Name: Video recording for Writing a book: Venturing into other fields in tech as a dev - Codementor Events
Uploaded: 2022-05-04
Description: Nadia will share how working as a developer help her venture into other fields in tech.

## About the talk
In this presentation, Nadia will talk about how working as a software engineer equipped her with the skills to plan, write, and publish a book to help aspiring developers learn to program. We’ll use Nadia’s writing experience as a springboard to talk about how developers can venture into other areas related to tech. 

By the end of the talk, you will learn the best ways to improve your craft as a developer. Hopefully, you will also be inspired to step out of your professional comfort zone and try something new. 


### This talk will cover
- Why you should learn from the best 
- How embracing challenges makes you a better programmer
- Why it’s important to show your work early

*We’ll use Zoom Webinar to hold and record the event. Register to the event to access recordings afterwards.*

non-technical events about growing one's career like becoming a tech lead

Career Growth

### How do you learn from the best?


Throughout your career, always try to optimize for learning. Whenever you feel like you’re not learning as much as you can be, always look for new learning opportunities. If you’re a self taught developer, and you’re working with other developers with computer science degrees, you may feel intimidated at first. However, see this as a learning opportunity — you get to work with and learn from other developers. So, in addition to working with brilliant developers, you also want to be reading books by other brilliant programmer authors. 


In the process of writing a book, you not only learn from the best programmers, but you also learn from the best writers. Great writers will share the art and science or writing in their books as well. If you’re not a good storyteller, reading fiction novels from classical novelists will help you improve your storytelling skills. No matter what skill you’re learning, you should always be learning from the best.


### How do you embrace the struggle?


As a junior developer, you’re going to struggle with everything. And struggling is the best way to learn, so you want to embrace the struggle. Most of the time, if you’re starting as a junior developer, words like Docker and compiler wouldn’t even make sense to you. You’ll have to start by understanding the words and then move into understanding the concept. While you may feel frustrated and down because you’re struggling, remember this quote: “Give a man a program, frustrate him for a day. Teach a man to program, frustrate him for a lifetime.” Trying to solve a problem before being shown a solution helps you memorize the new material. So if you’re struggling, you should see this as something that is helping you learn, and not something you should avoid at all costs.


Ray Bradbury said “writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.” Struggling is good, and with anything hard, struggling is good. If you meet an experienced programmer who says that coding has always been very easy for them, it’s likely that they have forgotten when they were getting started.


### What do you do when you’re stuck?


It’s important to talk through your problem, whether that’s talking to someone or thinking out loud. It always helps make the issue less complex and brings clarity to it. We think by talking, and talking helps us organize our thinking. When you start to explain the problem, amazing things actually start to happen. When you start doing it, it’s enough to unblock you or help you find someone who can help you solve the problem. This skill is not only transferable to writing, but also to many other areas of life as well. 


To end this section on a positive note, here’s a quote by Seth Godin: 
> No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.” 


So talking through your problem will most likely be the first step to unblocking yourself.

Software Engineer at Intercom | Book author | Career mentor

Nadia Zhuk

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Nadia will share how working as a developer help her venture into other fields in tech.

Video recording for: Writing a book: Venturing into other fields in tech as a dev

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