When you consider the vast (and ever growing) field that development is, it’s easy to see why it can be a daunting career choice. Covering everything from programming to front-end, our developers are all specialists in their own field—development is an increasingly varied industry. And for this industry, this is really only the beginning.
So where do you begin? Here’s the first ten things you should know when learning to code and starting out in the industry.
1. Know Your Environment
You wouldn’t put your pet penguin on the beaches of the tropical island of Aruba. Likewise, you wouldn’t code a program for Linux and run it on Windows—at least, you shouldn’t, if you don’t want your code to suffer a quick and blistering end. Know where your code will run.
The syntax for different environments vary just as the quirks of your database may vary. For better efficiency, pay close attention to where are how anything you write will be used.
2. Know the Coding Standards for Your Organization
Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a veteran developer, you have to know the coding standards for your organization—not just the usual version control stuff. Know the protocol for establishing names for files and variables. This is important so that your work can be used by other team members if there is any collaboration on a project.
3. Use Documentation to Your Advantage
That brings us to the importance of documentation. You’re going to spend a lot of time on it, and ultimately, it is worth it. When it comes to code, just because you wrote it doesn’t meant you’ll be fixing it. Likewise, just because you wrote it doesn’t mean you’ll remember how you did it a year from now. Use this to your advantage and be thorough.
4. Know Your Tools
Everything isn’t always available in all environments, so the ability to work with different tools as a developer is crucial. Get familiar with various IDEs and learn the tools at your disposal well. It will benefit you in the long run.
5. But Don’t Rely on Them
Never, ever rely on your tools to do the job for you. Generally, software and hardware do their job; sometimes, they do not. Build good habits now and your code won’t be lazy, your open files on the network won’t be ruined, and your day’s work won’t disappear in a joint effort of power and autosave failure.
6. Back up Early and Frequently
Speaking of which, back up early and frequently, preferably before you realize you need to. Save your files locally and on disk or drive, or both. If you’re paying for server space, use it. Saving your files frequently is the only insurance you have against any detrimental errors that may show up—unless you and your clients enjoy starting from the beginning.
7. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Development is already a big world—and this is a very good thing. Use search engines in your favour and learn to research accordingly: has someone else noticed a bug in the software? Collaborate and build on what is already created.
Likewise, save yourself the time and save code snippets and plugins you’ve created to reuse as needed. If you’ve created an excellent WordPress widget or finance calculator, you wouldn’t recode it each time you need it, would you? Use your resources to maximize your efficiency.
8. Don’t Limit Yourself to One Editor
Stemming from the same vein as browser testing comes the need to learn to use more than one editor. Each developer will have their favourite and that’s fine. But sticking with an outdated editor isn’t unlike staying with Paint when Photoshop is already dominating design work. If it’s slowing you down, try a new one. You might just find your next favourite.
9. Stay in the Zone
Don’t pay attention to the guy shouting next to you—he’s just mad at a Microsoft bug. There’s no need to lose focus or get intimidated. As you spend time in the industry, you’ll have opportunities to shout aimlessly at your screens too.
In all seriousness, it’s easy to lose your place in a stream of code or your train of thought in a busy workplace. Distractions are your enemy. Practice zoning out the background noise or try coding while listening to music. If you’re in the zone, you’re as good as invincible.
10. Know How to Make Good Coffee
One of the most important things every beginning developer should know is how to make good coffee. This comes through practice, patience and just the right ratio of coffee beans to water. Good coffee will keep you alert and going when the going gets buggy.
And remember to keep a stash of sweets, just in case. It’s going to be a long night.