5 Ways to Stand Out at your Dev Job
Tags: career
Published: 2019-07-25 11:35:24

---
title: 5 Ways to Stand Out at your Dev Job
published: true
description: Standing out at work, especially as an engineer, can be tough. Here are some tips that have worked for me.
tags: career 
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/srmiw3j6rmynfwgfgyft.png
---

I’ve recently been trying at work to get out of my comfort zone. That means doing my best to stand out in positive ways. 
During this time, I’ve seen some great personal growth, and I know people at work have also taken note. 

So if you’re looking for ways to stand out in your dev role, hopefully a few of my ideas can give you some inspiration!

## Build Trust with Product Owners

Product owners are seen as a necessary evil by many devs. The reality is that having a strong relationship with your product owner can be extremely powerful.

Building trust can be tough, though. Here's a couple of things I've found especially effective. 

Be willing and able to compromise. There will be times that a requirement comes down that for whatever reason you don't agree with. If you can talk to them to find a middle ground, they'll be much more willing to hear you out when you want to bring up your own ideas.

Communicate calmly. It can be frustrating when a conversation isn't going your way. Stay calm and explain your reasoning. That'll leave them feeling comfortable talking to you moving forward.

At the end of the day, you want to be the person your product owner loves to talk with.

## Suggest New Ideas Beyond Your Title

This is a tricky one. I've always advocated that developers should not be confined in their engineering box. A great way to do this is to always look for suggestions or actions you can take that might be outside of your direct responsibilities.

For example, if you're a front end dev, try designing a quick mock-up in Sketch. Simply making a quick suggestion to the designer if your team has one can be just as effective as well. Little things add up and won’t go unnoticed.

Be sure to be respectful **as hell** when you do this, though. You don't want to step on other people's toes or inadvertently hurt a colleague’s feelings. If you do pull it off, however, you'll make a deep impression on people throughout the organization.

You'll show everyone that you are more than what your title says you are.

## Share Your Knowledge

You know things. I promise that you do. You probably know things that people at your company don't know.

A great way to stand out is to share that knowledge. Say you’ve been working hard on setting up the linting for a project. Give a quick demo and teach people about configuring the linting rules themselves. If you're passionate about accessibility, share that with others at your company!

Not only is this a great way to stand out, but it's an awesome medium for personal growth. By talking or writing about a subject, you force yourself to engrain that topic in your brain. In addition, it can be a great confidence boost. 

If you're already writing blog posts or sharing through another medium and your company doesn't know, tell them! It can be scary, but odds are they'll want nothing more than to encourage you!

So share your knowledge! Go help your company out all while making yourself more noticeable.

## Always Ask Questions

Like I said, you know things. Other people know other things. Ask them about those things!

The benefits that come from asking questions cannot be understated. You'll work through problems more quickly. You'll show your co-workers that you're eager to learn. Most importantly, you'll actually learn new things.

Don't spend an hour bashing your head against a wall trying to debug something. If you've been at it for 5 or 10 minutes and feel stuck, throw the question into slack. Even better, if you know someone who might know a solution, go talk to them!

When you ask these questions, make sure to get some context behind the answers. A huge advantage of getting the answers from someone you know over going to Stack Overflow is the fact that you can dig deeper. 

At the jobs I've worked, asking questions was always valued extremely highly. Just make sure you give whatever problem you're tackling an honest shot before asking!

## Be Confident

This is the hardest one of all. Many of us struggle to some degree with imposter syndrome. That often makes us get in our own heads about standing out.

Amy Cuddy had wise words that fit well here. "Fake it till you become it". Doing everything I listed above is not easy, but it's something we're all capable of doing.

It only gets easier the more you do it. It's a positive feedback loop. Act confident, and you'll start to feel more confident. Start sharing your knowledge, and you'll become a better communicator. 

You can do this. You got this. Go kill it!