“Everyone Starts Out Dependent”: David Roberts on Building a Career in Tech

*This story is a part of Hacker Noon's **How to get a job in tech *initiative. The series is intended for tech professionals in any field to share their experience of building a career in tech and help bust the common myths beginner techies are facing.

If you too would like to share your experience, you can do so here.

What is your current position?

Head of Developer Relations

How long have you been working in tech?

22 Years

What is your educational background? (It’s perfectly okay if you don’t have a formal one)

University Degree

Have you ever had a mentor? If yes, we’d like to know more about it.

No

What was the best piece of advice you got over the course of your career?

Dependant, Independent, Interdependent. Everyone starts out dependent. You need others to help you do things. You eventually become independent and can function in your role without the need for outside assistance. This is where most people stop. There is another layer. To let people in, to play to your strengths, and allow others to do the same and become interdependent is how great teams are built.

How relevant was self-learning to where you are today?

It is everything. Knowledge given by others is not real knowledge because you didn’t have to suffer to attain it. Is it valuable, yes, but you don’t really understand something until you go through it yourself.

Knowing what you do now, where do you think one should start learning if they want to work in your position one day?

Start a side project and see it through to completion. Ideally to the point of making money, even if it’s just $1. You’ll learn more from that experience than anything you will learn at work. Most developers never finish anything. If you are one of the ones that do, you are in a very small group of people who are destined for success.

What is the work-related achievement you’re the most proud of?

I have hired hundreds of software developers and every single one has been hired on the basis of being a decent human being first and their technical ability second. This has never failed me and I went on to help build a brand well known for having a great culture.

What do you think is the biggest myth about starting a career in tech?

Programming is hard. I believe nothing in this life is that hard, though as things are often vast (programming is a huge subject) they can appear to be difficult and daunting. The truth is you just haven’t broken the subject down into small enough chunks. Break it down into bitesize chunks and it will appear very differently.

On a less serious note: What do you listen to while working?

A mixture between Moby - Wait for Me and my wife telling the kids off!

Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us more about your career path. Any words of wisdom for aspiring techies?

To quote Gary Vaynerchuk: “Stop focussing on dumb sh*t“ and get to work!

I believe:

• Anyone can become a great programmer
• The best developers rarely get the job