Mike Bifulco: This is Tiny Improvements.
I'm Mike by ko
At the beginning of my career, I worked
in Microsoft consulting organization.
Every week, I would travel to a customer's
office somewhere in north America to
help them solve their technical problems.
Apart from knowing a
little JavaScript and CSS.
I really had no business being there.
I was fresh out of college and was faced
with the challenge of becoming Microsoft
expert on whatever it is I was doing in
front of the CIO of a fortune 500 company.
Truly it's no joke.
My first project was rebuilding
dell.com from scratch.
And I was the lead front end developer
on that project because I was the
only one in the room who had ever
heard of something called jQuery.
So I was the expert and they were paying
for my expertise, which was a problem,
really, because, well, I didn't have any.
Nonetheless, anytime I had a
problem, I couldn't solve on my own.
I had the entirety of Microsoft's
100,000 plus employees at my disposal.
And trust me, I definitely use them.
I would send out emails to internal
mailing lists, getting advice from
developers.\ The kind of people that they
put in charge of building windows itself.
The responses I got from these
people were always helpful.
And honestly, I learned
a ton from that alone.
Fast forward seven years.
And I was leaving Microsoft to work as
technical director for gymnasium, the
best damn online code school for creatives
who were looking to dip their toes in
the cool waters of web development.
I would be using completely
new tools in this job.
I was going from.net and C sharp
to Django and Python and from a
massive network of people to a crack
squad of just five people where I
was going to be the only developer.
I was an astronaut in a space station,
cut off from the world I was used to.
I had no one to ask for help, and
no one to bounce ideas off of.
There was no one there to tell me if
I was doing something stupid for the
first time, I was really on my own.
And it didn't take long for me to realize
that developers have a unique advantage.
Most of our peers are chronically online.
The most knowledgeable people in
the world are at your fingertips.
As long as you know where to look.
From forums to blog posts,
to open source projects.
There's no shortage of places
to find answers and to learn.
For me, the key to truly benefiting
from this wealth of information
came from active participation and
engagement with the developer community.
It can do the same for you, but you're
going to need to put yourself out there.
Here's three things that you
can do right now to get started.
First joining the community.
Whether it's a local meetup, a slack
channel, a forum, a discord community.
Find a community that has
people you can engage with.
It's a great way to meet like-minded
people to share your knowledge
and to get advice from others.
Give helpful feedback.
When you're starting out, it can
be intimidating to contribute, to
open source projects or forums, but
remember you don't have to be an
expert to provide good feedback.
By giving constructive criticism
and suggestions, you can help
others improve on their work and
you'll learn a bunch in the process.
Finally, it's a good idea
to keep an eye on trends.
The tech industry moves really fast and
it's important to stay up to date with
the latest trends and technologies.
This doesn't mean you have to use every
new tool or framework that comes out.
But having a general understanding
of what's happening in the
industry can help you make informed
decisions about your own work.
the Pavlovian power of
constructive engagement.
Some of the best career advice I ever
received is from my old pal Thomas:
give and receive feedback in good faith.
And you'll find yourself surrounded by
people who are willing to help you grow.
To me, this means being honest,
respectful, and open to new ideas.
It means that you're willing to
admit when you're wrong and that
you learn from your mistakes.
You're generous with your time and
knowledge and you should be willing
to help others when they need it.
The inverse of this situation
is all too common online.
I'd wager to say that the vast majority of
Reddit, Twitter and YouTube comments are
people who are not engaging in good faith.
They're there to tear down to be
little, to make themselves feel
better by making others feel worse.
I'm sure you've seen and felt that, and
it sucks, but it also means that when you
come correct, you will really stand out.
It's a simple concept, but it's
incredibly powerful by engaging with
your community using constructive,
meaningful, and thoughtful feedback.
You'll build a powerful
reputation for yourself.
And I bet you'll find yourself
learning along the way too.
Before long.
You'll be the one that
people come to for advice.
