Break free from the pack developers, go wide and deep on these skills
As you begin your career in software development you can hear about many technologies. You may ask yourself, “How can I master them all?” The answer is you don’t have to. Although you should master some, let’s discuss how to attack your skill development.
Wide
For the majority of technologies, you want to go wide and shallow. Understand what they do and how they work. For instance, I have never gone in-depth into NoSQL databases. I see where they could be used.
Don’t list these on your resume. Just because you read a blog post on MongoDB doesn’t mean you should list it on LinkedIn. Anyone reviewing your resume when you list thirty skills understands this.
Competency
The next set of skills you can use. You are not a wiz at these but you can work with them. For instance, I can use a command line but I may complain a bit.
These are the technologies and skills you can list on your resume. Perhaps you have a few years of experience with Typescript. You will accumulate quite a few of these throughout your career.
Deep
Finally, we have deep skills. You should have one or two of these. I have primarily been a Java developer during my career. Recently, I have begun to focus on front-end skills primarily Vue.js.
With Java, I developed and studied it for many years. I even taught a community college course in it. Your deep skills should be something you have worked at for a long time. This isn’t something you learn and stop.
So as you review your skills see where they fit in this paradigm. Also, think about what skill you could take to the next level. Keep on learning!