Career Lessons From the Trenches: Ten Years of Software Engineering Lessons in 7 Emails

7 Short Emails To Refactor Your Software Engineering Career and Save Years and Thousands of Dollars’ Worth of Career Mistakes

Navigating your career as a software engineer is just as important as mastering a programming language. — Even, more important I'd say.

I know because I went through my first 10 years as a software engineer almost on autopilot — No plan at all.

I want to share 7 career lessons I learned the hard way to help you navigate your career as a software engineer — 7 lessons that could save you years, thousands of dollars, and headaches.

Whether you're starting out or already on the journey, consider these lessons to refactor your own software engineering career:

• Lesson #1: This Is the #1 Reason Why Software Projects (and Marriages) Fail — Save your projects (while you save your marriage) from failure.
• Lesson #2: Don't Be a Hero. It's a Trap — Save yourself from burnout.
• Lesson #3: There's No Such Thing As "Job Security" — Be prepared for the next round of layoffs. Winter is coming! Always!
• Lesson #4: Not Only Write Clean Code, Be a Clean Coder Too — Point #1 could save you from discussions with your project manager.
• Lesson #5: The Best Life Advice I've Ever Received for Free — I'll pass it on. This could be your first step to financial freedom.
• Lesson #6: This Was My Best Career Move — Spoiler alert: It could double your salary.
• Lesson #7: And This Was My Biggest Career Mistake — Spoiler alert, again: It could save you years and thousands of dollars.

These are the lessons I wish I knew when I started working professionally in the early 2010s to navigate my software engineering career in the corporate world.

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