5 Reasons Why Blogging Is A Great Way To Start A Career In Software Development.

Hi, I am Eduard. This is my first blog post :)

As the title of this section says, this is my first ever blog post, therefore I feel like it is only fair that I introduce myself. I am Eduard Draghiciu, a 26 year old that is just about to graduate a full stack development college program in Ottawa, Canada. I am originally from Romania and I moved to Canada in 2015. When I am not coding, I am probably cooking a fancy meal for my boyfriend, or I am on a long walk or hike with my dog (puppy tax below). But you are probably not here to know more about my personal life, but rather to know why I think blogging is a great tool to use to stat a career in software development. So, let's get to it!

Here are in my opinion the major benefits writing a technical focused blog will bring you as you are building your software development career:

1. An Awesome Compliment To Your Portfolio

For software developers, a portfolio is usually a website, or a list of past and current projects that you've worked on. This is used mainly to showcase your technical skills and to demonstrate that you have the necessary skills for a particular job.

Included in the list of projects, it is recommended to also include a description for each project you've worked on. There are no clearly defined guidelines for this aspect, however you should definitely include enough information in the description to at least cover the main technologies used in the project.

But what about those projects that you are really passionate about and are super proud of? For those projects you will need an outlet without limitations where you can talk (or write) about in much more detail. And here is where blog posts come in.

You can attach the blog post to your project details, or you can even promote the blog post separately on social media which can result in positive interactions and opportunities, and hiring managers will be pretty impressed to see that you are taking the extra mile for the projects you are truly passionate about.

2. Demonstrates a true passion for software development

I am going to assume that you are also looking for full time employment after you finish college, just like I am. I am finding that there are so many junior developers looking for an opportunity out there, and it feels like the market is somewhat saturated. In this situation I think it is vital for us to do things a little different to stand out of the crowd. A blog can be a great solution for this.

Have you solved a bug that you spent a whole day on? That might be a great topic for a blog post. Write a detailed summary of the thought process you used to solved the problem, explain the steps you took to overcome it, and share it with the broader developer community.

If you are obsessed with a general programming concept and you spent time researching and understanding it, you should also write a blog post about your perspective and findings.

This will go a long way in your favour, because only the ones who are truly passionate about software development would actually take extra time to write detailed technical documents about a relevant topic. Hiring managers love this. Who wouldn't love to hire a passionate developer?

3. Explain technical concepts in a detailed way

Blog posts will give you the freedom to go as technical and detailed as you want. As mentioned above, you should definitely write about problems in the field that you are passionate about solving. And normally you would write a few sentences in the project description on your portfolio, and hope that the hiring manager will also have a look at your source code to get a full grasp of the idea.

With a detailed blog post, you can write about the approach you took to solving the problem, while also highlighting blocks of code that are relevant to what you are writing about.

This is very powerful in my opinion, because it gives you the ability to really tell the full story behind the problem, and how you solved the problem, offered in as a complete package and hiring managers will also have a much better experience understanding and appreciating the problem solved in your project.

4. Contribute to the broader developer community by writing about solving a common issue that other developers might have in the future

We all love StackOverflow, right? There isn't a day that I don't eventually land on a StackOverflow page, for whatever reason. I absolutely love how the broader developer community is eager to help each other at very step of the way. I have never talked to a developer that was not willing to help me solve a problem, and it is something we should cherish as developers.

Also, it is vital that as we get help with our problems from StackOverflow or other random Medium blogs, we also give back to the community by sharing our knowledge with our fellow developers.

Have you worked on an annoying bug for 2 days and you finally solved it? This can be a great candidate for a blog post where you explain how you solved the bug. It is very likely that someone in the future will have the same bug as you, and would probably really appreciate not spending 2 days solving it when they could find a solution online much easier. This is the only way we can keep our community thriving and evolving like it currently is.

5. You will inherently be a better developer by spending time writing a blog about code

Lastly, I believe most of us have heard the myth that it takes approximatively 10,000 hours to become an expert in a certain field, and while I don't believe that is necessarily true, I do believe that the more time we spend developing a skill, the better we are at it.

Blogging about code is just that. You don't have to only write code to become a better coder. Writing a blog where you go in depth about a code issue can offer you a substantially better understanding of the problem because of the mental exercises you do while writing.

When we write, we are thinking about the topic at hand in a much different way than we would if we were just coding. We write with empathy, we try to tell a story to a fellow human being filled with emotions. When we code, we try to replicate how a machine thinks, there aren't many emotions involved there.

Closing Notes

After all, this is a reflection on my own experiences in the industry and some things might not apply to you. However, I will try to apply the exact steps I mentioned above, so definitely expect another (more technical) post soon from me!

See you soon :D