Life is too short to repeat somebody else's mistakes, you should make your own!

I have been a part of software industry for about 6 years working with three highly reputed MNCs-Novell, Citrix and Amazon. During this journey as a software professional I have accomplished some distinguished feats and also have committed many silly mistakes. While having informal chats at different occasions with different people, I noticed a pattern as they revealed about the mistakes they think they did during their initial years. It's interesting that not only the mistakes made by different people working in different organizations were quite similar but also could have been avoided had someone guided or informed them.

Here you have an opportunity to know about and avoid the same mistakes as you go on to start your career-

Shying away from events

Many companies organize tech as well as non-tech events for the employees. As a new joinee, you mostly wouldn't have any critical things assigned to you for couple of months. You may take out and utilize your time in creating something for the technical events and showcase your knowledge and talent there. It would not only help you build connection with seniors and reputation among your colleagues but will also give you a pointer to add to your resume in case you are able to win a prize or title in such an event. In some companies you can also win some cool gadgets or gift coupons or even cash.

Most of the people just shy away from participating thinking that they shall do so once they have spent some more time in the company. As you become more experienced, you get more work and responsibilities and your chances and willingness to participate keep reducing. I know many people who repent not having participated when they discover that they had better ideas and could have created something better than what won prize.

Therefore, a sincere suggestion would be to not shy away from the events. I haven't and that has worked well in my favor. Word of caution- While participating in these extra things, make sure your work doesn't take a fall otherwise doing so may not work in your favor.

Keep watching for more. You may also check previous articles in this series. If you are keen on learning more about the better software development practices that you can start following right from the college days, do get a copy of my first book "Hello World - Student to Software Professional" published by Partridge (A Penguin Random House Company). Now available worldwide on all the MAJOR ONLINE Stores - Amazon, Google Play, Flipkart, Barnes & Noble and many others.