July 20, 2017

Soft Skills in Technical Jobs & The Future of Programming Languages

John Sonmez joins us on this episode of The Innovation Engine to discuss whether coding is a skill everyone should learn, how to lead a team of developers when you find yourself in a leadership position, and what the programming language (or languages) of the future will be.

John is the Founder of Simple Programmer, a website where he tirelessly pursues his vision of transforming complex issues into simple solutions, and the author of newly-released The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide. He also helps software engineers, programmers, and other technical professionals boost their careers and live more fulfilled lives.

John is launching The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide at a special price of $0.99 for the Kindle version on launch day, July 19th, 2017. Go to SimpleProgrammer.com/careerguide to get something special in addition to the $0.99 price.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

Interested in hearing more? Tune in to the full episode below.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Should everyone learn to code in the digital era?

  • “Everyone should learn to code, but not everyone should be a coder.” Just as writing is a skill most everyone possesses, but we’re not all authors, so too John believes learning basic coding is a valuable skill to possess.
  • There are so many resources out there to learn programming skills – almost too many! New software developers need to know how to navigate this environment, and that’s part of the reason John wrote his new book.

Keys to leading teams successfully:

  • Lead by example.
  • Take complete ownership and responsibility for the team, whether something is your fault or not. They will feel protected and understand that they can take risks, and you want them to take risks.

The programming language(s) of the future:

  • It doesn’t necessarily exist right now…
  • …but, if you look at the languages that exist right now, we’re close to language parity.
  • “The language of the future is going to be universal – that’s what we need.”

Resources:

About The Innovation Engine

Since 2014, 3Pillar has published The Innovation Engine, a podcast that sees a wide range of innovation experts come on to discuss topics that include technology, leadership, and company culture. You can download and subscribe to The Innovation Engine on Apple Podcasts. You can also tune in via the podcast’s home on Spotify to listen online, via Android or iOS, or on any device supporting a mobile browser.