The one constant in technology today is that the tools change. Over the past decade, technology has evolved in literally every area. Today, if your skills aren’t current, you will be quickly out-of-date with modern tools. This can hurt your chances of advancing in your career or hamper your job search. Here’s how to stay on top of what’s new and changing in the tech world so you don’t get left behind.
Read and Listen to Podcasts
Staying in touch with the latest trends and developments in the technology field is as close as plugging into the nearest podcast. Some good podcasts to keep your skills sharp include:
- Software Engineering Radio focuses on industry trends for developers. Listen here for interviews with some of the biggest innovators and top developers in the community today.
- No BS Engineering is a good channel if you are a beginner or intermediate level developer looking for industry trends and important tech topics that will affect your future career in the field.
- Devmode.fm is a twice a week podcast devoted to all things new in the tech industry. They talk about optimization tips, new languages and frameworks, and trends affecting the world of software engineering.
- Coding Blocks is for the true nerd; it’s full of enough tech jargon to fill any developer’s heart with joy. Seriously, this is one of the best technical podcasts on the market, sure to sharpen your skills.
If you prefer reading to listening, we also like these books to keep your skills sharp this year:
- Clean Code by Robert Martin will give you clean up tips so that your code is pristine.
- Refactoring by Martin Fowler is not only funny; it is unmistakably helpful for improving your code quality.
Developer Events
There is also an incredible community of free and paid innovation and technology events, meetups, and developer conferences to get involved in. Your employer may even pay for you to attend some of these activities. Attending something in person will likely get you excited about the profession if you were feeling a little stagnant. It will allow you to network with other developers to find out what’s hot out there. Look for security events, open-source technologies, blockchain, or user conferences. All could help keep your mind open and your ideas fresh.
Free or Paid Classes
Why pay when there are tons of free classes out there?
- Khan Academy has free online classes for all skill levels.
- EdX lets you take free classes from MIT and Harvard.
- Coursera focuses on building specific skills around a topic, whether it’s algorithms or JavaScript. Not all courses are free here, but many are.
- Udacity is a pay to play bootcamp that is much less expensive than traditional on-site classes. The course work is spot-on. Learn data science, AI, cloud computing, and much more to keep you on top of what’s hot in today’s tech field. It’s self-designed and self-paced—and also resume-worthy.
All of these tools can help keep developers sharp. If you’re feeling like your skills aren’t keeping up with today’s programmer job market, it might be time to consider a job switch. Blackstone has dozens of jobs that can keep your skills sharp. If it’s time for a change, give us a call.