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How to Level up as a developer

As a developer, you spend most of your time coding so much that it is easy to forget about career growth. The lack of motivation in the workplace is a sign that you may have put off your career development for too long. Let’s talk about five steps to help you level up your career as a developer.

Set Goals

Make the decision about where you want to be in the future and the kind of role you desire. It could be a new job title with more responsibilities, or it could be mastering a new framework, or maybe getting a higher salary? Facebook’s engineering levels is a great tool which groups engineers based on expected skills and abilities in relation to their years of experience. After finding out your level, you can look at one or two levels above you so you can get an idea of the skills you need to acquire to grow your career. It also helps to know that these are the criteria companies around the world use to decide what level (and salary bracket) to place you during recruitment.

Work outside of work

If you are remotely familiar with the tech industry, then you know that it changes quite rapidly and keeping up with those changes takes considerable time and effort. Most companies already have a stack they work with so you are likely to get very comfortable with and with that you become less likely to learn new technology. It is generally believed that learning plateaus after a year or two at the same company and one way to make up for that is to work on personal projects. Personal projects are usually fun to work on and they help keep your skills sharp. You might even make some money so it’s a win-win.

Seek advice

Ask for advice from people even if they are not tech-inclined. People you work with every day like your managers, colleagues or even your mentors (if you have any) may offer you career and life-changing advice. You could start by showing the willingness to grow by being teachable regardless of how much you think you know and how skilled you might be. Ask for specific things that you could do to improve your work. Avoid waiting until you are already burnt out as some opportunities may already have been missed.

Measure your progress

It is easier to track your growth and improvements if you measure your successes however small they may be as it is easier to improve on something that is measured. It is also a source of motivation for you to spend time wisely by working on the right projects which align with your career growth path. Tools like WakaTime can help you with the measurements.

Practice interviewing

Interviewing is a skill you cannot do without if you are to grow as it is needed to move ahead from one job to another and to further your career. Frequent interview practice could help keep you sharp. You could start by learning how to introduce yourself again if you haven’t done so in a while and it may interest you to learn that the lines you used previously may not work for you again since your job title may have changed or if you have gotten more experience, also practice interview questions as well. Depending on your career growth path, the fastest way for you to grow your career might be by changing jobs and acing an interview takes you a lot closer to that goal.

Conclusion

Having a goal in mind together with side projects to keep you sharp, advice from friends, mentors and colleagues, keeping track of your progress by measuring your growth and sharpening your interview skills, levelling up and taking your career to the next level becomes a lot less challenging.
 

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