Not long ago, I was casually browsing courses on the Educative platform when I came across one titled “Build a Successful Developer Brand” [1]. The term ”Developer brand” surprised me. I had always admired the success of famous people in IT, but I never knew that personal branding was something everyone could (and should) work on. The concept felt new, even though it made perfect sense in hindsight. I decided to complete the course, and that’s how it all began.
The Course Review
The description mentioned that the course would provide an “idea of marketing and social skills that can help in building your career in software development.” And that’s what the course does — it is simple and introduces the topic of personal branding on a fundamental level.
The structure of the course lessons is the following:
Identifying and finding your niche.
Self-marketing: blogging, writing books, and more.
Think like a business.
Job hunting.
Identifying and finding your niche
The first section explains why it’s essential to identify who we are, choose our specialisation, and stick to our career path instead of jumping between technologies. The author provides an excellent example with doctors — we’ll go to the dentist to care for our teeth instead of a generalist. The same applies to IT as well.
Another important thing is to choose a niche in an industry where we’re outstanding and enjoy it. It can close some doors but also open up more opportunities.
Self-marketing
In this section, the author emphasises the importance of marketing yourself. By learning to market ourselves, we can stand out, earn a higher income, and gain more opportunities. There are many ways to do that, such as blogging, podcasting, making videos, and public speaking at events and conferences.
The course highlights blogging and books as the most effective self-marketing tools for developers:
Blogs are an easy way to start and can be very beneficial if used effectively. Books can take more work, but are a great way to extend the work already done on a blog in a more concrete way.
A few lessons in the course focused on the benefits of blogging and how to do so, including what to blog about, why and how to write a book, where to publish, and so on.
Think like a business
That’s the most eye-opening section. I never thought about myself or what I was doing as a business. Instead, the author recommends:
Begin by thinking like a business or as someone who is running their own business. Getting that attitude will change our way of seeing and thinking about our careers and eventually increase our productivity.
This section has some good advice on thinking like a business and practical suggestions for action. While self-marketing is about presenting your skills, adopting a business mindset ensures you’re strategic in growing and marketing yourself.
Job hunting
I thought the final section would not be relevant at this stage of my life, but it has many great tips, even if you are not on the hunt. It offers tips for job applications, like maintaining an up-to-date LinkedIn profile and showcasing strengths on GitHub.
What I have done already
I used that course as a practical guide and started implementing it step by step. So, what I did:
Analysed who I am and what my niche is.
Started a blog (hello here!) to improve my writing and communication skills, market myself and, honestly, have a place where I can record and share what I’m dealing with in my day-to-day life, reviews on books or articles, etc. If it’s not documented, it’s easy to forget — as if it never happened.
I updated my LinkedIn profile, but more changes should be made. [2]
Began building an online presence by engaging on LinkedIn almost daily (not once a month(s) as before) and interacting with people.
I revised my GitHub profile. Though it is currently empty due to private repositories, I plan to add public projects soon.
What’s next?
I will create a personal development plan (PDP) covering branding and professional areas, schedule action items and follow the plan. Divide and conquer, right? Once the plan is designed, I’ll share it here. Stay tuned!
Then, based on the PDP, I will create a publishing schedule for my blog posts and start working on a GitHub project to showcase my skills. Both platforms are blank canvases right now.
Looks like a solid plan, right? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
Resources
Build a Developer Brand – the Educative course introducing key concepts of personal branding for developers.
20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in 2024 – tips for optimising LinkedIn profile.