Constructive feedback for Indian SDEs to go beyond average!

My last post (share.gvine.app/W6sQvon7d7H2qau89) saw a lot of opinions & criticism from many members in the community. For anyone who is offended by any of my comments, I truly apologize. Given the fact that some folks asked for constructive pointers, I decided to pen this down.

These are just a set of points that I think would benefit some of you (not all!) in the long run:

• Speak at conferences & meet-up — We have definitely seen a boom of them in India. A lot of folks continue to miss out on them for various reasons. If you are working on some exciting stuff, go ahead and submit a proposal for an upcoming meetup. Trust me, this is definitely something that you can use to actually build your personal brand.

• Build some projects: Last month, I had to start taking interviews for the India team. I noticed the lack of projects, with many mentioning what they built during their college/interview assignments. Many complain that most of their work is proprietary, but it won't be bad to do a weekend hack around something they are passionate about.

• Contribute to open-source: For some folks, this might sound almost cliche! Anyone who gets to contribute to any noticeable project today, will open a box of opportunities. I have known dozens of devs by now, who started contributing (out of passion?) and went ahead to work on impactful projects (while making good money!).

• Seek interesting problems: A lot of devs I have interacted with have not sought companies, but problems! One of our competitors saw their investor join them as a part-time engineer (yes, he loves to code!). Builders always have this mindset to build — Luckily we have so many programs today that inculcate this.

There are plenty of more ideas! The utmost emphasis for any SDE would be to become a Professional (with a capital P), become a craftsperson and take pride in your work! If you can't show anything substantial, your entire career building would be non-serious with sole purpose of money-making!