How to Keep Yourself Up to Date as a Software Developer

How to Keep Yourself Up to Date as a Software Developer

Software Development is a very dynamic industry and we can’t compare it with other industries. If you are a developer then you can sign up to a GitHub account and start doing whatever you want after obviously understanding the basics of how computers and programming works. Most of the tools you need are free and lots of knowledge is available online. There are already 7.8 million public GitHub repositories available today.

As a software developer working in some technology, we generally give this a lot of thought how to stay up to date. For a software developer it is very important to keep learning and this learning is not just about working with a new technology but it is also about learning  the concepts behind these technologies and what problems they are trying to solve. The time you can spend on these things depends on your own situation. You can spend time with your family but you should also be passionate about software development. Hence maintaining a balance is the key.

As you have to spend a large part of your day time at work hence it is important to have an employer that encourages you to spend time to stay up to date and grow yourself. At work, there can be some developer conferences, seminars or presentation days to share experiences and learning new concepts and ideas. As knowledge and skills are biggest assets of a software developer hence standing still is not a right choice.

Software Development industry is rapidly evolving hence it might now always be easy to keep up with all the changes and newly introduced technologies, practices and concepts. In this article, I will share some of the ways, resources and tools which you can use to stay up to date. I hope this will be helpful to you. Some of these tools and resources are:-

Community Membership :
As a software developer one of the best thing you can do to stay up to date is by joining some tech communities as a member. For example if you are a WordPress developer then after joining the WordPress community you can expand your plugin and theme development. You can also contribute to the WordPress core, organize meetups and WordCamps etc. By this way you can meet thousands of WordPress community members in different roles which can also teach you a lot about best practice in WordPress, PHP, JS, MySQL and also about other areas like Cloud Hosting.

Doing Self Projects and R&D:
You must be hearing a lot about new technologies and concepts but it is also important to try it out. Working on self projects or spending some time doing R&D is a great way to give a platform/tool or library a chance and understand how it relates to your present work. You can build many internal tools which are platform independent to test something. After building these tools you can offer these to other developers for free to use.

Blogs :
You can search and find the most popular blogs for your particular technical skill and the tools you use. Go through the latest posts and see if there is something which reflects the innovation in that tech space. Some of the best popular blogs to follow are:- Hacker News, Slashdot, Recode, DZone, diginomica and more. You can also find some updates and press releases published on Techcrunch or Mashable and know about latest tools and concepts. Product Hunt is one of the useful option for recent releases. You have to dig into what they have launched.

Podcasts :
If you travel a lot daily, do running in the morning or like to listen to something while doing something then podcasts are a great way to keep yourself up to date. There are so many web and software development podcasts like The Bug Web Show, Modern Web, FiveJS, Sitepoint podcast, HTTP 203, The Changelog, Herding Code and many more which discuss technologies. You can find some podcast expert covering indepth about your favorite technology. You can browse iTunes or your favorite podcast client/app or search online.

Local and Virtual Events :
In order to stay up to date, attending conferences and meetups is very helpful. If you can visit the best ones internationally then it would be great. Some developers have attended more than hundred conferences and meetups to learn new things. Attending something related to what you do may be very beneficial and in some case enlightening. Just think of events discussing security, hosting, open source technologies or even usability and design. Other then the regular sessions, meeting people during the breaks or at lunch/dinner could be awesome. So many developers have become friends by meeting like minded individuals at these events moreover they have also learned about the latest trends in the market.

Books:
Some people may like to follow some blogs to learn something instead of reading books but actually books can be more beneficial for exploring a technical topic in depth. One thing about development is that the industry evolves very fast and writing a book may take years. But there are many books about software development which are evergreen and you must read them anyway. Now even the independent book publishing is possible and someone can publish a PDF in few hours. This leads to the large collection of titles which are latest and up to date. You can even learn a lot from other related topics which are not directly related to your day to day work.

Social Media :
Twitter steam is an unlimited source of ideas, opinions and links to interesting topics. It is almost instant and the amount of content during a day can be amazing. You should be selective in which accounts you follow. You can follow subject experts on topics that interest you. A subject expert can be an individual but could also be a company or organization. If you commute daily in a public transport then you can go through your twitter stream during this travel time or you can check it when you reach home after office.
Alongwith Twitter, LinkedIn is also an easy and great way to follow industry peers, blogs, magazines and communities online. They post regularly and you can read one in which you are interested.
So many people also hang out in Facebook Groups. If you join some local tech groups or international communities for your interest of technology then it could feed you with news and updates and connect you with other people interested in the same technology and it can even lead to your professional development and career growth.

Quora
At Quora you can easily find several prominent engineers and tech leads openly discussing important industry issues. You can follow numerous topics for all technical things like machine learning, blockchain technology, about many programming languages and frameworks, and also about general topics like web development, software engineering, software developers and learning how to program. You can also came to know about useful tools, best books about certain language and threads that cover the pros and cons of certain technology.

Summary
I hope you must have got some inspiration and motivation now to follow the above tips to stay up to date in the software development  market. You can select the topics that interest you or even try to explore new areas. To start with you should join some online communities and active forums related to your area of work and technology. In the meanwhile select some good books to read and listen to the podcasts whenever you get time. This will save your time and lead you to the right path.