10 mistakes JavaScript Developers will make in 2023
Success in software development is rarely about perfection. Actually, just like in tennis, avoiding mistakes and making steady progress will take you much further. Talking about mistakes, here are 10…
Dragos Nedelcu
Feb 6, 2023 · 4 MIN READ
- Not having a clear plan - success is never an accident. If you don’t have a plan, you become part of someone else’s plan. If you don’t know exactly what seniority level you want to reach and what salary you want to get to by the end of this year, how do you expect to get there?
- Only improving their skills when they are interviewing - if you only earth healthy food when you are sick, that you will spend tons of time being. You might be a special human being, but for the market, you are only the sum of your skills. And if you only take care of those skills after getting laid off
- Jumping from Framework to Framework - because it is cool or because the Senior dev at work mentioned it. Trying new things is our guilty pleasure as developers, but it is also stealing us away from getting better at what we already do. Nothing wrong with trying a new technology from time to time; everything wrong with jumping on a new framework every week.
- Getting stuck in the Frontend - this is the developer that has been writing React for the last 3 years; they might be good at it, they deliver code fast, and they can even think about how to optimize it. But, if you take them out of the React world, they are lost. They see themselves as a Frontend Developer, a React Developer or an Angular Developer. Their expertise is tied to the framework they use. In reality, companies need problem solvers, and problems are usually across the stack.
- Jumping too fast to the Fullstack - on the other side of the spectrum, there is the developer that thinks that just because they are able to build some React components, fetch some data, and structure frontend App, they are ready to jump to the backend. When in reality, they barely touched the surface in Frontend knowledge. So they start putting together some basic node js app instead of mastering the Frontend first. As a result, they are not really great at the Frontend and not really great at the back end. And the market doesn’t like that.
- Not paying attention to the "meta-skills" - if the only thing you can do is code, I got bad news, so can AI do, or almost do, in this day and age. With machines being able to program, developers will be pushed to the more creative side of software development. That is designing end-to-end solutions, making technical decisions with little information at hand, and consulting rather than implementing (there will still be a lot of legacy to work on for the years to come).
- Thinking infrastructure belongs to the Dev Ops team - whether you are building the Frontend, the Backend, or both, getting your little creation to production is also your responsibility. Knowing a healthy amount of Dev Ops (deployment, virtualization, pipelines) will give you independence and autonomy and take you one step closer to that Senior level.
- Delegating problem-solving to Stackoverflow (or ChatGPT) - with so many “right answers” at the tip of our fingers, we are tempted to leave the thinking to the machines. In reality, trying to “find a solution” instead of “building a solution” is stopping you from pushing your engineering skills further. That’s where Impostor Syndrome is coming from that as well. Googling should be your second or third alternative when it comes to solving problems; thinking should be your first.
- Not tracking their progress - imagine a Formula 1 race with no one counting laps. Are we fast, or are we slow? Are we doing enough to qualify for the championship? Who knows… If you don’t track your progress, you won’t be able to optimize your growth. And if you think your tech lead or manager is going to do that for you, you might get a surprise in your next performance review. Start tracking your progress right now!
- Negotiating poorly or not at all - a big component of your salary is how well you are able to negotiate. I can write a full article about negotiation as a software developer (and maybe I will), but for now, do yourself a favor and set a personal policy that you will always negotiate. It doesn’t have to be your salary. Maybe it is a promotion or even a deadline. Get into the habit of negotiating and see your career take off :)
