that as well. See if you qualify here!
6. First Principles Thinking — this mental model has become famous by Elon Musk. Even if you don’t completely agree with the guy, he’s been building things most people thought impossible to make. Musk claims the easiest way to understand something deeply is by breaking it down into fundamentals and reasoning up from there. Just like Physicists do. In a time and age when software development is dominated by shiny frameworks and libraries, developers that manage to see beyond that to understand the principles behind this noise will be able to navigate this crazy landscape with ease. If you look at JavaScript frameworks, you can quickly be distracted by all their fancy features (from hooks to context APIs to tree shaking, etc.) when in the end, what you are talking about is a bunch of paradings (virtual dom, declarative programming, component-based architecture) applied to the same good old JavaScript. Once you see it that way, it becomes straightforward to master :) First principles are the only way!
7. Second-Order Thinking — always try to think about consequences (2nd order). This means asking yourself, “And then what?” after everything you do. For example, you are happy at your job, but your company faces financial issues. They might let you go, so you should go to the market now and interview. This means getting over your fears first and improving your skills second. You can tell yourself everything will be fine and do nothing. But second-order thinking will make you realize this is the most risky option. High performers always consider the second-order consequences of their behavior and act upon them.
8. Inverted Thinking — another one from Charlie Munger (I think some German mathematician has formulated this principle, and he just borrowed it). This principle states that the solution to a problem is the inverse of that problem. So to find a solution, don’t think about how to solve the problem but how to create it instead. Example: I want to get to the next level as a developer. What should I do? Let’s consider what it takes to stay at the same level. Don’t improve your skills, deliver as little as necessary not to get fired, coast, don’t ask for more, don’t interview with other companies, and you will stay at that level (or worse, get fired). Now invert everything I said, and you have the solution to the problem!
9. Doing Things Right v.s. Doing The Right Things — the last mental model in the list but probably the most important. I think Peter Druker was behind this one. This principle is also known as the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. You can be the best. If you do the wrong things, you will never reach your targets. An example is the Front-end developer that hears about Kubernetes and tries to learn it. They push like crazy, code in the evenings and on the weekends, and put hundreds of hours in Cloud certifications. But they still work as a Front-end developer, so they don’t get to practice that in real life. In their following interview, they get asked about frontend topics they should be proficient at (TypeScript, Testing, Performance, Architecture), but they have no clue. All their time was spent on Kubernetes stuff. Was this a problem of time or discipline? Nope. It was doing the wrong things in the right way. Remember, effectiveness is more important than efficiency.

This is it.

Apply these 9 Mental Models in your developer career (and everyday life), and you will have a quick, intuitive way to make the right decisions fast.

Do you want to become a master of Senior level thinking? So you can deliver confidently and have access to Senior Developer jobs and salaries?

We still have a few spots left in the Software Mastery Program for June.

Apply here to see if you qualify!

See you soon,

Dragos

P.S. Let me know if you want me to follow up with an email on Senior level design patterns and technical, and mental models :)

Today, I wanted to share a success story from one of my mentees.

This developer worked with JavaScript (Angular), was self-taught, and had around 2 and a half years of experience writing code.

BUT…

His story is helpful to developers at ANY level.

Because in a few weeks, he went from being unable to get a technical interview to landing a Senior level position and doubling his salary!

He’s now starting the new job and stopped interviewing, but…

He said he wouldn’t have been able to achieve this kind of success without following these 5 commandments:

1. Clear goals. Before coming to us, this developer spent months trying to get a new position. He would interview with one company. Fail the interview. Go back to studying. Do another interview in a month. Repeat. He ping-ponged like that for 3 months with no real strategy. He came to us. We picked one goal. We got him focused. He executed. He succeeded.

2. Strong fundamentals. This particular developer came from an Angular background, and he only knew how to do things the Angular way. But most companies he interviewed with were looking for a more “flexible” developer who could adapt to different frameworks (and even touch the backend). I told him before signing up that he has to leave the Angular Developer behind and become a Software Engineer. How? By mastering framework agnostic mental models. Every time he learns new frameworks, he always looks for those models before checking implementation details.

3. Big picture. The third blocker for this dev was his inability to take end-to-end ownership. He knew a bit about infrastructure, AWS deployment, and GitHub pipelines, but he could never design such a pipeline. To his surprise, full-stack interviews require you to do just that. We showed him how. We also helped him build a mental model around the Cloud so he understands what’s going on regardless of the platform he is deploying on (AWS, Azure, GCP).

4. Consultant Mindset — In one of these interviews, he competed with 8 years experienced ex-Amazon engineers. He is a self-taught dev with less than three years of experience and still got the job. How? By focusing on them during the interview and asking the right questions.

5. Willing to look for help. As a self-taught dev, this guy was used to doing everything himself. And that was not a bit thing, but his progress was limited. He spent too much time looking for the right things instead of doing them. BUT, he decided to give us a chance, and a few weeks after, he considers that to be the best decision he’s made in the last few years. Big investment? Sure. But with an even bigger return (Senior title and 2x on salary)

If you also want to master these 5 commandments and make it to the Senior level the easy way? Check this out!

We can help you gain complete confidence in your technical skills, become the go-to developer in your team and earn more…

Due to overwhelming demand this June, we opened a few extra spots in our premium Software Mastery Mentorship program! But they are running out fast… You can see if you qualify here and apply now!

Let’s help you master these 5 commandments and become the best developer you can be!

See you soon,
Dragos

Tech companies are getting rid of developers at lightning speed.

If you are a developer looking for a job right now, you might want to level up your game.

After helping over 200+ developers get better jobs with an average pay increase of 20k, I can only tell you what worked for us.

Here are 7 tips for you to navigate this developer market and get the kind of job you deserve:

• Be greedy when others are fearful — the truth is most developers out there are terrified of the situation. They are playing it safe, staying where they are, and waiting for the storm to pass. Don’t be them. Take advantage of the situation. This is actually the best time to go out there and find opportunities because you will face less competition than ever.
• Don’t update, upgrade — the most common advice developers get when they are back in the market is to update your CV and Linkedin. Let me tell you that merely “updating” stuff won’t get you where you want to be. To stand out these days, you will have to oversell a bit. Detail your work experience in-depth, get endorsements, get recommendations, use your network, and be relentless in selling yourself. Upskill in certain areas as well so you can be more valuable. Be relentless on this one, and you will have more opportunities than you can handle (do you want my team and I to help you with this? Apply here now to see if you qualify for your premium mentorship program).
• If you want to succeed, expect to fail — assume you will fail the first 5 to 10 interviews that you will go through. And that’s ok. You will get the experience to nail the next one, and soon you will have a great job offer on your hands. Also, when you fail, don’t overthink, don’t push people for feedback, and move on quickly to the next opportunity.
• Avoid the FAANGS — publicly traded tech companies are overstaffed. They got fat, and now they are on a diet. What’s happening under the hood? Tech is getting into more traditional sectors ( what we’ve seen in the last years is tech companies going for the most dynamic part of the GDP, industries like advertising, finance, etc). Now tech will enter more traditional sectors like construction, healthcare, education, and defense. They are heavily regulated and harder to get in, but the payoff is much higher. If you want to get a job in the long term, look there.
• It is not over until it is over — even if you are in the final stages with a company, even if they said they would make you an offer until you have a signed contract on your hands, you should not stop interviewing. Sure, you want to get comfortable, but offers get canceled all the time. Don’t goof off before the game is over.
• Surf the AI wave — take advantage of everyone talking about AI and show that you are on the latest trends. Add ChatGPT and Copilot to your CV, and dive deeper into how LLMs work. You will learn something new and stand out from the sea of developers who didn’t even play with these things yet.
• Negotiate when most would not — as I mentioned, most developers are afraid right now. When negotiating salaries, most of them settle for less than they deserve. But companies have tons of cash at hand no matter what they say (look at inflation). Once you pass the interview, open a small negotiation to see what’s at stake. If salary is not negotiable, a few vacation days or a bonus might be. That is free money :)

Here it is.

Use these 7 principles in your job hunt, and you will do better than 99% of developers who are driven by fear and have no process.

By the way, you don’t have to do all this alone.

My team and I can help you take advantage of the situation and advance your developer career to its fullest potential. We can help you find your technical gaps and put a solid plan in place to move towards more Senior positions and earn more.

Apply here to see if you qualify for our premium mentorship program!

In the meantime, don’t be afraid of the storm, use it to push your boat even faster. There has never been a better time to be a developer. If you have a plan and work hard, you will have not only a job, but a bright future.

We can help you! Apply here now (only a few spots left for May)!

Take care,
Dragos

“You are not your fucking khakis” — Tyler Durden.

In the last couple of months, I’ve talked to developers about the impact that tools like ChatGPT and Github Copilot will have on our future.

And God, it’s been a hard one!

Besides finding out that most of them haven’t even used any of those tools in their job, I’ve got a lot of nasty comments. Like really mean stuff.

I guess it is easier to insult people when hiding behind a keyboard 😕

Where is this negativity coming from?

Denial and anger are self-defense mechanisms. Developers getting triggered are anxious about their future. They fear becoming obsolete with no job security.

I don’t blame them.

They invested years in getting where they are at.

For example, after the first days playing with ChatGPT, Bogdan got so anxious that he didn’t want to leave the house.

​​I had to push him to go out and catch up with some of his friends.

For the record, Bogdan is an ex-aerospace engineer that started coding more than ten years ago.

​​After getting to Principal Engineer and Engineering Manager, he joined theSeniorDev, where he designed our training programs and delivered technical training to over 200 engineers. This is not to brag, but he knows what he is doing.

​​And he was more than worried. When ChatGPT came up with better solutions than he would ever imagine, he felt displaced and obsolete.

It’s been a few weeks since then.

In the meantime, Bogdan got deeper and deeper into machine learning, even developing and deploying our proprietary LLM for theSeniorDev.

He is working on a recipe to help our mentees merge their software development expertise with AI skills and stay relevant.

We are rolling that out already; Interested? Apply here to see if you qualify.

Back to the anxiety part.

I think Bogdan’s reaction is because he built his identity around his job (just like many other software developers). It is a by-product of passion.

Making your job your identity is dangerous.

It is scientifically proven that people with a complex identity (or sense of self) are more resilient to personal crises. A complex identity means a diverse identity.

So many of us are invested in our job. We say, “I am a Developer” or “I am a Software Engineer.” I get it. I was the same.

For the last ten years, I did little but work on my career. In my early days as a developer, I lived in the office. After work, I would be exhausted and go home and sleep.

I gained at least 20 kilos and barely got out of bed every morning to go to work.

And I didn’t have a family to support as many of you do. I can’t imagine how hard that must be.

It took the passing away of one of my closest friends to realize that a life built around my job is a life of misery. Ambition is a good thing, but too much of it can destroy you.

I started putting some time aside for my hobbies and friends. Setting time aside means putting it on the calendar and treating it like a work appointment. I started developing other areas of my life.

Sure, my job is still essential to me.

It gives me energy and a sense of purpose. But I don’t let it define me anymore. It is part of life, but it is not life. It is part of who I am, not who I am.

Guess what? I got back my motivation. Taking breaks and disconnecting means coming on Monday with a big smile, hungry for more.

Here is my tip for today: develop a complex sense of self.

If you write software already, writing a blog on the side can be a good starting point.

If you are more visual and like to go out into the world, pick up photography, as Bogdan did. Or cooking. Or dancing. Or stand-up comedy.

I prefer things that make me run away from the computer and put me in touch with other people. We live in a loneliness epidemic; human connection is what we need more of.

Don’t worry, you will still have time to shine at your job.

Developing your personality will help you navigate stressful situations and career changes. Because in this day and age, things change faster than ever, your job might be completely different in a couple of years.

And a couple of years for a career change is fast.

Take care,
Dragos

P.S. This post was inspired by my lunchtime chats with Bogdan about the future of software development. In the last months, we’ve been working hard to understand AI and its impact on developer jobs.

Fundamental changes are coming. It is good news for smart and hard-working devs to shine and take advantage of this technological disruption.

And we want to help you along the way. This is why we are already extending our Software Mastery Mentorship with an AI-centered bonus. So you can stay relevant no matter what. Interested? Apply here now!

What does it take to become an exceptional software developer?

A question that haunted me for years.

Is it one thing, or is it many? Is it “years of experience”? Is it a specific technology or framework? Or is it simply luck?

The reason for that is that I left a successful career as an Aerospace Engineer to get into software development. Once I got in, I could not settle for being just a coder. An execution machine for tickets in the sprint. I wanted more, a hell lot more.

That hunger led me to an almost ten-year journey navigating software engineering, starting with basic web development up to Computer Science fundamentals. After endless struggles, late nights, and dozens of trials and errors, I finally made it to Senior Developer.

Not only that, but on the way, I also helped more than 160 developers get through the same journey faster.

What I found out is that when you analyze highly successful software developers, you will notice a recurring pattern. At the core of their success, though different at the surface, there are three basic ingredients:

1. Mindset
2. Technical Skills
3. Selling yourself

Any developer aspiring to get to the Senior level and beyond should be asking themselves if they are doing enough in each of these three areas.

If not, even if you work hard, you will see really limited results — because, as is the case in today’s software market: great companies are getting pickier and pickier. Sure there are many jobs for software developers right now, and “demand” for coders will stay high. I bet you even have some recruiters writing you even if you are not looking for something.

But are those the kind of jobs you would spend your next 5 to 10 years on? Do they pay what you deserve? Would they give you more responsibility?

The answer is probably no.

As with everything in nature, great software jobs follow a bell curve governed by the laws of supply and demand.

Well-paying jobs for stable companies with modern tech stacks and great cultures are highly in demand (checking LinkedIn for such job postings and saw, on average, 249 applicants per position). Sure, most of those people don’t qualify and won’t even get a phone call from the recruiter. But you will be competing with at least 20 decent other software engineers for such a position.

So how can you get to the top faster?

Most developers you ask will answer you with “years of experience.”

That’s what I call the experience myth. The magic notion that as time passes, you get better.

In reality, the opposite is true.

Unless you make the conscious effort to gain a deeper understanding of software development, with time, your skills will get worse (and as technology advancement outpaces your learning curve, you’ll soon become unemployable).

Don’t trust me? Ask any veteran that is not doing Q&A or got into management because development was too stressful.

This brings me to the #1 ingredient of success.

Pilar #1: Mindset

Mindset goes first because a developer with a positive mindset, a.k.a. healthy attitude towards self-improvement and learning, is most likely to put in the time to master the technical side and learn how to read the market and sell themselves.

It is also the hardest.

Because it requires getting over your ”developer ego,” accepting there is room for improvement in your skills, and taking action towards changing. Changing your own source code is much harder than any technical issue you will ever encounter.

So how can you improve your mindset?

I know most developers are skeptical about self-improvement books because they tend to be flashy, overpromise and contain too many pseudo-scientific statements that are hard to swallow for such analytical minds.

It is true; there is a lot of garbage out there, but also tons of stuff that works.

Some pieces I recommend to all our students are “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones”, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” and “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem.” They address crucial areas such as habits, focus, and building a more confident you.

Besides books, articles, and videos, I recommend surrounding yourself with positive people that have a mission and a vision. If the developers you hang out with after work only like to drink a few beers, play video games, and eat junk food, time to change your entourage.

Pilar #2: Technical Skills

The key difference you need to understand here is that delivering in the sprint is not enough (having working-level knowledge).

Senior Developers understand the “why” behind what they do, not just the “how.”

Choosing React as an example, being able to develop applications with React (even complex ones) won’t cut it. To lead, one must also understand why React and how the library was built. Facebook did not invent functional programming in 2015. They just applied it in the context of JavaScript development.

A Senior Developer working with React should understand the architectural paradings that it brings to the table, as well the language of React (JavaScript and TypeScript). That doesn’t mean you should memorize the prototype properties of the Array object. Still, you do need to develop a feeling of the structure, paradings, and capabilities of JavaScript as a language.

This is a hard step, particularly for self-taught developers.

It usually happens in your third year of writing code. Bootcamps and courses have been selling you that you can become a great software engineer without having a mathematical inclination or going too deep into the theoretical aspects of software development.

But as you try to get deeper technically, you will bump into concepts that require you to have a deeper computer science basis. The self-taught journey in software development is a counterintuitive one. At some point, you need to replace tricks and tips learned on the job with proven fundamentals.

Technologies and frameworks tend to go away pretty quickly, yet fundamentals have a much, much longer lifespan.

If you want me and my team to personally help you find your technical gaps and build a step-by-step roadmap for you to get to the Senior level, apply here to see if you qualify.

Pilar #3: Selling Yourself

You can have the best product in the world, if people don’t know about it, they won’t buy it.

In the case of software developers, you can have great skills, a strong work ethic, and an ability to get things done. But, if you ignore the “sales” part of your job (most developers do), you will always be making less than you could, have less responsibility and never reach your full potential.

Many of the developers I coach think they don’t need this part when they come to us. Engineers disregard sales because they think the best product always wins (I don’t blame them, this mindset is common in the tech industry, particularly in the startup world).

This belief works really well with our internal belief system, as engineers like to believe we judge things by what they can do, not by their packaging (if you own any Apple product, you will know that is not true).

The better you sell yourself, the faster you will grow both by taking advantage of opportunities inside your team/company and outside of it.

A smart developer will do both.

By understanding office politics and corporate dynamics, they will be able to get promoted (or be the last considered in case of layoffs), and by understanding the market and how to sell themselves on the outside, they will have increased negotiations power over their salaries (real negotiation power comes from options).

They will also be able to jump ship strategically to far better opportunities.

All these three areas take work.

They require dedication, commitment, and a real intention to get better. Sadly, many developers won’t get there.

After a few years in the industry, you see this when you bump into people. Most of them are working at the same company, more or less on the same code. Some get a promotion. A minority is now occupying Senior Positions. An even smaller minority gets into leadership (Architect/Tech Lead/Principal Engineer).

For some of you, this might be hard; it might require months or even years of hard work without seeing your skills fundamentally improve. Sometimes you will feel like you will never get there.

Don’t quit.

Getting better as a Sofware Developer is like pushing a rock over the peak of a mountain. You can push and push, but if you quit before reaching the peak, the rock will fall back exactly where it started, and you will lose everything.

Keep pushing; you will get to the peak.

How long it is going to get you there?

If you opt by doing it alone really depends on your current skills level, the opportunities around you, the developers you are surrounded by, how effective you are in your upskilling, and countless other variables. What I can tell you is that it is totally 100% worth it.

Because once you get to Senior, you play life on easy mode.

Better quality projects, better companies, better teams, and the possibility of finding another job at the snap of a finger. The promised land of any software developer.

If you are ready to accelerate your journey to that level, book a chat with me here and let’s see if we can help you get there. Our mentorship programs offer individual help for JavaScript developers that have been coding for a while and are ready to get to the next level.

Take care,

Dragos Nedelcu — Software Trainer & Founder at theSeniorDev.com

P.S. You are probably thinking, hmmm. I wonder how much this thing costs? Well, the short answer is, it’s free. Because if we don’t make you at least 30% better as a developer in the first 30 days of working with us, we’ll return every cent you paid. How’s that for confidence?

P.S.S. Even if you have an idea of what you should do to get to that next level and just want a second opinion, I GUARANTEE this call will be the best 45 minutes you invested in yourself as a developer this year. Mister Dragos ain’t playing. See for yourself.

There are only 3 major mistakes that prevent developers from making it to the next level, whether it is Senior or beyond.

And to be honest with you, they don’t take long to fix. These are the exact things we help our mentees put in place:

Mistake #1: No clarity on their technical level

Look… trying to “get better” without properly understanding where you are at first is like starting a journey without a map. You‘ll probably end up lost far away from your destination.

Too many developers go out there and buy a bunch of courses just to drop them a few days after when they realize those were not the things they needed to get better. And then they either give up, frustrated or worse, start the whole loop again.

Most developers are solving a problem that doesn’t exist!

Sure, you can learn from everything, but when you have a job and a family, you want the little time you have to pay off greatly. And you do so not by learning some things but by finding the exact things you are lacking and focusing on those.

This is why when you start working with us, the first thing we do is to find out your exact technical level. Once you find that out is just a matter of taking action.

Mistake #2: Focus on frameworks instead of principles

Not a developer’s fault but the industry’s fault.

Ever since web development started to grow in popularity, so did the community’s obsession with shiny objects. New frameworks coming out of nowhere promising to solve all your problems (sometimes by creating even more problems).

While frameworks came in quite handy (and are here to stay), they usually abstract many details and blind you from the details of building great software. As a result, whether is a technical interview or an edge case where they can’t use any of the libraries they are used to, most developer freeze.

That’s when they realize a cold truth.

They became a framework developer, not a software developer!

This is one of the first problems we fix with our mentees, and we do that not by making them read long (and boring) books about Design Patterns or by reverse engineering the libraries they work with (I know it sounds like fun, but life’s too short).

We simply put in place mental models that go beyond the specific framework they are being used in. Things like state management, clean code, and a deeper understanding of the Web (browser included) will take you extremely far.

To keep it short, if you want to fast-track to the Senior level and beyond, shift your focus to principles and mental models instead of libraries and frameworks.

Mistake #3: Priotizing quantity instead of quality

Every now and then, I get the question, Dragos, but what are the “extra” things that I need to focus on to get to the next level?

My answer usually is NONE.

If you take a close look at what makes the difference between a mid/level developer and a Senior developer, you will see that the number (the quantity) of things they know is more or less similar.

For example, both a mid and Senior dev will work with some React on the front end, Node on the backend, and a bit of TypeScript, and they both probably touched a bit of cloud on AWS or Azure.

What really makes the difference between those 2 developers is the depth of knowledge they have about these topics. A Senior developer typically can dive in faster and deeper from the big picture to the implementation details.

Take React (or any frontend framework) as an example; they can not only talk about how to build certain features or lift some state, they know how to test, build for performance and scale whatever piece of code is being discussed.

It is that mix of perspective and depth that makes them a Senior.

To be honest with you, although many say Architecture is the path to Senior, this part comes last in our training. Why? Because to get the big picture, you gotta be a great coder first. And most developers still struggle with the coding side of things.

Just like in comedy, timing matters in software.

Develop a habit of going deep instead of wide in your knowledge, and you will have a winning edge over all the developers out there, busy collecting frameworks rather than mastering one thing really well.

………..

Point is, software development is not rocket science.

Generally, developers don’t do the things I mentioned because they don’t have the knowledge, they don’t have the time, or simply lack the accountability and feedback to put in place a plan to fix those gaps and stick with it…

(which is a pity because if they would only fix 50% of this stuff, they would quickly put themselves at the top of the market, immune to layoffs, choosing which company to work for under which conditions, earning double than their peers and basically living life on their terms)

I know getting better as a developer involves many moving pieces. That’s why I am here to help.

Over the next few days, I’m going to be sending you some info about what it’s like to work with us privately. I’ll explain everything I’ve mentioned above. Plus a lot more…

The reason is I want to help you move one step further in your developer career, hoping that if you like what you see, you will decide to work with us and join our programs.

Talk soon,

Dragos

ps I’ve been a bit sick in the last couple of days; that’s why you saw so few appointment slots on the website. I need to take care of our paying customers first. But I am back and ready to chat with you. So if you feel like we could help you, apply here and let’s figure out together how you can become our next success story!

ps Berlin is really getting dark and cloudy again, and so my productivity skyrocketed, so I am no joking when I say keep an eye on our inbox! Good stuff coming your way!

While most developers obsess over “fancy frameworks,” smart engineers focus on 3 timeless skills instead.

Great question from one of my subscribers.

What are the three most important things to do/learn to move your career forward as a software engineer?

It is a tricky one because boiling down the millions of things one needs to do/learn in only 3 is not always easy.

But after personally working with 140+ devs helping them do just that, here is what I learned that works best and makes the difference between developers that make it to tech lead, architect, and even CTO and developers that get stuck in the coder ranks.

Listed below in order of importance:

1. Clear vision and goals

The biggest and most important. Most developers I talk with, and I must have chatted with thousands already, don’t have a clear goal of what they want to accomplish.

Some have an idea; others are waiting for their company/boss to define it for them. Which leaves their future up to chance. That is a poor way to manage your career and life in general.

I get it. Setting goals is daunting, and the more specific you want to get, the harder it becomes. But, what’s the alternative? When you have a goal, a vision for yourself, and a deadline, you can at least measure your progress and stay on track when you don’t feel like it, when things don’t work your way or when distractions come up.

Now it doesn’t have to be this big glorious essay detailing everything you would like to achieve. It is more about setting a long-term goal and a short-term goal. And going for it and doing whatever it takes to make it happen. Maybe it involves waking up a bit earlier, reading certain books, eliminating some bad habits, switching companies, or, if you were inclined to do so, joining a community or mentorship filled with people doing the same.

Whatever it is, you have to define it. Where do you want to be in 6 months from now? What technical level would you like to achieve? What salary level would you like to get to? What about 12 months from now? What about three years from now?

Spend some time on it. Write it down. (if you want feedback on this, this is what we do in the free technical strategy call, of course, if you want us to help you implement that plan and I see a match, I will make you an offer for us to work together in a client relationship)

2. Consistency

The second most important ingredient to the mix is implementing that vision from step one over the long term. You can have the best plan in the world; if you end up watching Netflix, you won’t get anywhere.

After years in this sector, I’ve seen people coming in and out. They try it for a few months, sometimes years, and then get distracted and do something else. It is easy to do something for a few days, even weeks. But, if you stay consistent in your learning over the long term, over the years, your skills will compound, and you will benefit 10x.

That’s when you realize squeezing 15 hours on the weekend to catch up or to build some side projects is a bad idea. Because it is not something you can commit to. I would instead do 1 hour a day for the next 15 days. Make learning a habit that you can accommodate in your daily routine for the years to come.

The best time I found is in the morning before you start working. Dedicate 1 hour to make progress on that plan. Most developers wake up late, put something on, grab a coffee and jump into the daily. Don’t be that person. You will survive, but you won’t get to the top, let alone be happy and productive.

Habits are your system for personal success; use them as the tool to execute your vision on “auto-pilot,” making progress every day without even thinking about it.

3. Giving back

If you implement steps one and two, you will already be ahead of 99.9% of devs out there hoping for things to happen.

This last skill or thing to do is aimed at keeping you motivated and building a sense of passion that will go even beyond your software development career. It is human nature that we are the happiest when we do something for others (and expect nothing in return).

Now I am not saying working for less salary or for free. As a professional, that’s out of the question. What I am saying is that now that you are achieving stuff and going places, it is an excellent opportunity to look back from time to time and help someone on their way up.

It will allow you to revisit your motivations, solidify your knowledge as you pass it on, and feel like the incredible human being you are. It will increase your sense of worth and happiness. And hey, what goes around comes around. Let karma work for you.

So, in that busy week of yours, squeeze some time to help another developer. It can be a junior at your job or any other developer struggling with something you can help with. Offer a helping hand. Don’t expect anything in return.

Amazing things will happen :)

That’s it.

I could have gone into technical skills, like programming fundamentals, OOP, testing, or Sofware Architecture, but knowledge is only the result. The result of a strong vision that is cemented by great habits. Put these three things in place, and the technical part will be a piece of cake.

You will nail it and have a lot more FUN doing so!

If you want me and my team to personally help you find out what are your technical gaps and put in place a step-by-step plan for you to achieve your wildest dreams as a software developer, click here and book a call with me.

Together, we will deep dive into your situation and draft a plan for you to move towards the senior level, earn more, and live life on your terms! If you want us to help you implement that plan and I see a fit, I will also make you an offer to join our private mentorship program.

Bogdan and I are packing for the holidays already, so if you want to do this sooner than later, I advise you to check it out now. Click here and book a call now!

Take care,

Dragos