3 Crucial Ways to Stand Out as a Software Developer
Perhaps you do not want to hear this:
It is not enough to be a good programmer.
It’s not even enough to be a great programmer.
Success comes to us when we are recognized, and recognition does not come from silently plugging away on our keyboard, spinning up effective and elegant code.
The software developers we most recognize are those who put a spotlight on themselves when providing an authentic and public service — those who start an initiative, write a blog post that solves a problem, and speak at conferences.
We recognize those to dare to stand out.
There is no exception for software engineers.
In this article, I’m going to share with you the book that helped me continue to work on myself to be ‘standout’ as well as my 3 ways to stand out in your software development career.
The Standout Developer Book
The Standout Developer by senior software engineer Randall Kanna is a 2020 publication on Gumroad. The book is aimed to take readers through the entire lifecycle of a standout developer, from building a social media brand to crafting a resume to mastering the technical interview.
Randall Kanna is the perfect person to be writing this book, because she has personally lived the “standout developer” life. Her Twitter is one of the most popular accounts in the developer community with over 35,000 followers and through the act of sharing her expertise, she wrote a book published by O’Reilly.
As a standout developer, Randall was able to get the developer world to recognize her expertise in a short time and bring her more opportunities than she ever imagined. It was with these learnings that The Standout Developer was born.
The book is packed with wisdom and with interviews with other industry professionals. In this article, I’m going to share with you three key nuggets of wisdom.
These are three nuggets of many.
3 Ways to Stand Out as a Developer
1: Seek to Provide Value
Do not treat social media like a “look at me” contest. I know Instagram makes social media look like that’s how you play the game, but the actual winning game is far better for everyone involved.
The key to doing social media right: provide value.
Teach. Solve a problem for someone. Make someone’s day.
Kanna describes this lesson plainly:
I stopped publishing what I thought was funny or what helped promote my blog posts or my other material, and instead I focused on sharing my own experiences that I thought would add value to others.
This is true of blog posts and of anything you produce. Everything you write online is in the interest of serving and relating to others.
Writing content that isn’t selling — content that is just giving value for free — provides an authenticity people crave and respond to.
This one little paragraph of advice inspires so much change in me personally. I never questioned the pattern of launching a blog post and then blasting it to my Twitter and Facebook account. I thought that was how things were done.
Acting in service brings us more reward and it creates a better world. We can finally stop wasting our energy on creating meaningless noise.
2: Create a Blog
Blogs win in so many aspects. They teach you, they teach your future self, and they teach others. They are micro portfolio pieces. They teach you how to document clearly and they organize your thinking.
Blogs are amazing. They just keep giving and giving.
But blogs are intimidating. Once they are born, they live and breathe on the internet. They demand to be fed.
But as a developer who works on problems day-in and day-out, tech blogs demand to be written.
And despite what you may think, a developer at any skill level can start a blog and it is never too late.
But Kanna is encouraging. The Standout Developer says “your first blog post could be the toughest one to write.” But it gets better. Because “your first blog will make the next one — and the one after that — much easier.”
Writing blog posts gets easier and it becomes rewarding. Writing can be addicting, because the process of organizing your thoughts is satisfying.
But not only that — if you solve problems for other people, you are providing incredible value that leads to credibility and getting found.
Putting yourself out there consistently attracts opportunity. Keep showing up and success may come.
3: Speak at Conferences
Speaking at conferences is terrifying for most. After all, fear of public speaking is up there next to death.
But the rewards that come with public speaking are astounding.
Kanna puts this fear in her own words:
I thought speaking at a conference was something only for the elite tech gods. I was terrified of speaking even at meetups and turned down several opportunities.
In time, I overcame my fears and built credibility by speaking at conferences, which created amazing career opportunities.
That’s the reality: speaking at conferences is not reserved for the elite. In fact, applying is pretty easy. Most of the time, you choose a conference that fits your topic and you just fill a form online.
I spoke at my first conference just this year. Only remotely, of course. And while I was terrified to do it, I am extremely glad I did and will continue to do so.
Coming up with the talk was not so difficult. I had given a similar talk internally, which I first tested and polished with the help of my Toastmasters group. I found a conference that may like my talk and submitted my outline, which was then approved a few months later. 👍
For Kanna, she decided to hyper focus on her niche. Using this focus, she applied to a specific conference that taught her niche, which then led to a book deal with O’Reilly.
Kanna stresses conferences because they have led to some of her greatest career opportunities. If you feel like Kanna once felt, which is that conferences are only for the elite, then simply speaking at a conference elevates your credibility substantially for those who still have that belief.
Conclusion
You can become a standout developer.
Getting recognition is not reserved for someone else. You can have greater impact and purpose if you finally recognize the value you can bring to not just your team and your organization but the developer community at large.
Whether you are a beginner or a senior developer, you can take actions today that snowballs into something beyond your imaginings.
Giving value and sharing what you know — that is the software developer spirit. We aim to lift each other up and give.
Framed this way, becoming standout is never salesy. It is only authentic.
Randall Kanna has much more to offer in her book The Standout Developer besides the tips I mention in this article. She goes into detail about resume writing, passing technical whiteboard interviews, building a portfolio, and more.
If you liked this article, which I hope you did 🙏, I also have another article you might enjoy. They are 3 common mistakes that self-taught developers make. If you’re interested, I’ll see you over there. 👋 😁