Top 5 Tips for New Developers & IT Students: Expert Advice

In today's technological world, the demand for software developers is increasing day by day. Research suggests, most of the new software developers lack key competency skills, which are much needed in the Information Technology industries. I have collated some of the points that are the much-needed golden top tips for new developers and IT Students. For making this article, I also connected with many experts serving in the industries for a pretty long time & took their valuable insights as well. I would suggest you, please read the article thoroughly as it can potentially help you in brushing up your skills.

 

Let's begin with the top tips for new developers

 

Now, let's start with the useful tips for new developers. I see many new developers or want to be developers waste a lot of their time in thinking a question that which programming language should I choose, they try to confine themselves to any programming language. I would say, If you ask developers of Big IT organizations, they don't have any defined programming languages instead they use the best of the world (Combinations of many). The programming language that fits best in the given criteria they select them. For example, you can use Python for data analysis and C++ for any other task.

 

What we suggest, you should invest your time in practicing the basics using any programming language. The basics will be always the same no matter which programming language you use.

 

#1 Tip - Reading Official Documentations and Books:

 

Many developers only use video tutorials for diving deep into any framework or programming language but they don't refer to any official documentation and books. I will not say it is bad since videos are also one of the best sources ( a picture says a thousand words than a text), but I would still say Video tutorials are just for your reference. Being a YouTuber myself, I also love to create video content for my subscribers (channel), but I don't want my subscribers to limit themselves to my channel only. Instead, I would recommend to my subscribers, that they should also try to brush up more via official documentation or books.

 

There are also two more reason behind documentations,

 

• Documentation will cover more insights into the topic that a video tutorial cannot cover.
• In the industry world, mostly the task is given in the documentation, So many developers will feel nasty in reading the long written text. So reading documentation and books is extremely important.

 

I would say you can follow the below approach - A Combination Approach: In this approach you can start a topic with a "Video Tutorial" followed by "Documentation or Books".

 

 

#2 Tip - Build some stuff and put it on GitHub:

 

Only reading and watching videos will definitely not make you a better developer, unless you cannot innovate and build something using that knowledge. So hands-on are equally important, so I would recommend if you are a new developer you can definitely learn the content via documentation and video tutorials as stated in the previous step and then create something out of it and publish the same on GitHub. This is our #2 - top tips for new developers and IT Students.

 

Theoretical and Practical knowledge together is the go to thing, It will make a you a much great programmer for a long run.

 

Suppose, you are learning Python, you can build your command into that by learning the basics thereby you can create something out of it, Like a GUI Application that can automate something. Don't feel underestimate anytime, that your project is too small it is not worthy to be on GitHub. I would say, something is still better than nothing.

 

 

#3 Tip - Take #100DaysofCode Challenge:

 

Do you know doing a specific thing regularly over 100days can create a huge impact in building a skill instead of doing things not regular? So, you can take the #100DaysofCode Challenge, in which you can code every day at least for 1 hour without a fail for 100 days. This is our #3 - top tips for new developers and IT Students.You can post a tweet on Twitter

 

"Day number - Topic you Studied #100DaysOfCode #Ittwist @Ittwist"

 

You can include #Ittwist hashtag or tag us at @Ittwist so that We can also track your progress over the time :).

 

For example, Themik has tweeted, Day Number - Topic that he studied, and hashtags. So, #100DaysofCode will help Themik in different ways, in setting a roadmap that he needs to do in 100 Days, Regular coding for 100days will help him in acquiring theoretical and practical knowledge. Moreover, he can interact with fellow people having the same interest by looking into similar hashtags. Sounds Promising right :). Looking forward to seeing you taking the #100DaysofCode Challenge.

 

https://twitter.com/SharmaThemik/status/1416435158069104640

 

#4 Tip - Build Networking:

 

Building Networking is extremely important, it will not only help you in improving your IT skills but also help you in landing some of the coolest jobs as well. Networking is our #4 - top tips for new developers and IT Students. In this point, I will tell you some of the tips on which you can build networking.

 

 

• Secondly, you can build your connection via LinkedIn. You can contribute with like-minded people who are experts in any field and seek their guidance.

 

• Further, you can also start actively participate in some blogs, get some insights and seek mentor-ship of the blog experts as well.

 

• Lastly, As we have suggested in our tip number #3, you can start taking the #100DaysOfCode challenge on Twitter and connect with the people taking the challenge along with you. I must say coding in the group is great fun, where you can talk about different approaches to the same problem and can get a great solution even, this concludes in great learning. :)

 

#5 Tip - Error is your best Friend:

 

Yes indeed you saw right, Error is your best friend that is our last #5 - top tips for new developers and IT Students. Many people think the error is a bad thing, but I would say, it's better to encounter an error while development (not a good thing in production definitely ;) ). An error will embrace your learning and will help you develop an understanding more about that topic. An error can also help you with developing thinking that how you can handle the error in production.

 

I would say the more you encounter with an error during your development journey, the more learning a person will have. This will help you in building an experience in the longer run, that you might know during your development that if I follow this approach then an error can land up in production.

 

Also, the people working in the production bug-fixes can easily fix an error if they have faced them earlier during their development journey.

 

 

 

Finally in order to sum up, here is a cheat-sheet by Ittwist.

 

 

If you have any queries or suggestions, please write in the comment section below.