𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚’𝙨 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄 𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙏𝙤 𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝘼 𝙎𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙧 [4 𝙤𝙛 5]

(Spoiler) The first one didn't make any money...

𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙪𝙥 📦

Everyone is building a start up nowadays.

And rightly so, it's never been easier to do so.

But for me, this time it wasn't to make money.

It was to build experience building software from start to finish.

I wanted to understand what it really takes to go from:

𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖 → 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 → 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 → 𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩

University didn’t teach me that.

But it’s a 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡 every SWE needs.

𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙮 𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙨𝙞𝙨 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙡𝙚𝙙𝙜𝙚 📚

If you’re building more than a calculator app, you need to understand how systems work.

As a SWE, you'll often work on large codebases, debug complex problems, and maintain existing features.

That means knowing how to 𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙯𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡.

So you need to be able to understand what good system design looks like.

(𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬𝙨)

𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙒𝙀𝙨 🤝

In my early years of university, I had no idea what software engineers actually did day to day.

YouTube “day in the life” videos didn’t feel realistic, and I couldn’t find anything useful online.

So I went straight to the source:
I reached out to real SWEs on LinkedIn and asked them:

→ 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚

→ 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚

→ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢

𝙍𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙚𝙙𝙄𝙣 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙚 🪩

Your LinkedIn is the first thing hiring managers and recruiters see.

So it creating a good first impression will only do you good.

Displaying your side projects, achievements and progress I've made towards becoming a software engineer are the small 1%'s that help separate you from the market

If you’re a student SWE trying to break in:

✅ 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨

✅ 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙧𝙨

✅ 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪

🌟 𝙈𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙥 5