Should I go to the gym this afternoon? Well, my rule says that I go to the gym on Monday-Wednesday-Friday and today is Friday, so I will go!

Here are the 6 most important rules I’ve set related to my career as a Software Developer:

1) Educate myself ways to keep my skills up to date

Nowadays, new technologies, frameworks, tools, and libraries appear continuously. The “must” thing to do is to continue learning and use the trends in your area of specialty as soon as possible. To do this you should adopt a continuous learning mindset and make learning part of your daily routine

Some ways to do this:

• Subscribe to articles and blogs
• Follow Tech Influencers or other great programmers, and communities in social media and join groups
• Check other people’s work: Github is a great resource to do it and another great resource is providing code reviews to your peers
• If you have the opportunity to join conferences, if not subscribe to conferences channels on YouTube and watch the recorded lectures
• Bond with your colleagues and share opinions and experiences (see point 6)
• Always be curious about new ways of seeing and doing things!

2) Never write code that one day you will have to apologize for the bad coding you have used

As a Software Developer, you will always have pressure from the management to finish your tasks, but there is also this other kind of pressure, the “internal” pressure, this feeling that you should finish with your task asap to impress the management and to move on to your next exciting task. Getting code out fast is not the way to impress, quality is more important than speed, you cannot sacrifice quality at the cost of speed.

During my career, I heard many times and even worse I said the phrase “Don’t worry we will refactor it in future”. Don’t use this excuse, It ain’t gonna happen. You will always have another task with higher priority to work on.

3) Reuse, reuse, reuse as much code as possible

If there is in the project’s codebase some code that has similar functionality or is supposed to have similar functionality with the feature that you are creating you MUST reuse it, of course after making the code reusable and after fixing all the bugs you found. Writing a feature from scratch is much more easy, fast and safe than reusing the existing code, but don’t take the easy road, the drawbacks of having the same code twice in your codebase are so many and it’s worth the extra effort.

4) Clean up unused blocks of code / old changelists

We all felt the fear of throwing away something that ourselves or someone else spent time on, but having dead code in your project will never help.

Don’t be afraid to delete code that somebody else submitted, but you discovered that it is not used.

Don’t be afraid to delete changelists that you are not working on anymore.

I can admit that while I was working on PI8 I found a changelist with PI4 content 😱. It was about a feature I was working then, and after I used a different approach to develop it, but I felt that is too much work to just throw it away. And that happened, I deleted this changelist after 4 PIs!!

5) Understand the bigger picture

Use your common sense before developing a feature and see if the requirements make sense for the users. The whole point of developing software is to create apps that solve user’s needs.

6) Put people ahead of processes and tools

Ideally, you are working in a team with other highly motivated individuals. Take advantage of every opportunity presented to you to help them. Even if at the time you are so busy, helping others will allow you to learn something new!

Share knowledge with your team members, and exchange thoughts, experiences, and ideas. The different perspectives of your colleagues will improve your skills and will drive creativity and innovation.

Bye

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While working full-time as a software developer, I decided I wanted to expand my knowledge in my field and continue the research I started during my bachelor’s thesis. So I decided to attend a master’s degree program in Advanced Computer Science while still working full-time.

Studying for a master’s degree while working a full-time job was incredibly challenging. Here are 3 tips that helped me achieved my goal and get my degree with ‘Excellent’ grade:

1) Made a friend

I found someone who has a similar work ethic as me and similar goals as me, and we were relying on each other when we were confused about an assignment, we worked with each other for projects and sometimes we just needed to talk to each other to encourage one another to move forward when things seemed too difficult. Even when we worked individually on our thesis, we were supporting each other.

2) Got into a routine

We have so many things going on to our life, we are full-time employees, we have family, we have family events we need to attend, we have a social life, we have to go to the gym… so I needed to find a routine. Every day, I used to wake up early and study for an hour and a half before going to the office. Also, I used to keep my Saturday mornings free and study.

But, of course, I have lost my routine several times. I remember there was a period after Christmas, we had a demo to an important potential client at work and we worked very hard, until late to solve all the issues for a week and after that, I stopped working on my thesis for about 2 weeks.

So, the last point was the most important for me and the one that helped me to get motivated again and get back on routine every single time I was lost.

3) Kept repeating myself my end goal

In the beginning, I was really excited, as every time we start something new, but then there were days that I was like “oh my God, what is all this about?”

As I was going through my program, I kept reminding myself why I signed up for this program in the first place. I knew that every assignment I submitted, every test I did, every class I finished, was taking me one step closer to my goal. And I was excited by that.

Having my end goal in mind was the key to complete my master’s degree!

Bye

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1) Design and plan the solution before you start coding

I remember when I was a beginner programmer, as soon as the requirement’s document was available, and the acceptance criteria were added to the user story, I used to fire up the IDE and start coding. Very soon I realized that this habit is slowing me down instead of making me faster.

Breaking your task down into smaller, simpler steps and having a plan for the solution you will use, will help you to find most of the requirements gabs very soon.

Avoid starting development before the requirements are clear because even a small misunderstanding in the requirements will cost you a lot of time if you realize it after you finish with the development of the feature.

2) Getting stuck is part of the process, is totally normal

I remember times when I got stuck for so long that I wanted to bang my head against a wall. I know it’s hard and frustrating. If you cannot find the solution in Google, ask in a forum, or ask a colleague. Step away from it for a while. Go pour yourself a cup of coffee. Take a walk maybe. You could also relieve your mind by tackling another simpler problem that you know how to solve. Then, come back to that frustrating problem with a fresh mind, and you’ll be ready to deal with it in a more positive state of mind.

You can view frustration as a sign that you’re getting outside of your comfort zone. If you want to learn stuff, you’ll encounter problems and most probably get stuck at some point. But you’ll get over it in the end. It will make you stronger and wiser.

3) Complain about other developer’s bad code

Is there any point to spend your time complaining about other’s code? It’s just a waste of time! A better approach is to use these bad practices as examples to avoid and fix as much as you can. Also, if the developer is still in the company he will appreciate it if you talk to him and explain him the issue with his coding.

4) Stress and work until very very late

Have you ever listened that when developers are tired they are making x2–5 more bugs and mistakes than when they are full of energy? Have you ever stayed until late to solve a problem and the next day you find out that there is a much simpler way to do it? Working until late doesn’t mean you are having a lot more things done!

5) Take responsibility and ask the management to approve budget when there is a need that doesn’t provide direct benefit to the users

I used to have the impression that management is only interested to see features been implemented quickly and they don’t care to spend budget on refactoring tasks. This is absolutely wrong! I have to admit that in my current role we got approval from the upper management for a lot of refactoring tasks just by explaining the benefits of each one.

Some examples of these tasks are:

• Adding JavaScript and React eslint rules
• Restructure app store – redux
• Improve authentication implementation of keycloak
• Update package.json, configure webpack

It’s all about how you present these ideas!

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1) Why did you select this school?

My university has a very strong school of sciences. I knew some graduates of this department that had a successful start to their careers.

Also, my parents couldn’t afford to pay for my education abroad, so it was the perfect match as this was a government University and I studied hard to pass the entrance exam.

2) Generally, what were your college years like?

My college years were stressful and challenging because we had to deliver a lot of assignments and at the same time we had to study for midterms and final exams. But this helped me to handle my stress and keep myself calm in high-pressure situations.

The first thing that is coming to my mind is the department’s lab where we spend most of our evenings and the friends that I met in college, with whom, most of them, we are still friends till now. I never missed a class and I was always taking notes during the lessons.

Also, I had the opportunity to be involved with a volunteer project ‘Stop Cancer Cyprus’ to inform users about cancer prevention in cooperation with PASYKAF. Through this project, I learned the software development life cycle and gained the experience to work closely with a real customer.

During the summer period of my third year, I did an internship at Marathon Distributors, which was a learning experience that taught me invaluable skills about the corporate environment.

Lastly, I put a lot of effort into my thesis both in BSc and MSc. I was very passionate about the research I was doing. Both became papers and were cited by other researchers.

3) How would you describe your study habits during college?

Every day I had lessons until the afternoon, so I used to do my assignments, between the lessons, in the evenings, and on the weekends.

I used a calendar to plan which task I should focus on each day based on the assignments and exams I had. Through this, I learned to use my time productively and efficiently.

I was studying the presentations after each class so that I will be prepared for the exams and I won’t have a ton of material to study. Also, reading some parts of the lesson’s book, made things clearer for me.

In general, I was trying always to have a plan and finish my assignments/preparation for the exams before the deadline.

4) What were some important career influences?

During my summer internship at Marathon Distributors Ltd, I was directly working with the IT Manager-CIO of the company, Mr. Marios Georgiou. I admire him for his hard skills, as well as for his soft skills. He was always trying to help his coworkers, despite his heavy workload and he had very good relationships with the partners of the company.

In addition, when I was working there, one of the hard drives in the server room failed and the company’s internal system wasn’t working. I remember the way he handled this crucial situation very efficiently on his own and in the following days he created and executed a plan to prevent this situation in the future.

5) What were the best and worst times in your college years?

Best moment: Officially finishing my degree and getting an offer for a master’s degree

Worst Moment: I had a team project of 3 people for the Databases course. We had a meeting at the beginning of the project and split the work into 3 parts. The project was for creating a database model for a supermarket with multiple queries and a UI. One day before the deadline I called the two other girls to meet in the labs to do the integration of our parts. The girl that took the UI part, just said to me that she didn’t have time to work on it due to the other assignments and she will start working on it now. That, of course, was very frustrating and disappointing for us, because we finished our part and we were about to lose points if we delivered it without the UI. So, I decided that we all meet in the labs to do the UI part. We were so exhausted, but we stayed until very late and finished it.

That taught me that when you are assigning a task to someone, you need to constantly check for the status and not only asking the last day before the deadline. You cannot expect other people to share the same responsibility as you do, in order to complete their tasks on time. Also, you cannot expect that other people will feel comfortable asking for help if you don’t ask them.

6) What were your career aspirations at the end of college?

My career aspirations at the end of college were to develop the hard and the soft skills that Mrs. Marios had, my ex-manager in Marathon Distributors Ltd, and get a similar role in a big company.

Bye

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1) Niklas Jansen sharing his experiences at his speech “My Journey Of Reinventing Myself And Starting New Things”

“Learn to quit”: What is the purpose of doing things that you don’t enjoy? Be honest with yourself! This is the only way long term to do things that you are passionate about!

“For many people, 20 years of experience is really 1 year’s experience repeated 20 times.”

“Be obsessed with learning!” Learn as much as you can! Treat yourself as a startup! Try new things!

“Having a team is really important!”

2) What an inspirational speech from Tal Catran “Dreamers to Doers: Turning a great idea into a Kickass Startup”

Run as fast as you can to the market!

Make sure there is an end customer from the beginning-not your friends, not your family.

More investors ask ‘Did you ever fail?’ If you return with a smile and say ‘No’, They will say ‘Go fail somewhere else and come back!’

You need to have a clear target, a plan for how to achieve it, and KPIs.

Investors invest in your dream, not in your technology, Say “I’m the best”!!

3) Key takeaways from Mohamed Aboulnaga from zero to Unicorn :

1. The strongest startups are designed to maximize growth not profit
2. You might not be the first in the market but you have a distinct positioning
3. Your timeline is less crucial than your capacity to iterate quickly
4. Investors fund promising products and teams they don’t fund ideas

4) Great speech from Martin Zarian 🕊 about “How your brand can be your business superpower”

“You have the responsibility and the power to change the world!”

5) Disconnected in a connected world: Technology is reshaping socializing, so what’s the future of networking?" from Yiannis Gavrielides

In the workspace, companies have embraced remote working, meetings have moved to Zoom, and technology companies are promising we will soon be holding them in the metaverse So how can we be so disconnected? The world is experiencing a loneliness epidemic that is affecting our careers and our physical and mental health.

PS: 85% of employees would be motivated to go to the office to bond with their team

6) Panel discussion: Women in tech & entrepreneurship

Small part of the panel discussion, Linda Boyd is rocking the Reflect Festival stage! 👏

7) Advice from the successful young Cypriot founders Alex Loizou and Maria Terzi

8) My favorite professor Vasos Vassiliou from University of Cyprus explaining the term “digital twin” in his speech about metaverse and smart cities

9) Hologram of the Reflect Festival co-founder, Stylianos Lambrou, welcomes you to the venue!

9) Networking

I’m so excited to be a part of such an exclusive event, filled with powerful networking opportunities and engaging conference themes with great keynote speakers.

Bye

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1) Why do you want to be a manager?

I want to be a manager because of the level of responsibility that comes with the position. You are responsible to direct your team and lead the members of the team in a way that allows them to perform to the best of their ability.  As a manager, you get to help your team evolve and grow.

For me, the most amazing feeling is the one that you get in knowing that you were there to help a person grow.

2) What is your management style?

I can describe myself as a Motivational manager: I encourage my team to be the best they could possibly be. Actually, I see it as my responsibility to get the best out of each of the members of my team.

I set high standards for my team, a clear common goal for each sprint for the team, and ensuring that everyone feels part of the team.

Each person is different, so I work with each one individually, inspiring, motivating, and influencing him to achieve the objectives of the company, by setting clear-achievable goals for each member of the team.

3) Tell me about a time when your leadership skills had a positive outcome. 

It was decided that all the contractors will be removed from the project because of the new company’s policy. So, I built a new team, we hired 4 devs on different levels and I provided them with the knowledge needed.

As a result, we were up to speed very soon and the users didn’t face any issue in the quality of the features we were delivering or any serious delay.

4) Give an example of a tough decision you had to make. 

The management ask me to assign a member of my team to another project that just started. I decided to assign the most senior member of my team, as he was part of the team for so long, so it would be good for him to develop some new skills in building a project from scratch and taking many decisions on the structure and setup of the project. I knew that this decision might affect the quality of work of all the members, but I had to put the organization’s needs above all.

Proactively to avoid any depression in the team, I explained to the other members of my team that this was an opportunity for another member to step into his boots.

5) How would you handle conflict in a team?

Dealing with it right away. I believe if you ignore the conflict, then it could become a bigger problem. Also, there will always be persons in the team who notice the conflict but won’t say anything about it and if they see you as their manager not tackling it, then I believe that is weak from a management perspective.

Firstly, I will ask the team members who are involved in the conflict, 'I’ve noticed that you two are having some issues, Are you able to resolve them?’. I would expect them as responsible employees to sort things out themselves.

However, if I notice that the conflict doesn’t go away, I would call them to a private meeting and explain how they need to solve the conflict. I will ask them questions, give them both the opportunity to speak about the conflict and I would encourage them to reach a compromise going forward. I would explain to them also that they have a responsibility to work harmoniously within the team because we have targets to work towards and objectives to achieve.

6) Describe a time when you led by example. 

Recently I was in a management meeting where an Architect suggested a quick dirty solution to fix an issue. I explained that this will save us time but it’s not a correct solution as it’s inconsistent with the rest APIs and this will cause us issues in the future. In the end, it was decided to do the quick fix and create a feature to fix it properly and remove the quick fix in the UI after the demo to the client.

7) What is your biggest weakness as a manager?

Historically, there have been times when I would find myself jumping in to fix a problem. Unfortunately, jumping in like that would often leave my team members feeling demotivated. They felt that I didn’t trust them to solve the problem.

This is the trap that everyone has when moving from being responsible for the work - as a developer , to being responsible for the people that are responsible for the work - as a development team leader.

I have learned my lesson. Now I always let team members some time at completing a task before I start helping. Allowing them some time means that they feel that I have confidence in their ability to complete the task and at the same time makes them feel supported if they are struggling with something. They know that they can ask me for help when they are struggling and I will clear my calendar to help them.

8) What methods do you use to motivate your team?

• Create team values
• Set high standards.
• Communicate clearly the team goal for each sprint.
• Conduct 1–1 meetings with each one of my team members and find out about their strengths, their weaknesses and how we can improve their weaknesses, and about their future career plans as well. So that gives me enough knowledge of that team member, and how I can direct him to achieve the team’s goal.
• Have regular team meetings where everyone can contribute in a positive and open manner, and give ideas on how we can move forward as a team and achieve the team goals.
• Praise the members of my team that did the extra mile and achieve something worth mentioning, and on the other hand, have 1–1 meetings with the members that I notice to have low motivation.

Bye

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