Many of us who have been in the industry for a while want to give back. We want to help people. We want to share our success. But sometimes it is difficult to find an easy way to do so. I am no different than all of you. I wanted to give back to the community. I wanted to help people. I wanted to share what made me successful. I wanted to tell young developers, "Look, this is what I did and it worked for me."
I was reading a blog on why every entrepreneur should write and it made me realize that every developer should also write and share their expertise with others. When I look back on my career, writing is “that one thing” that changed my life forever.
Developers should promote themselves.
I am a developer. Once a developer, you will always be a developer. In my early developer life, I did not give any importance to marketing. I neither respected marketing, nor did I realize its importance. I never marketed myself. I never promoted myself.
But today, I realize I was wrong. If you want to grow in your professional life, you must start thinking about promoting yourself and your name. If you’re a young developer, you should focus on learning and spend more and more time on learning, but if you’ve been programming for five years or more, you should start thinking about getting out there, starting to meet people, getting online, and promoting and marketing yourself. This is one of the best pieces of advice I can give you.
Promotion gives you exposure.
In our career, we often change jobs. We look for growth. We look for new career opportunities. Not only do we look for better salaries and perks, but we also look for self-assessment and challenges. This is where your promotion plays a major role.
Even though I did not promote myself intentionally, I got lucky and got my name out there, which I share later in this article. After working for a company for four years (from 1998 – 2002), I decided to get a new job and in my first interview, the person who interviewed me already knew me. He already knew my name. So it was very easy for me to get my next job.
Exposure brings you fortune.
If you’re an expert in something and no one knows you, it doesn’t matter. But if you’ve been promoting yourself and people know you already, not only you will get selected very quickly but people will be after you. If you look at some of the top executives in Silicon Valley, they are so popular that they jump from one company to another and keep bringing fortune home. Sometimes companies fight to get the same person and they will offer all kinds of salaries and perks to get that person on board.
So how to promote yourself.
There are a few things you can do to promote yourself.
Social media has become one of the best ways to promote yourself. Get on LinkedIn and start connecting with people. I am not sure about Facebook, but Twitter is one of the most effective ways to follow people and companies that you’re interested in. You can also connect with and message people on Twitter.
Technical online communities like MSDN, StackOverflow, and C# Corner communities have technical forums where you can start answering questions.
Another way to promote yourself is start going to events and meetups. There are many meetups in most cities. Not only will you meet new people, but you'll also build and grow your professional network. C# Corner has several user groups in different cities. Check out and join a local chapter near you >>
One of the most effective ways to promote yourself is to start writing articles and blogs on topics you know the best. Writing and sharing your expertise online via your personal blog or high-traffic website like C# Corner can help you promote to millions in no time. If you want to learn more, read writing on a community website vs personal blog.
Writing is the best way to promote yourself.
When you write, and people read your writing, they start to follow you. Not only do you get respect, but you also get feedback from your readers, and you learn more about what is good and what is bad about what you wrote. Sometimes you get candid feedback, and sometimes you may get criticism that helps you improve yourself.
When you write, it reveals you to the public. Writing sometimes leads to an opportunity to be on stage to speak in front of audiences. If you write well, you may get published and receive invitations to conferences and meetings.
Writing brings many surprises.
There is proof that you only retain about 10 percent of what you read but keep up to 50 percent of what you write. So writing actually helps you learn, and learn clearly.
Writing comes with many surprises such as the Microsoft MVP award, Mindcracker MVP Award, cash prizes, monthly prizes, book authoring engagements, independent contract projects, jobs, and many more.
Writing is something that keeps giving back to you for a while, if your writing is published online publicly. There are articles that I wrote in 2000 that are still being read and used.
Start now.
Starting is simple. Pick a topic which you want to share and write a blog or article about it. If you need help, get on C# Corner, go to chapter meetings, talk to people and get started. Don’t be afraid if you’re not a good technical writer.
Try: How to become a Technical Author.