As a developer or designer, it’s easy to become comfortable. Perhaps you've found a comfortable job with adaptable hours, so you gradually quit attempting new things and refreshing your insight into best practices. If you’ve already got the gig, what’s the point, right?
Here’s the thing: if you want to remain relevant, it’s important to keep learning.
Even the most experienced designers, developers, and engineers need to remain up to date. Otherwise, they run the risk of becoming obsolete. Below are three ways you can stay on top of things, and thus in demand, as a techie.
- Build or experiment with new things.
Learning by doing is a great way to keep learning and pushing your boundaries. There’s this thing called the 70:20:10 rule which says that for adult learners, 70% of learning is experiential. It takes place during day-to-day tasks, challenges, and practice. 20% of learning is social. It happens with and through others, like co-workers, peers, and other collaborative environments. 10% of learning is formal. It happens through structured courses or programs.
This rule originated before the internet age, so take it with a grain of salt. But the point is that adult learners learn best through experience.
As a person in the tech industry, you should keep building new projects and apps, experimenting with new tools and techniques, writing blog posts and how-to guides, etc.
This kind of experimentation doesn’t even need to wholly relate to tech. For instance, when I started my blog in middle 2015 when I completed senior high, I had the chance to learn so many new things.
Sure, I did research first and took a course online. But nothing could beat simply getting out there and just doing it.
Investing the time into trying something new is paying off, too. For instance, having experience podcasting can make you more lucrative in the job market. (You’d be surprised how many companies want to start a podcast as part of their marketing efforts)
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