How do you keep your software skills updated and learn new technologies?

Diving into a new technology without understanding the problem it solves can lead to confusion and frustration. Take the time to research the technology's purpose, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it fits into the broader ecosystem. Consider seeking advice from experienced developers who have worked with the technology to gain insights into its practical applications and limitations.

In my experience, start with familiar tech—yours and the market's. It often beats learning a new one, initially. Experiment, push to production, then optimize when needed.

-Follow Industry Trends,Tech News & Blogs from popular sources like Hacker News,TechCrunch,Medium -Engage within Developer Communities like Github & Stack Overflow -Join Online Communities like Reddit’s r/programming, Discord groups or specialized forums -Gain hands on learning through Projects -Enroll in courses on platforms like Coursera,Udemy,edX or Pluralsight -Earn industry recognized certifications such as Google Cloud, AWS or specific framework certifications -Contribute to open source projects -Stay updated on cutting-edge tools & technologies -Regularly solving coding challenges that enhances problem solving skills -Practice Coding Challenges on LeetCode,HackerRank -Attend Conferences,Webinars & Meetups -Experiment with new Tools

From past experiences, if you choose either old technologies or modern technologies without understanding the problem, you are completely lost. You must understand the business and the user needs in order to be able to tackle the problem. By doing this, you will demonstrate your value that you can give the business. Some tips for understanding the problem: - Don't worry about asking several times. It is important to understand everything before getting any decisions. - Asking end-users or end-customers, and avoid asking the wrong users. - Draw the problem. - Write, write, write. Remember this is an iterate process, so we should get feedback all the time to make sure you are in a good position.

To become good in anything, you need to practice - a lot. And one of the most effective ways is to make practice a habit. Example: you want to stay up to date about technology X. Good habits would be: * subscribe to a newsletter about new releases of this technology (=automation) and read it at a fixed day and time in your calendar (trigger). * After reading the newsletter (trigger), plan 2 hours to test (action) the features of this software. If there are new one, nice. Otherwise sharpen your skills. * After testing the features (trigger), share your insight: in a blog, social media channel, chat with your collegues. You will get positive response about your efforts (celebrate) * Do this every week. This will have a huge impact.

Collaboration is key. Connect with likeminded people, e.g. in OpenSource communities, share your thoughts and experiences. "Learning is maximized when you love what you do, take care to avoid mistakes, own up to your mistakes, communicate them effectively, and take corrective action." [ @DavidHerzog, 2020]

To become the best version of yourself, I would like to share some advices that they work for me. Obviously, these tips can work for you or maybe not, but I am pretty sure that they will be very useful. Tips: - Find motivation all the time, you must not be a robot. You have to learn too many things, but no rush. Otherwise, you can feel frustrated. - Udemy courses. There are a plenty of courses with high quality, and you can follow these courses by doing projects. - Get certified in areas where you think you can boost you more. For example: if you want to be the best DevOps, maybe you can prepare all the certificates starting by AWS or Azure.

First, you need to be aware of these principles. You can either obtain this kind of knowledge via books, online courses, university, collegue, ... This makes the difference between a junior and senior developer. Ask somebody more experienced to explain the underlying principles, e.g. the architecture of the software you're working on. Ask why these design decisions were made and if they worked out in regards to the quality criterias.

Effective tests drive modularity and cohesion by necessitating a clear, structured code. Tests will help you make changes faster — and with more confidence. Sadly, test neglect persists. Testing after checking-out code (for example, relying on a quality-assurance team) will limit the developer feedback speed.

Principles of software engineering apply to different stages of software development. We should be aware of these principles in order to ensure that the software is maintainable, scalable, reliable, and secure regardless of the technology you use. Types of software engineering principles: - Agile principles: giving teams more control over their projects. Everyone knows exactly what to do in each sprint. - Design principles: designing large-scale software development can be complex. This principle provides guidelines to deal with the complexity of the design process effectively. - Coding principles: helping software engineering teams write secure, reusable, and bug-free code. - Testing principles: implementing software to find defects/bugs.

Especially if you are a senior engineer: ask yourself what your team is capable of. And how you can explain things to your team. Some things might be obvious to you, but they're not. My experience is that the biggest obstacle in this might be your ego: to show off that you can code things in a seemingly superior way. It may not be useable by your team mates.

In my opinion, simplicity should reign. Three practical things I consider important are: - when you are exploring new things, do not early optimize. Copy code, use simple`if` statements. When you see the pattern happening more than once, then you can start thinking about how to abstract it. - while DRY (Do Not Repeat Yourself) is a recognized concept, it's not an infallible guiding principle. In my experience, using this method had both good and bad results. - fight the urge to consider a feature rich product better than a well written one. - to make things simpler, you will probably need to do some refactors. Tests will be of an enormous importance to iterate safe and fast.

If you desire to be a senior engineer, you should keep everything as simple as possible. Sometimes, when junior developers are working on new features, they tend to spend extra time to do things that might not be useful for their current sprints. Start working with a simple solution which it works, and then if it is needed and only if it is needed, then spend time in extra work if that is aligned with your sprint and customer's expectation. The majority of the time we have a simple solution in front of us, but some developers try to do extra things without thinking about the possible impacts.

Real world integrated applications are complex. Hence, "Keep it simple" is a a good advice, wherever possible. Then spend time on advanced issues: security, complex functionality...

Curiosity is pivotal in software development—it’s the spark that drives us to explore and innovate. In my three decades in IT, fostering a culture of curiosity has been key. For instance, at White Internet, we routinely hold 'tech exploration' sessions where team members share intriguing tools and techniques they’ve discovered. This not only keeps our skills sharp but also encourages a collaborative learning environment. Encouraging questions and experimentation isn’t just about keeping up with technology; it’s about staying ahead of it.

To stay relevant in the high-tech industry, updating software skills and learning new technologies continuously is important. This can be achieved by attending conferences, taking online courses, joining relevant online communities, participating in hackathons or coding challenges, reading industry publications, taking on new projects, and seeking mentorship. By proactively seeking new opportunities, one can stay at the forefront of the industry and remain competitive in the job market. A commitment to continuous learning and improvement is key to success in high-tech today.

To be curious and free to explore new things, you need to have the freedom - namely time - to pursue them. Let's say you allot 3 hours per week to explore new tech, then let's fix that in your calender. I recommend to share your insights about the results because this may attract other one to join you and make your time well spent in the eyes of your superiours.

In Software Development, the curiosity is crucial since every month we have a bunch of new technologies and progress. To stay relevant in the industry, it is important to note that you have to learn new technologies by attending conferences, learning by udemy courses, coding challenges or reading books. When you finish any courses, attending conferences or reading any books, share your thoughts about it. I recommend you this tip because maybe you can expand your network and you will improve your visibility.