> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://books.codepath.org/student-handbook/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://books.codepath.org/student-handbook/software-engineering/success-as-a-software-engineer/seven-pieces-of-advice.md). # Seven Pieces of Advice **Source:** Here are seven pieces of advice the author wishes they would have started doing sooner. Habits that could have helped them grow faster and in a more focused way. 1. **Take the time to read two books per year on software engineering** 2. **Learn the language you use at work in-depth, to the very bottom** 3. **Pair with other developers more often** 4. **Write unit tests and run them against a CI** 5. **Make refactoring a habit and master refactoring tools** 6. **Know that good software engineering is experience. Get lots of it.** 7. **Teach what you learn** Each of these is expanded on in more detail below. ### **Take the time to read two books per year on software engineering** * Pick two software**-**related books a year to read and process carefully * This includes taking notes, talking chapters through with others, doodle diagrams, trying out, going back, and re-reading. Read rather slowly. Do a chapter or two in one sitting. Take notes or highlight. * Look for books that go deeper than what you know now. This could be a book on a specific technology, or on software engineering practices. * Don't go overboard: one book every six months is already great. Pick a book, and spend the time to *properly* read it * [Here's the list of books](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/my-reading-list/) the author has read and is reading ### **Learn the language you use at work in-depth, to the very bottom** * Whichever your primary stack is at work, go deep into it and learn the internals * Learn about threading, how garbage collection, performance bottlenecks, and other internals * This knowledge becomes an advantage both at work, and when interviewing for other jobs * The more languages you know, the more you can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. And the more languages you know, the easier it is to pick up new ones - and go deep easier when you need to do so. ### **Pair with other developers more often** * Pairing with another developer can provide learning leaps that greatly accelerate your development * Pair to understand how other developer's think and learn from one another * Pair in order to write better and more maintainable code ### **Write unit tests and run them against a CI** * Unit testing is essential but in order to understand why you have to experience it saving you * You need to grunt away, and write those tests, have them run against a CI (continuous integration) * If you are just getting started, you can use [Travis CI](https://travis-ci.org) for free * Good test coverage on your code can really save a project as the team grows and evolves * The tests protect new developers from breaking things and pushing bugs to production * Tests allow you to make huge refactors and re-designs without fear ### **Make refactoring a habit and master refactoring tools** * Learn how to comfortably do both small and large refactors * Learn your IDE really well and how to use the editor to make refactors easier * Extracting a method, renaming a variable, moving into a constant * Make small refactoring a weekly habit ### **Know that good software engineering is experience. Get lots of it.** * The best software engineers have a mix of learned knowledge and real-world experience. The knowledge you can learn. The experience, you need to go after. * Look for opportunities to work on different stacks, different domains, and challenging projects. * Volunteer to work on new projects and try out new technologies as the first in the team * When you push yourself and work with engineers your senior, you accelerate quickly ### **Teach what you learn** * The best way to learn something is to teach it. * Write blog posts or create presentations for others in the company or communities * If you want to learn something well, sign up to do a public talk about that thing * The nice thing about teaching others is you can only win. Not only will you learn something by teaching, but you'll also help and inspire others. * Become a teacher and mentor for others. The earlier you start giving back and teaching, the more natural this will come.