The software developer career has never been as high as it is today. And this fact can be proven by a survey by Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), which revealed the demand for IT Professionals increasing by nearly a third.

In addition to the difficulty of training good professionals, the technological boom caused by the pandemic also opened this situation. With the need for physical isolation, many companies needed to evolve technologically to meet reality.

So, whoever is starting in the development area has a great opportunity to be a successful programmer. For that, you will need a series of fundamental practices to create a successful programming career.

Want to know what these practices are? So, read on for 10 tips for programmers. Good reading!

1. Don’t stop studying

The first rule of thumb for any successful programmer is constant updating. Therefore, it is essential that IT professionals never stop studying and developing their technical skills.

This is important to meet the ever-changing digital market. Whether due to new programming languages that emerge year after year, or even to dominate the new frameworks on the market, it is essential to keep your studies up to date.

2. Transfer your knowledge

In addition to accumulating knowledge to perform your job in the best possible way, another tip for successful programmers involves transferring the knowledge to third parties. This practice, in addition to helping those just starting out in the field, will also help to reinforce the knowledge acquired.

In other words, the act of teaching is important to reinforce concepts and good practices. Therefore, it is a behavior that should be adopted in your programming career.

3. Be an active member of the software community

Another important point for successful programmers is active participation in software communities. This behavior will help in several ways, whether in the ability to learn more, make friends and generate job opportunities.

And developer communities abound. In America, for example, there are groups divided by software languages, way of operating in the market — front-end or back-end — and fields of study. So, enjoy!

4. Be comfortable with change

One more programmer’s tip that we can’t fail to list here is change compliance. In this sense, we are talking about everything that concerns the software development cycle, whether technologies, people, or processes.

As a successful programmer, you will need to realize that change is the only constant in IT. Business rules will change, programming languages will gain or lose steam over time, and professionals will evolve.

So, it’s the ability to adapt to change that’s worth a lot currently. Keep this item up to date and your journey into the development world will be easier.

5. Master the business rules

Did you notice that we still haven’t covered technical issues in our tips for programmers? This has a very special reason: the technical part is very important, but there are other factors that count a lot in a programmer career.

One of these cases is the domain of the business rules of the project you work on. By knowing exactly how the system should behave, your professional capacity will be greatly increased. Therefore, try to know where your product will be applied and your domain in relation to the product will be better.

6. Track the progress of projects

Tracking the progress of the project as a whole—not just the areas you participate in—is also critical for successful programmers. And, although it seems obvious, many developers still don’t carry out this practice.

So, one of our tips for programmers like you is that you be interested in what happens with the system under development. How is his overall quality? Are there any bugs? Is it evolving as planned? Does anyone on the team need help?

As much as it may not be your role to act in the full scope, it is important to understand the state of the project and, as far as possible, actively participate in the qualitative evolution of the software.

Read more: Learn how Scrum makes IT teams more efficient

7. Develop test culture

Yet another very critical point for developers is the test culture. So, to make your journey as a programmer easier, we recommend that testing be an ever-present reality.

And here it is worth being very comprehensive on the subject: white box, black box, regression, usability, integration, security, performance, functional testing, among others, should be part of your professional routine so that the product evolves with quality, but also for that you become a successful programmer.

8. Document your code

Another highly recommended point for your software developer career is the practice of documenting code. As much as this item seems boring and meaningless, it is the system documentation that will avoid many problems, especially, in the future.

And we have two situations to reinforce this point:

1. Your documentation will help other people understand your code.

2. Your documentation will help you understand your code in the future.

Note that this recommendation is intended to improve system maintenance when necessary. Whether this maintenance is performed by you or by a member of the team.

9. Develop the software for the user

Penultimately, we have an important recommendation that is often overlooked by programmers: the development of software for the user. Does this seem obvious? Because, of course, it’s not for many professionals.

There are developers who get attached to the code and forget to put basic features that facilitate the use of the product by third parties. Because they are immersed in development, they end up forgetting that the product is being created for other people.

Therefore, our recommendation is in this sense: every system needs to meet the user’s needs, as well as their difficulties and limitations. If these requirements are met, the chance of the system to succeed will increase considerably.

10. Strengthen your soft skills

We’ve come to the last item on our list of tips for programmers. However, this is no less important item than those we presented earlier.

That said, our recommendation is that you, the programmer, strengthen your soft skills to succeed in the area. And by soft skill, we are talking about skills that cannot be easily trained and measured, such as resilience, emotional intelligence, and communication.

While this is a completely logical area, it’s important to remember that software is designed by people and for people. Therefore, the human side should never be left out, which also involves the characteristics and behavior of professional developers.

So, with this list of items that we’ve brought this far, your programming career will certainly be less problematic and, of course, more enjoyable. Apply the tips for programmers we list in this content to become a more competent and required professional in the job market.