Come this summer, and I would have spent 9years as a professional Software Engineer. For some that is an eternity. For many, it is still early in their career finding their feet. What do I think ? I think I have just begun.

My career wasn’t the stellar, star-studded high profile work that I dream of doing as a 20 year old. Yet by the standards of people I grew up with, I probably have had a great career so far (touchwood). I sure have had my share of blunders, wins and experience. This post is an attempt to distill some important insights I want to share

Satisfaction

Happiness is fleeting. Satisfaction is enduring. Vacations make you happy. A day job that you love and wake up excited about daily is satisfying. Prioritize what matters to you (and yes, you can have both, so do not try to make every decision an either or

Rat Race

At any point in time, almost everyone around you is stuck in some sort of a race: Maxxing out careers, getting into their university of choice, buying that car you dream of, the home that feels like a dream come true, or just the satisfaction of a large bank balance. I see Rat races as checkpoints along the journey of life. Not the destination in itself, but as an indication of where you are headed to.

Luck (or lack thereof)

Success needs multiple ingredients: Talent, dedication, hardwork and luck. Extraordinary success required extroordinary amounts of luck. You control 2 ingredients on a daily basis: Dedication and Hardwork. Talent can be improved, but some are born with a gift. The rest ? All luck (fate if you want to call it that)

Ownership

The most successful I have encountered are also ones that took ownership of their career. The owned their effort, dedication and as a result: their careers. No one knows you well as much as you. Take ownership of yourself and your actions and most importantly: be patient.

The boring bits

Ownership isn’t big bang responsibilities of shipping high impact software or managing a team of 100. It can be as mundane and small as keeping the docs updated, updating unit tests, keeping your team informed and leaving the code just a bit cleaner than how you found it. 1% better every day/week X 10 years and you find yourself way ahead of your peers.

Results matter

As a junior, you are judged on effort. As a senior, on impact. Once you cross a certain effort threshold, you have to be smart and identify leverage you can apply to increase your impact. Leverage: Contacts, Coding skills, wisdom from experience, communication skills, money (the list is endless). Build leverage as you go along in your career

Find your tribe

The best way to level up is to find a team of engineers and people better than you. As the saying goes: “Apes together strong”. Humanity became the apex predator because we hunted as packs, not as lone wolves.

Learn to have fun on the way

A happy person is a lot easier to be around than a terminally depressed one. Everything beyond your basic needs is optional in life