Articles on being a better programmer (Career Development Advice)

Quick Reads

This is a quick read: Making the Good Programmer … Better

And another: 5 Tips for creating good code every day; or how to become a good software developer

Longer Reads

Find where you’re at, Improve It and your Career in the process

**** Recommended ****  If you are looking to get a job or updating your resume, you might want to know where your competencies stand.  The Programmer Competency Matrix very thoroughly lists attributes in the disciplines of Computer Science, Software Engineering, Programming, Experience and Knowledge and provides 4 levels (numbered 0 – 3) for each attribute describing what knowledge you have to be considered at each level.  I think it should be a mandatory professional TODO for any serious programmer to rate where they are at and what they need to do to achieve further competency.  Its a career development guide for the technical and soft skills a developer is required to have in a world that is growing ever more competitive.

In Signs that you’re a bad programmer the blogger talks about Symptoms and Remedies of bad, mediocre and ‘shouldn’t be a’ programmer types.  Its an excellent tool to look at yourself critically and see where you could be improving. 

Stay Informed

Most of these articles I picked up by following the DZone site on twitter, who are also behind those awesome Refcardz that help you get up to speed or revise on a particular technology in very short time.

I also follow a lot of other renowned technical guru’s in the Agile, Java, Spring and Groovy spheres.  Usually, they are all following each other and when there is a good article, they all retweet it (a validation of what is good).  If you look at my twitter profile, you can see who else I’m following and add to your sources of development info.

Somewhat due to the number of developer emails and twitter posts I dont read tech books as often as I’d like, but there are some important ones that every dev should read, usually everyone has their own list with a bias to a particular technology they use more often.  The one here is a fair example of books I’ve read or own.  There are plenty more ‘good programming list’ posts, just google or look on Amazon.