Here are some tips for advancing your career:
1. Start planning your career path early
The earlier you start planning for your career, the better, since you may require time to acquire the skills, experience and connections to reach your goals. Always have an updated 5-year career plan with clear milestones so you can keep track of your progress and celebrate milestones along the way.
2. Contribute to open source
Post your ideas and contribute your skills on GitHub or other platforms where good developers typically congregate. If you like to write, you can also start a blog to share your knowledge and ideas. Major tech companies tend to be attracted to people who are innovative, articulate and keen on sharing their ideas with others.
3. Never stop learning
Technology evolves very quickly. As a developer, you will need to keep up with the latest advancements in your industry. Developers who do well in their careers typically pursue online courses, take up trainings and seek out opportunities to work on side projects to enhance their technical skillsets. My colleague, FT, has put together a list of free to low-cost online learning platforms. Do check it out here.
4. Challenge yourself
Seek out challenging development projects involving the latest technologies. Push yourself to be involved with the full software development cycle, playing various roles in different parts of the projects. Doing this will enable you to gain more exposure to tasks outside of your usual job scope and may open up opportunities for you to advance to different roles in the future.
5. Be more proactive
Network with the best people in tech, especially those working at top tech companies such as Google, Grab, Facebook etc. Attend events and talks to not just acquire new knowledge but also make new connections who may be able to help you along the way as you advance your career.
Have a burning question for an IT Recruiter? Send it to marketing@evolutionjobs.sg and get your questions answered!
Stella Li is a Talent Consultant at Evolution Singapore. She loves meeting and interacting with exciting people and enjoys every bit of her recruiting career as she gets to do that every day. Stella’s other passion is food and coffee. Want to discuss your next IT opportunity with her? Just ask her out for a cuppa.
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