To advance your programming career, it is essential to acquire both technical and soft skills, such as data science, project management, and business understanding. Being proactive, taking responsibility for your work, and being open to constructive feedback are crucial for personal growth and fostering collaboration. By developing these skills, you can distinguish yourself in the competitive programming landscape.

1. 5 POWERFUL SKILLS
TO BOOST YOUR
PROGRAMMING CAREER

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Why You Need To Acquire New Skills As A Programmer
If you are a programmer, you would have experienced a learning curve of highs and
lows. Early days of a programmer are exciting as it involves tackling new challenges
every day.
Programmers who have been programming for a while, often start to plateau in the
role after a few months or years.
If you are in a similar state and want to progress in your career, you would like to
reframe some of the skills you have already learned while learning new skills.

3. TOP SKILLS TO BOOST
YOUR PROGRAMMING
CAREER

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Get A Good Understanding Of The Business
While working for a large organisation, programmers often confine their scope to
building the next feature or selecting the right technologies.
The knowledge about how the business works, the customer needs and how the
customer interacts with the product can go a long way in helping you make the right
programming decisions.
Get to know more people outside your immediate team can help you understand how
the different business functions work together and how your job impacts them.

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Combine Data Science and Analysis
There is a strong demand for Data Scientists as companies in virtually every industry
is looking to make the most of their information resources.
However, it requires more than just pure data science skills to derive value from data.
Those who can show a good blend of data science and business skills can be better
positioned to take advantage of this trend.
For example, you can incorporate a data science element in the app that you are
building which will analyse customer behaviour and take specific actions based on it
such as surfacing advertisements.

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How to get started in Data Science
You need to focus on three areas to get started in Data Science from a technical
perspective:
Database Setup and Management – You need to understand how to structure
high-quality data in the backend so that it can be captured and analysed
effectively.
Analysing Results by pulling data – You can do this using Structured Query
Language (SQL) to better understand how the app works for the customers.
Machine Learning – You can then use Python and its associated libraries to
run machine learning algorithms on the data.
These skills can be learned online through specific courses.

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Effective Project Management
As programmers work in project teams, it is useful to have project management and
organisational skills.
These skills are useful for coordinating with various stakeholders within and outside your project
team. This will help you deliver the project faster while managing expectations effectively.
You need to learn the following 3 skills within Project Management to be an effective
programmer:
Stakeholder Mapping – This helps you identify the key stakeholders in your
project and their role in your project’s success. Effective stakeholder mapping
can help you engage better with them.
Milestone Planning – Involves scheduling project deliverables and sharing
them with stakeholders.
Progress Reporting – Involves sharing updates concisely and effectively, thus
allowing the team to understand the development status.

8. Be Proactive And Take Responsibilities
As you grow as a programmer, you will increase the ability to see the bigger picture
and what is required for building a well-functioning product. If you see that something
is not going right, you need to speak up and bring it to everyone’s notice.
Being proactive and responsible also means taking complete responsibility for your
code. While working on a feature, you need to take responsibility for its quality. Be
honest and willing to accept your mistakes.
As you take more responsibilities, other team members as well as executives will start
looking at you as someone who is reliable and can be trusted.
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Be Ready To Give And Take Constructive Feedback
Feedback is a powerful tool to learn and to improve performance. Most people don’t
take feedback positively and feel offended when someone comments about the
quality of their work.
As a programmer, you need to be open to receive feedback from other developers
through code reviews. Constructive feedback and disagreements can lead to better
code decisions.
Feedback should also go in both directions. Help your teammates by giving them
constant feedback when you feel it’s necessary. We need to recognize the need for
accountability and be willing to accept criticism as a valuable way to continuous
learning.

10. Summary
While technical knowhow is important to move forward in your career, you need a
balance of both technical and soft skills.
Continue to hone your technical skills while acquiring new ones such as Data Science.
Invest time in building Project Management skills and gaining a broader perspective of
the business to stay on top of everything.
By building these skills, you can take your first steps towards standing out from the pack.
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