In this episode I have a chat with long time PyBites Community Member, Rhys Powell, about the skills programmers should have when coming into a coding role or opportunity.
As someone who mentors and trains graduates in Python development for success in the industry Rhys has some great insights into what's really needed, what works and what doesn't.
One of the takeaways here is that many of the points that lead to success are more around the mindset people bring over the pure technical skill.
Some points we raise and discuss in our conversation:
- What we really need from engineers is a willingness to learn.
- Problem solving skills are huge. Being able to break down problems is super important.
- Understanding how you as a person learn.
- "I don't necessarily require a successful outcome, I'd rather know about how you got to your solution."
- Passion and the enthusiasm to learn and grow weigh more than "just" technical skill.
- Technical skills can be taught. The enthusiasm cannot.
- People should ignore the "brand" of the company and think more about what can this company provide me to help me move forward while I'm providing value to them. "Win-Win".
- The Fear of failure is something that holds a lot of people back.
- Failure is not a bad thing. Embrace the fact that sometimes you're going to get things "not quite right".
- We all make decisions with the best of our knowledge at the time and that takes us a step forward.
- Aim to understand what your customers and clients actually want. Much of the time they don't know what they want.
- Being able to communicate is incredibly important as a developer.
- Not documenting is a common pitfall of new developers.
- Not writing tests is another pitfall. Writing tests makes your life so much easier as a developer.
- Self-confidence is a big deal. We shouldn't be full of ourselves but we should be confident in our abilities. Imposter Syndrome in the industry is real!
- You don't need to know the mountain of technology that's out there to come into a dev role. It's your ability to learn the things you need to know when you need to know them that counts.
If you want to see more of Rhys, please, please check out his Twitch channel or reach out to him on the PyBites Slack.
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/bleachin74
PyBites Slack Username: "Rhys"
Github: https://github.com/rhyspowell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bleachin