A simple strategy for staying calm under pressure

If there’s one thing I’ve seen across every leader that I’ve worked with over the years, it is that they are calm under pressure. The world might seem to be crumbling around them, but they hold it together for the sake of the team. Most leaders don’t become calm under pressure by chance, they achieve it through deliberate practice and by having a process.

Enable strong conversation with 3 versatile metaphors

As software developers – our world is increasingly complex with each line of code. As technology progresses, we’re given more tools and more jargon. Our language can quickly separate us from the others that work around us, and isolate those that don’t really understand. It’s a developers job to try and make their work and their communication as simple as possible. One way to achieve simpler communication is through metaphors.

5 steps to bulletproof behavioural interview prep

Behavioural questions are often very difficult. Yet with a little preparation anyone can nail them with ease.

After a lot of failures I’ve created a method that allows me to nail those behavioural questions. Behavioural questions often look a little like this:
  • “Identify and explain a time when you utilised leadership?”
  • “Identify and explain a time when you had to manage a conflict?”
  • “Describe a complex problem to me”
Behavioural questions can seem impossible to prepare for. It seems impossible to remember enough scenarios to cover it all. Especially, like me, you struggle with thinking on your feet. But that’s where good preparation comes in.

The Importance Of The Developer Portfolio

Throughout my early jobs – many comments were made positively about my portfolio. I had a hunch at the time that having a portfolio was important. It was only until later in my career, when I was performing interviews that I realised just how useful a portfolio is to hiring managers and organisations.

 
Back when I first started development, I spent one year working for a company in London when I caught the bug for being a developer, it was only after this point that I started to work on and create a portfolio. Luckily it wasn’t “too late” and I had retained a lot of the information and work from my university to be able to upload it.

Becoming an irreplaceable junior software developer

As a junior developer it's easy at times to feel a little lost. Yet there are things you can do to increase your own productivity.

You’ve started a job as a junior developer. You’re getting used to the team. Maybe you feel a bit lost on where you can best contribute to the team? Luckily there area areas you can focus on to make an immediate impact.

Cultivated specific expertise

Most teams have a skill deficit in a certain area. This could be CSS, databasing, agile working. If you can find and identify these skill deficit areas you can provide incredible value to your team.
 
Focused effort on a specific topic can create a mastery in a shorter time than you might realise. As software developers we’re required to understand such broad topic areas. This means the rest of your team might be feeling the pains of spreading themselves too thin.
 
This poses a great opportunity within your team. Rather than trying to keep up with every area instead focus on only one. Master that. And then move on to the next. With this approach you will soon find others coming to you for support in your area(s) of expertise. It takes patience but it can make all the difference.

Support the team

Often most developers will shy away from doing “managerial tasks”. Things like organising tasks, unblocking members of the team and anticipating issues. If you notice this trend, you can offer to take up some of these tasks. Soon, the team will soon be seeing you as an essential part of the operation.

Conclusion

As a junior developer, it’s easy to feel like a spare part. But we must remember that we’re operating on a team. This means that team output is far more important than our output as individuals. By noticing this we can start to see far more tasks that are within our grasp when joining a new team.