Advice From a Software Engineer With 8 Years of Experience

Hello, and welcome! My name is Benoit. I have been a software engineer for the past eight and a half years. I stayed at my previous (and first) company for seven and a half years, then I joined a new one in early 2022. This article comes from a recent self-reflection on the things I wish I had started doing earlier in my career and the things I wish I had done differently. What I am sharing here may be useful to any junior to mid-level developer who wishes to improve and progress toward the title of senior and beyond. <pre> Table of Contents · My Career Evolution · Things I Wish I Had Started Doing Earlier: ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#ca42" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Write a Work Log</a> ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#faae" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Leave the Comfort Zone</a> ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#faae" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Be Curious About Other Teams and Projects</a> ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#e17e" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Join the On-call Team</a> ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#582f" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Change Teams</a> ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#1cc4" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Write Blog Posts</a> · Things I Wish I Had Done Differently: ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#0fca" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Be Careful When Introducing New Things to the Team</a> ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#19f9" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Do Not Let Your Emotions Take Over in Front of the Team</a> ∘ <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#19f9" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">Dip a Foot Into the Hiring Market</a> · <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55#b38a" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">End Thoughts</a></pre> <h1>My Career Evolution</h1> Before diving into the main subject, here is my career evolution: <ol> <li>I interned for three months at a startup (which quickly became a scale-up) company.</li> <li>After that, I did a full year of work-study, spending three months at school and nine months at work.</li> <li>Then, I got hired as a full-time software engineer and kept this title for three and a half years.</li> <li>Quickly after the introduction of the tech career ladder, I got promoted to senior software engineer. I kept this title for three years until I left the company, at which point the tech teams accounted for approximately 200 people.</li> <li>I joined as a software engineer 2 at a company with thousands of tech employees. Despite the title downgrade at the second company (see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQVFYVMhPlw" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Big Tech Hiring is Conservative — But Why?</a>), I have been trying to keep the same responsibilities (and more) as before.</li> </ol> <a href="https://betterprogramming.pub/advices-from-a-software-engineer-with-8-years-of-experience-8df5111d4d55">Click Here</a>