3 Things I Wish I Realized Sooner as a Software Engineer

1. Effective communication

In every CV I've seen on LinkedIn, candidates often mention strong communication skills—I used to do the same. But working on a project that required collaboration across multiple teams taught me what real communication means.

I was on a Core team responsible for resolving issues and supporting other teams. They reported issues; I coordinated with them, then summarized and documented the outcomes to prevent future recurrences. Along the way, I made mistakes:

Lack of information about the issue: I should provide detailed information such as steps to reproduce, expected vs. actual results, environments where the issue occurred (and whether it happened before), what I tried, and links to related documents.
Problem summary: Different audiences need different summaries. For non-technical stakeholders, keep it simple (expected vs. actual). For technical teammates, include extra context (which service, when it occurred, related logs) to speed up understanding and resolution.
Fast response: When receiving an issue, I usually checked it right away—but forgot to acknowledge receipt. Even a quick "Copy that" helps set expectations and builds trust.

2. Health is important

You rarely think about health until you run into issues. Developers often spend ~8 hours in the office and another 1–2 hours learning or working on side projects. That's ~10 hours sitting—leading to back pain, digestive problems, and reflux. We want to stay focused and productive, but it's impossible with health problems. What helped me:

Do 15 minutes of daily exercise. Start small (push-ups, jumping jacks, running) to build consistency, then add more advanced routines.
Go to the gym to reduce distractions. The environment itself keeps you focused.
Cut back on fast food and constant coffee. Eat better: more vegetables, less fried food.

Mental health matters too. After COVID-19, I noticed more conversations about depression and mental health around me. Two things helped:

Meditation: 5–10 minutes each morning focusing on breathing. It sets a calm tone for the day.
Daily journaling: Recording your day improves memory and helps reflect on what mattered. I may try vlogging in the future.

3. Keep learning

No matter how long you've been in tech, you must keep learning. That sounds obvious, but staying consistent is hard—and mastering anything takes time. It gets harder as you get older, but time doesn't wait. Here's what I changed:

Follow your career path with a long-term plan (5–10 years). From that, list the skills and technologies to learn, then progress step by step.
When you're overwhelmed by options, pick one and start immediately. This may not work for everyone, but for those who aren't great at multitasking (like me), it's effective.
Be patient. Everyone walks a different path. Focus on your goals and keep moving—results will come.

In summary, as software engineers, we navigate complex problems and ever-evolving technologies. But thinking about communication, health, and learning can make our developer lives better. Share your thoughts in the comments—I'd love to hear them.

InvertDev - Trung Truong - 2024-03-23