tips that helped me when I was starting out as a software engineer.
Published: 2023-02-06 18:06:17

Hello my name is jose 

In this article I am going to leave you some tips that help me
keep improving as a software engineer.

**1 - apply what you have learned.** 

when i was just starting i used to make the mistake of not applying what i learned during the day.
 For example: 
 sometimes i would read or watch a course but i would not put into practice what i had seen in the course or what i read and i would forget 🤦🤦


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jkxsq6d9f2uebbk808rw.jpeg)

But with the help of my co-workers, I started to apply what I learned and I realized that I started to have a more solid knowledge of what I had learned.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/hma5zxy97nnyioub7od0.jpeg)

one of the tips that my colleagues gave me and that helped me was  80% practice and 30% reading.

**2 - read and understand the documentation.**

recently I had to incorporate a new technology in the project I am working on and I made the mistake of not paying much attention to the documentation and I was frustrated because things were not working out, I asked my senior colleague for help and he gave me this advice "always read and understand the documentation before implementing it" and that same day I read a phrase from Abraham Lincoln.

who says: "If I had 8 hours to cut down a tree, I would spend 7 hours sharpening my axe".

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/haj9byggyzfeces0ttxt.jpeg)

and I realized that I was spending more time cutting with a blunt axe than sharpening the axe, when I started to understand the documentation of that technology in 5 minutes I had it all ready, I know that sometimes the documentation is all disorganized but I always recommend to try to understand it as much as you can, it will save you from many headaches.


**3 - read technical engineer's blog with more seniority.**

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xcz9ch3cmzl8ugh9h0k9.jpeg)

In my case I like to read blogs of FAANG engineers.
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Alphabet), it is very useful if you complement it with point 1 and apply what you learn, 80% practice and 30% reading. for example :

when I started, I didn't ask for much help from my colleagues,
i had the wrong idea that if they kept me on the problem, eventually i would get a solution. i preferred to spend more time thinking about the possible solution than asking for help, but i came across one of michael's articles, former netflix engineer and the article mentioned this sentence: "A less experienced engineer who knows how to ask for help will always beat a more talented engineer who never asks for help", when i read it it changed my way of thinking, i understood that what i was doing was very foolish and naive.  

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/nb59ayjbfhsf41281uib.jpeg)

Since then I started to apply it and it turned out great, it is very important to ask for help from your colleagues, don't be afraid.


here are some of them:
  
 1 [michaellin](https://michaellin.substack.com/)

 2 [Daniel Costa](https://medium.com/@danhenriquesc)
  
 3 [Nikhil Gupta](https://medium.com/@nikhilgupta1)


I hope they are useful to you too! 

here is my linkedin👇👇

 [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-colmenares-480074233/)