The Covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on all businesses.
In India millions of people today face technical or partial unemployment and millions of others have been working remotely for several weeks. For better or worse, these changes also had an impact on developers, but which ones? What do our tech experts do with their free time? The answer is simple: development of their programming skills!
Perfect their skills
Among the many activities of quarantine to pass the time, one thing that software developers do is to solve code problems to improve their skills. Online coding evenings are even organized to promote social ties in the midst of the pandemic.
Developers are looking to take on programming challenges for fun or just to keep busy. According to a Coderbyte survey , 84% of developers are looking to improve in a coding language they already know, while 79% express their interest in learning a new coding language.
The hardest part of learning a new skill is knowing how and where to start. Fortunately, there are many online course materials and resources for self-taught people like you (Udemy, Code.org, Leetcode, Skilleos, Coursera… and many more) and many conferences are available online.
If there is a subject or concept that you know you are having a hard time understanding, also search the blogs Medium, Towards Data Science etc… You are guaranteed to find your happiness as well as clear and concise information in less than 10 to 15 minutes.
Embark on new projects
Developers also use their quarantine time to work on new projects. Nearly three out of four developers would even say that, given the current environment, they are now more interested in starting a new project than before the crisis started.
At Elitech Systems, we are convinced that building new projects helps you develop as a programmer. This can be intimidating when you are a novice developer, as you might think you don’t have enough knowledge to build apps. But you will never learn if you don’t get your hands dirty.
Note that these parallel projects can be used to impress and attract future employers. With this in mind, developers are participating in online technology events around the world to resolve tec issues related to the Covid-19.
For example, in April, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) organized a series of virtual hackathons, called “Beat the Pandemic”, focused on supporting the health system and protecting vulnerable populations during the crisis.
The World Health Organization has also partnered, for example, with technology companies and platforms such as AWS, Facebook, Giphy, Microsoft, Pinterest, Salesforce, Slack, TikTok, Twitter and WeChat to launch COVID-19 Global Hackathon 1.0.
There are many other efforts and resources available that you can participate in or benefit from. On the open source side, for example, GitHub offers a guide to open collaboration on COVID-19, while StackOverflow examines the countless ways to help fight COVID-19 from home.
Take time for yourself
Although software developers are keen to upgrade their skills and take on new projects, many say they have concerns about their own well-being.
In fact, 75% say they are concerned about their physical health and 67% say they are concerned about their mental health. Developers are also concerned about job security and business stability.
It is a difficult time and it is important to find a balance between career advancement and personal care.
While these times are certainly difficult, it is encouraging to see the developer community working to improve and support those around them. We will continue to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on the software development industry as a whole and how developers are navigating in this changing and uncertain environment.
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