Do You Want To Build Your Reputation As A Software Developer?

How would you feel about having a reputation as an outstanding and excellent developer?

to sense that other developers working on your team are looking up to you as a leader?

To be recognized as “one of the star coders” in your company?

In addition to your fundamental capabilities as a software developer, there are a number of prerequisites that must be met in order for you to be considered the sort of programmer who justifiably merits the respect of one’s peers and for this to be possible for you.

These factors can be broken down into two categories: social and technical.

Let’s focus on the more technical aspects for the time being. To clarify, I mean the type of code that you write. And how that has an impact on whether or not other members of your team look up to you as a leader.

A few of these considerations are:

1) Creating code that is both dependable and robust

You are contributing to the team effort by writing code that will be used by other developers and on which they will build.

Will they, upon doing so, discover that your code is fragile? Is it easily damaged when something goes beyond the bounds of what is considered normal? For instance, what happens if the program is fed ten times the typical amount of data?

Or do they find that it is sturdy, dependable, and rock-like in its strength?

People who reuse your code will, over the course of time, form an opinion about it, whether that opinion is positive or negative.

And because they are human, it is impossible for them not to connect that sensation with you.

2) Maintainable code

Over time, requirements change. Or are better understood than before.

In order to accommodate that, the code that your teammates are working on will need to be modified. Included within this is *your* code.

Do you typically write code in a way that makes accomplishing that task less difficult? At the very least, uncomplicated?

Or does it often turn out to be difficult to modify in the face of unknown future changes, to the point where they sometimes have to throw away your code and start over from scratch?

3) Handling the exploding amount of data inputs 

This is the age of massive amounts of data. And the magnitude is only going to grow from here on out.

This pattern won’t reverse itself.

Do you, then, when you write software – whether it be functions, classes, or programs – write it so that it can handle more data than you believe it will need to?

Does the code you write build enormous data structures, which forces the operating system to page them out to disk? compromising the efficiency of any program that makes use of it?

Or is it obstructing the user interface because it is working through a memory bottleneck while processing a collection, when instead it could be operating in a responsive manner on a single element at a time?

Programmers have a propensity to be impatient by nature. When something wastes our time, we experience the negative effects of that waste more acutely than other people do.

Again, your fellow developers can’t help but associate themselves with you in some way, no matter what emotion they get from your code.

4) Inspiring

Does the code you wrote offer other programmers a more efficient solution?

Does it demonstrate, in a way that is easy for them to comprehend and put into practice, how they can improve their own mastery of their craft? Simply through the act of reading the code that you create?

These are some of the things that will contribute to the reputation that you have among your contemporaries.

I’m not suggesting that you make achieving this your top priority in your professional life. But it does matter. In addition to this, it makes it much simpler for you to carry out all of the constructive things you have planned.

While it is possible that it will take some time for you to realize all of your potential… The sooner you get started, the sooner you will reach your destination. And there is no better time than the present to get started.

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