Lessons From a Veteran: From Economics to Software Engineering With Andrew Bryant
This post is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. Today we’re talking to Andrew Bryant. Andrew is a developer and data analyst living in Chile. He studied economics in school before pursuing a tech career. Andrew has worked for startups doing everything from natural language processing (NLP) to UI fixes. He also writes code that generates artwork. Let’s hear what he has to say about the benefits of working at a startup and how having a non-software engineering background helped him when he started his career. Basic logistics: Stack? How…
Magento Performance Concerns and How to Boost It
If you’re a web developer interested in working in e-commerce, Magento should definitely be on your radar. Experts and famous e-commerce players regard Magento as one of the major platforms for running online stores. Magento is a top choice of mid-sized and large companies, as the CMS enables serving thousands of visitors simultaneously and provides broad opportunities for customization and scaling. In turn, this often leads to a bunch of problems related to the overall performance of such sites and, in particular, their speed. Every Magento migration company is aware of possible troubles and searches for efficient solutions to overcome them. In this post, we’ll consider some classic peculiarities of…
Programming Languages Explained by an Expert
Programming languages: There’s a lot to unpack there. For those new to the field, you probably have questions like How many programming languages are there (and, more importantly, how many should I know)? How do programming languages work? How and why are they made? How do programming languages make money? To answer these questions, we sat down with someone with years of experience in the software world: Erik Dietrich. Erik has worked as a developer, architect, manager, CIO, and, eventually, independent management and strategy consultant. This breadth of experience allows him to speak to all industry personas. He’s also written several books and countless blog posts on dozens of sites.…
Lessons From a Veteran: Career and Personal Self-Discovery With Juho Vepsäläinen – Conference Director and Consultant
This post is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. Today we’re talking to Juho Vepsäläinen, a conference director and consultant. Juho is behind the SurviveJS effort, where developers train to optimize their development workflow’s tooling. He has been active in the open-source scene since the early 2000s and has participated in projects like Blender and webpack as a core team member. You can follow Juho on Twitter @bebraw. Let’s hear what he’s learned on his career in the tech industry and how that coincides with his personal journey of self-discovery.…
Is Software Engineering a Good Career?
We all work a lot during our lives. But if we’re going to work our entire life, shouldn’t we do something that makes us happy? Let me introduce you a career you might not be expecting: software engineering. So, now you’re probably wondering if software engineering is a good career. Maybe you’re on your path learning how to program. Or maybe you’re not happy with your current job and decided to take a look out there to see if you’d find anything different. Whichever reason brought you here, you’re lucky: We’re talking about the pros and cons of a software engineering career. First, the Short Answer All right, before I…
Lessons From a Veteran: Incidental (or Maybe Accidental) Catalysts With Jonathan Hall
This post is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. This week we’re talking to Jonathan Hall. Jonathan started out as a self-taught developer and is now a consultant and blogger who helps small teams benefit from DevOps best practices. He publishes a daily newsletter with advice about implementing DevOps, and you can follow him on Twitter @TinyDevOps. Let’s learn how Jonathan got his start in programming and how you can be a self-taught developer, too. Stack? How long have you been doing it? These days, I spend a lot of…
Lessons From a Veteran: Ukpai Ugochi on Her Career Change to Software Engineer
This post for those considering a career change to software engineer is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. Today we’re talking to Ukpai Ugochi. Ukpai is a full stack JavaScript developer transitioning her career from marine engineering to software development. She loves sharing about her experience to encourage people who love software development and don’t know where to begin. She also contributes to FOSS in her free time. Let’s find out what lessons Ukpai has learned, like overcoming impostor syndrome, during her career change to software engineer. Basic logistics: Stack?…
Can You Use Git Without GitHub?
Can you use Git without GitHub? The short answer is yes, you can. Git is a tool for revision control. GitHub is an online service that allows you to store, manage, and share Git repositories in the cloud. You can use Git with online services other than GitHub, with an in-house server, or on your local computer without any server at all. First, let’s look at what Git is. Then, let’s see what GitHub and other Git-hosting services have to offer. What Is Git? Git is a revision control tool. It’s most often associated with software development, but you can use it to track changes in any file. For example,…
How Long Does It Take to Learn Python?
How long does it take to learn Python? Well, how long is a piece of string? How much peanut butter is too much? Is this glass half empty or half full? None of these questions has one correct answer. The answer to each depends on your opinion and your goals. And how long it takes you to learn Python depends on what you want to create with the language. So, while I can’t tell you how long it will take to learn Python, I can give you deeper insight into the language and how it will suit your needs. What Do You Need to Learn Python? Python is a general-purpose…
7 Tips for Beginner Programmers
You’re just starting out as a programmer, so you’re looking for some tips on how to get started. Maybe you’ve landed your first job. Or you’ve just finished school. Perhaps you’ve done what many of us before you (including me) did and simply said “I’m a programmer!” and got to work. Either way, congratulations! Here are a few tips for beginner programmers that will help get you on your way to a new career. There’s No Substitute for Getting Your Hands Dirty You can read hundreds of books. You can watch thousands of hours of YouTube. But nothing makes you a better programmer than, well, programming. Stop preparing and start…
