Why is it important to master the business of being your career？

Once a programmer whose programming ability was not recognized by the boss and whose interviews always ended in failure also was puzzled about his career and self-selection. But he finally figured out a way to succeed that was suitable for software developers after countless trials, errors and efforts. He believes that to be a better software developer, you must focus on yourself rather than one or two areas of your life.

The programmer is John Z. Sonmez, the founder of the "Simple Programmer" website, who readers praise as a "legendary" life mentor. He has made it his lifelong quest to "transform complex problems into simple solutions".

In John Senmetz's masterpiece Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual, 2nd Edition, you will get a personal and career development guide full of information and inspiration for those in a state of confusion and anxiety.

Why is it important to master the business of being your career?

There is a saying that the job belongs to the company, while the career belongs to you. You and your whole career should not be defined by specific roles, even if you work for the company. Switch your mindset to "master business", and treat your employer as a client of your software development enterprise. Changing your mentality from being in a weak position as a worker to being in an active position as a self-governing, self-directing, and proactive manager is the first thing you have to do in your career.

Setting and tracking your career goals and building your resume are the most basic and important.

One of the efficient ways is to hire a professional to help you write your resume. After all, a good resume can help you land a well-paying job quickly.

With your resume ready, the interview will follow. The key to successfully passing an interview is to think about your strategy before it starts.

With the widespread use of social media and the Internet, it's very easy to find information about any company and connect with its employees. When you convince others to accept your ideas, you are essentially selling them on your ideas. Your resume is an advertisement for your services. Your blog content is a kind of promotion for yourself, the services and the products you provide.

But the problem is that most of us are not consciously doing it, so we often give away opportunities that are rightfully ours.

You should start marketing yourself now, even if you don't consider yourself an expert. No matter where you are in your career, you must start trying to market yourself. Make it very easy for your target audience to see you whenever possible.

Every blog, podcast, book and article you write helps market yourself and increase awareness of your brand over time. Eventually, you will become an authority in the field and gain a great following. The prestige will translate into better opportunities and achievements in your career.

How to establish a self-iterative mental system?

To be the best software developer, you must pay attention to self-study. Here is a learning method for you: "ten-step learning method".

• Step 1: Get The Big Picture. In this step, you should get the big picture of the topic you are going to learn.
• Step 2: Determine Scope. Only in this way can you understand the whole picture of the project and prepare accordingly.
• Step 3: Define Success. Form a concise and clear statement that outlines the achievements after learning.
• Step 4: Find Resources. We need to find as many resources as possible related to the topic of our choice, regardless of the quality of these resources.
• Step 5: Create A Learning Plan. Create your learning path.
• Step 6: Filter Resources. Screen learning resources and try to find the highest quality.
• Step 7: Learn Enough To Get Started. We need to focus on mastering the minimum amount of knowledge we need to take in the next step.
• Step 8: Play Around. Learn through exploration and practice.
• Step 9: Learn Enough to Do Something Useful. The goal of this step is to bring back curiosity-driven learning.
• Step 10: Teach. We need to get out of our comfort zone and teach others what we have learned, which is a great way to check and fill in their gaps.

For more details and specific applications of the 10-step system, please refer to The Software Developer's Life Manual, 2nd Edition.

The book also offers tips on how to shift from distraction and procrastination to concentration, such as setting up quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily schedules to form a personal improvement plan, as well as practising the specific scenarios and methods of The Pomodoro Technique, Quota Work Method and Work Breakdown Structure, to deal with job burnout and habitual procrastination and increase productivity.

How John Sonmez achieves his retirement goal is illustrated in the book. At 19, he still lived in Santa Monica, California, just a few blocks from the beach, earning about $150,000 a year and paying thousands of dollars a month in mortgage loans for the property he invested in. Out of freedom, he finally left to work for a small company that could accept telecommuting and began to develop his sideline, that is, developing his software to put more money in his pocket. After talking to one of his blog followers who worked at Pluralsight, he offered a paid course developed by Android at Pluralsight.

By this time, the real estate he invested in had a very considerable income, the personal blog began to make money through advertising and franchise, and the application he wrote also gained income. He began to have multiple sources of passive income. In January 2013, his goal of automatically earning $5,000 a month and the goal of retiring at 33 was achieved.

How important is it to take care of and exercise your body?

Fitness is one of the key elements of keeping healthy and the foundation of flexible and creative mental activities.

You won't be a top programmer if you don't care for your health. Long-term work will bring down your health and affect your work and life.

Start by establishing your fitness goals, such as weight loss, muscle gain, strength, endurance, cardiovascular health, etc. Track your total calorie intake for at least 3 days, calculate your metabolic rate, and use this information to make a basic plan. Then, make a series of the practical small-stage flag for yourself to achieve this ultimate goal.

Image Source: BioSpace

Post a few inspiring photos where you can see them, chart your progress, and reward yourself when you reach a milestone in your fitness plan.

When you're tempted to break your workout, stop and ask yourself what will happen in 3 months or a year if you don't give up. Keep it up!

What leads us to failure or success?

Image Source: Quozio

Faith determines thought, thought determines speech, speech determines behaviour, behavior determines habit, habit determines value, and value determines destiny. A powerful force in this world leads us to failure or success, which is the mentality. As "the law of attraction" often says, if the thoughts are negative, the results will be negative, and vice versa.

Firstly, make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Try to think not only about how you perceive yourself but also about how others perceive you. Try reinforcing your beliefs with the "fake it" approach and positive affirmations. Don't be afraid to fail. What's the worst that can happen?

Start doing something practical to boost your confidence. For example, start a fitness routine or do something that will make you feel better about yourself. Believe that you have the power to be who you want to be and that you can reinvent yourself through the power of positive thinking and follow-through.

All of us may feel confused about what choices will benefit our career development or how we can work toward a chance at financial freedom. I have only one suggestion, reading, which can help us obtain a lot of experience and high-value information at the lowest cost of economy and time.