1010 TIPSTIPS FORFOR ADVANCINGADVANCING FROMFROM A A BEGINNERBEGINNER TOTO ANAN INTERMEDIATEINTERMEDIATE DEVELOPERDEVELOPER BEGINNER DEVELOPERS WHO WANT TO TAKE THEIR CAREER TO THE NEXT LEVEL MAY BE STYMIED BY A LACK OF RESOURCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS. JUSTIN JAMES HELPS CLOSE THAT INFORMATION GAP WITH 10 SUGGESTIONS FOR MAKING THE LEAP. A TECHREPUBLIC MEMBER RECENTLY MENTIONED THAT BLOGS, ARTICLES, AND MAGAZINES AIMED AT DEVELOPERS SEEM TO FALL INTO TWO CATEGORIES: ITEMS FOR BEGINNERS (”HELLO WORLD” TYPE TUTORIALS) AND ITEMS FOR EXPERTS (MSDN MAGAZINE). ITS A REALLY GOOD POINT; THERES VERY LITTLE INFORMATION OUT THERE TO HELP A DEVELOPER MAKE THE LEAP FROM BEGINNER TO INTERMEDIATE. HERE ARE 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO DO TO MAKE THAT TRANSITION. NOTE: THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AS ANAN ENTRYENTRY ININ OUROUR PROGRAMMINGPROGRAMMING ANDAND DEVELOPMENTDEVELOPMENT BLOGBLOG AND IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PDFPDF DOWNLOADDOWNLOAD. 1:1: LEARNLEARN ANOTHERANOTHER LANGUAGELANGUAGE IT DOESNT MATTER WHICH LANGUAGE YOU LEARN, BUT LEARNING ANOTHER LANGUAGE (REGARDLESS OF HOW MANY YOU ALREADY KNOW) WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER DEVELOPER. ITS BEST TO LEARN ONE THAT IS SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT FROM WHAT YOU ALREADY USE ON A REGULAR BASIS. IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOU ARE A C DEVELOPER, LEARNING VB.NET OR JAVA WILL NOT HELP YOU AS MUCH AS LEARNING RUBY OR GROOVY. AND WHEN I SAY “LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE,” I MEAN REALLY LEARN IT. LEARNING A LANGUAGE CONSISTS OF THREE REALMS OF KNOWLEDGE: THE SYNTAX, THE BUILT-IN OPERATORS AND LIBRARIES, AND “HOW TO USE IT.” THE FIRST TWO ARE EASY; I THINK THAT AN EXPERIENCED DEVELOPER CAN PICK UP ENOUGH OF A LANGUAGES SYNTAX TO MAINTAIN CODE IN 30 MINUTES TO A FEW HOURS DEPENDING UPON THE LANGUAGE. THE OPERATORS AND LIBRARIES ARE JUST A MATTER OF SLOWLY ACCUMULATING KNOWLEDGE AND BEING WILLING TO CHECK REFERENCE MATERIALS UNTIL YOU MEMORIZE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW. BUT THE THIRD ITEM “HOW TO USE IT” -CAN ONLY BE LEARNED OVER MONTHS OF WORKING WITH A LANGUAGE, AND THATS WHERE THE REAL MAGIC HAPPENS. I SUGGEST DOING A PROJECT THAT IS WELL SUITED FOR THAT LANGUAGE AND DOING IT IN THAT LANGUAGES STYLE. TRULY LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE, AND I PROMISE THAT YOUR ABILITIES AS A DEVELOPER WILL START TO BLOSSOM. 2:2: LEARNLEARN ADVANCEDADVANCED SEARCHSEARCH TECHNIQUES,TECHNIQUES, TACTICS,TACTICS, ANDAND STRATEGIESSTRATEGIES MORE AND MORE, BEING A GOOD DEVELOPER IS NOT JUST ABOUT YOUR SKILL, BUT YOURYOUR SKILLSKILL ATAT FINDINGFINDING INFORMATIONINFORMATION. SIMPLY PUT, MODERN LANGUAGES AND DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS ARE TOO LARGE FOR MOST PEOPLE TO REMEMBER MUCH OF THEM. AS A RESULT, YOUR ABILITY TO GET WORK DONE IS OFTEN DEPENDENT UPON YOUR ABILITY TO PERFORM RESEARCH. UNFORTUNATELY, KNOWING HOW TO FIND ACCURATE, HIGH-QUALITY INFORMATION IS MORE THAN JUST HEADING TO TECHREPUBLIC FOR THE ANSWER OR TYPING A FEW WORDS INTO YOUR SEARCH ENGINE OF CHOICE. TECHNIQUES, TACTICS, AND STRATEGIES MAY SOUND LIKE SYNONYMS, BUT THEY ARE NOT. THE TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO LEARN ARE THE ADVANCED SEARCH SYSTEMS OF YOUR FAVORITE SEARCH ENGINE. YOU NEED TO LEARN THINGS SUCH AS THE BOOLEAN OPERATORS, HOW TO FILTER RESULTS (NEGATIVE KEYWORDS, DOMAIN RESTRICTIONS, ETC.), WHAT ROLE WORD ORDER PLAYS, AND MORE. SO ESSENTIALLY, RTFM. YOU SHOULD LEARN TACTICS SUCH AS HOW TO APPROACH ANY PARTICULAR SEARCH AND KNOWING WHAT YOU SHOULD YOU ACTUALLY LOOK FOR. ERRORS ARE EASY JUST LOOK FOR THE ERROR CODE BUT KEYWORD SELECTION ON MANY SEARCHES IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT. WITH REGARD TO STRATEGIES, YOU NEED TO LEARN THINGS SUCH AS WHAT SEARCH ENGINES TO USE (HINT: GENERAL PURPOSE SEARCH ENGINES ARE NOT ALWAYS THE RIGHT ANSWER), WHICH SITES TO VISIT BEFORE GOING TO A GENERAL PURPOSE SEARCH ENGINE, AND EVEN WHICH MESSAGE BOARDS TO POST TO FOR HELP. 3:3: HELPHELP OTHERSOTHERS TEACHING OTHERS IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO LEARN ANYTHING. IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE TO THINK THAT YOU DONT HAVE MUCH TO OFFER BECAUSE YOU ARE RELATIVELY NEW TO THE DEVELOPMENT FIELD. THATS NONSENSE. REMEMBER, EVERYTHING YOU KNOW YOU LEARNED FROM SOMEONE OR SOMEWHERE; SO TRY BEING THE SOMEONE ANOTHER PERSON LEARNS FROM. SPEND A FEW MINUTES A DAY TRYING TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONSQUESTIONS ONON TECHREPUBLICTECHREPUBLIC OR ANOTHER SITE AS BEST YOU CAN. YOU CAN ALSO LEARN A LOT BY READING OTHER MEMBERS ANSWERS. 4:4: BEBE PATIENTPATIENT ANDAND KEEPKEEP PRACTICINGPRACTICING RESEARCH SHOWS THAT ITIT TAKESTAKES “ABOUT“ABOUT 1010 YEARS,YEARS, OROR 1010 TOTO 2020 THOUSANDTHOUSAND HOURSHOURS OFOF DELIBERATEDELIBERATE PRACTICE”PRACTICE” TOTO BECOMEBECOME ANAN “EXPERT.”“EXPERT.” THATS A LOT OF TIME. FURTHERMORE, BECOMING AN EXPERT DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN DOING THE SAME TASK FOR 10 YEARS; IT OFTEN MEANS DOING A WIDE VARIETY OF TASKS WITHIN A PARTICULAR DOMAIN FOR 10 YEARS. IT WILL TAKE A LOT OF TIME AND ENERGY TO BECOME AN “EXPERT”; WORKING AS A DEVELOPER FOR A FEW YEARS IS NOT ENOUGH. WANT TO BECOME A SENIORSENIOR DEVELOPERDEVELOPER IN YOUR EARLY 30S? EITHER START YOUR EDUCATION/TRAINING SOONER OR BE WILLING