In this post, I am going to talk about a book I have read multiple times, from the Pragmatic Bookshelf, “The Passionate Programmer – Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development by Chad Fowler“. I find this book relevant every time I read it. It helps me see the positive results of each action I take to invest in myself in the pursuit of excellence.
The author has used his real-life experience within the Software Industry and guides the reader on how to achieve excellence in software development. He explains how he entered the software industry after being a musician, and how the things that he learned in his life when he was a musician have helped him become a skilled software professional. This theme carries throughout the book, everything that you do in your life gives you experience and lessons which can be applied to almost any field. If you want to develop software which in turn makes human life easier, you have to be in love with it, and if you are in love with it, you will find ways to improve your skill-set. This will help you achieve excellence over your time in software development, and you will have a remarkable career in this field.
Everybody wants to be successful in their lives. For a person in the software industry, what does it take to be a successful developer? The author has conveyed this very well through his writing and experience. In this book, he has outlined various situations that a person may face when he is part of this industry and how he can perform really well in any situation by maintaining his confidence.
This is an amazing read for anyone who wants to do well in their career in software development. The “Act On It” section after each topic is a great tool which can help you build an amazing career. The main focus is on considering yourself as a product in this competitive market. If you want to do really well in this business, and sell yourself really well, here are the things you must do to make sure you are meeting the needs of the market. If you don’t understand the market you will not be able to sell yourself.
The book is divided in to 5 parts:
1. Choosing Your Market – It’s all about investment, it’s not about only money, but also your time. As a software developer, it’s pretty obvious that programming by coincidence is a bad thing.
2. Investing in Your Product – You are not naturally gifted, you have to put in the effort to build yourself per the needs of your market.
3. Executing – If you are ready after choosing your market and have invested in yourself now is the time to execute.
4. Marketing… Not Just for Suits – If you don’t know how to market yourself, you won’t be able to attain your goals. Know the facts and how to do it.
5. Maintaining Your Edge – It does not end here, you have to continuously evolve by continuing to educate yourself.
Each topic is nicely outlined with examples which help to clarify how you can make yourself more marketable. Continuing to educate yourself is very important, which helps increase your awareness. The author emphasizes things like: its not a one day process, you have to be consistent and the results will follow. Everything you get from your career is about the investments you make in yourself to maintain your edge as a product in this market.
The writer has shown the importance of following and working in open source projects and how these can help build knowledge and experience.
This book is a guide to great career in Software Industry. Whatever your current level is, this book will teach you something that you will find useful and will help you achieve greater success. This book is recommended reading for everyone at HotWax Media.
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