3 Reasons Better JavaScript Won’t Improve Your Career

Simple advice for engineers

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The task seems easy enough. Get better at JavaScript or some other programming language, and your career is set. After years of wielding my coding sword, I found this to be false. While this topic is tough to swallow, I assure you that this article is not what you expect. And I hope my lessons help you.

Let me explain.

I spent countless hours honing my craft in the early to late 90s while taking an engineering-centric approach to my career. The truth is I didn’t manage my career. I was fortunate to have lucky coincidences that turned into a career later.

I enjoyed learning the deepest layers of programming languages. I spent a lot of time diving into subject matters that most engineers wouldn’t touch.

And for a while, I made it work. I found joy in understanding esoteric topics and knowing them well. I zoomed to the top of a very short corporate ladder, and then I hit a brick wall.

My goal was to be the best of the best, technically.

But of course, as thousands of engineers know, nothing about how you code advances your career after a certain point. I worked with countless engineers who made more but knew less. And for some strange reason, the business…