Many apprentices in this craft are inexperienced and have little knowledge of what’s next in store for them or how to prepare for what’s to come. Luckily, most apprentices, are not the first person to walk down the same path, and there are many people who are experienced and knowledgeable who could provide help and guidance when needed. This apprenticeship pattern is about finding these people and having them mentor you in your journey to becoming a master craftsman.

Mentors can be quite hard to find. It may be easy to locate authors of books on the craft, accomplished conference speakers, committers on popular open-source projects, and developers of successful websites. However, it is difficult to convince them to mentor you. They may not be interested, or they feel intimidated by the request. One should expect rejection as a risk. However, the risk of being rejected by a mentor is fairly low, while the payoff is massive. The key when searching for mentors is to be tenacious and appreciative.

One thing to keep in mind when searching for mentors is that it’s important to understand that mentors are also going through their own journeys towards becoming master craftsmen and that no one person knows everything. It’s tempting to want your mentor to be a master because of their vast and deep knowledge of the craft. However, such temptations should always be resisted. You shouldn’t dismiss mentors by over-focusing on their inevitable weaknesses or blind spots, these mentors still have a lot to offer.

Although this apprenticeship pattern discusses a simple concept, it is extremely important. Finding people to guide you in your journey is invaluable. Mentors can help you make the right decisions for you, they can teach you new techniques, they can give you tips about the craft, and they can give insight into what you can expect. Every apprentice should actively look for mentors and learn as much as they can from them. By the same token, it’s important to realize that just as you are looking for mentorship from people ahead of you, there are also people who are behind you who seek mentorship from you. Being able to pass on your knowledge and experience is one of the ways where an apprentice can begin to transition into a journeyman.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern talks about how software developers should jump into the deep end. Many developers take small, safe steps in their career, and this sometimes leaves them unsatisfied. This dissatisfaction could leave developers feeling like they are in a rut, and not just a plateau. When someone is on a plateau, they are consolidating their skills through hard practice in order to reach the next level. However, when a software developer is in a rut, their bland competence eventually decays into mediocrity. To avoid being in a rut or staying in one, a software developer needs to grow their skills, confidence, and portfolio. They need to take on more responsibility, do bigger projects, tackle more challenging tasks, work in larger teams, or try new places.

This apprenticeship pattern discusses how developers should do just that, they should jump right into the deep end. What software developers should not do is sit around and wait until they are ready, that’s a recipe for not doing anything. Instead, when software developers are faced with a challenging role or position, they should grasp it with both hands. This is because growth only happens by doing things that push you out of your comfort zone. If you only do what you are comfortable with, then you are not pushing yourself hard enough.

Of course, doing something like this comes with great risk. If bite off more than you could chew, then things could backfire. This apprenticeship pattern specifically mentions that jumping into the deep end does not mean lying about your qualifications to take a job that you can’t do or doing tasks without adequate preparation. Instead, it means taking on the promotions or the foreign assignments that you were offered. The key is that when taking on a new opportunity, you should assess the risk and difficulty to make sure that your head is above water.

Personally, I think this pattern is something that all apprentices are going to need. Everybody in our craft needs growth to stay on top, and growth doesn’t come without trying new and challenging things. It’s important to take that leap forward if you feel like you’re in a rut. However, when considering new opportunities, it is vital to evaluate the risk. If you find yourself with your head underwater then that means you took on too much risk and you’re drowning. To offset some of the risks, it would be wise to find mentors and kindred spirits who would give you advice and help when needed. It would also be wise to create feedback loops.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern talks about how software developers should stay in the trenches. As software developers gain experience, they tend to gain a reputation for being exceptional at delivering software. Many organizations tend to reward with promotions in the hierarchy. However, such promotions might end up leading apprentices away from their craft. This pattern elaborates how apprentices should not confuse promotions into management with success. Being promoted might seem like a good sign that you are on the right path, however, one should understand that they will not remain a “technical” manager for long.  A craftsman who strays from their craft will have their mastery over it fade. The more time you spend not programming, the further away you are moving from being a journeyman.

If an apprentice wants to remain in the craft, then they need to draw their career map accordingly. For example, one could try to discuss with their employer the possibility of finding different mechanisms which they may find rewarding. This could come in the form of higher compensation, or it could come in the form of nontraditional technical leadership roles such as internal consultancy. In the case where the employer is inflexible, then perhaps it might be best to look at other opportunities elsewhere. This way you will remain in the craft and prevent yourself from being promoted away from it.

I personally think that this apprenticeship pattern is useful for people with a specific set of values. It is useful for anyone who values their passion for staying in software development and wants to stay active in the craft. If you are someone who loves software development and want to continue However, some people might value things like status, compensation, and greater responsibility more than remaining active in the craft, and therefore, going into management might be the right move for them. Since different values can lead to different career paths, it is important for software developers to constantly reevaluate their career map to see whether the path that they chose is aligned with their values and circumstances or if they need to consider a different path.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern talks about how software developers should learn about how they fail. It specifically discusses how apprentices should seek to identify the ways in which they tend to fail and attempt to resolve those that they think are worth fixing. It should be noted that this apprenticeship pattern is not about dwelling on past mistakes nor is about seeking perfection. Rather, the goal is to get a better understanding of yourself and your behaviors, habits, patterns, and conditions that lead you down the path of failure. With the knowledge gained of yourself, you will have an awareness of your boundaries and limitations. This awareness could also help you make conscious decisions about your actions, goals, and career as well as temper the tendency towards idealism.

By becoming conscious of the things that lead you to failure, you permit yourself the choice between working to fix them or cutting your losses. It is important to accept that there will some things that you are either not good at or simply require you to invest too much time and effort to make a small improvement. This will feed into your accurate self-assessment, but it also allows you to set realistic limitations on your goals. It is impossible to be good at everything, and accepting your limitations is important because it forces you to consciously acknowledge distractions and focus on your goals.

I personally think that learning how you fail is an incredibly valuable skill to gain. Failure is inevitable, and everybody at some point or another is going to experience it. If somebody does not experience failure, then that means they either have not pushed their abilities to their limits or they have learned a way to overlook their mistakes. Learning to recognize your failures, what led you to fail, as well as what you can learn from your mistakes is all vital to growth. It also helps software developer apprentices like myself have the ability to make better career decisions when drawing career maps for ourselves because learning how we fail allows us to be aware of our limitations and boundaries.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern discusses how software developers should read classic books regarding the craft of software development. Being an apprentice means that you are inexperienced and are still learning what means to be a successful software developer. You should expose your ignorance and ask about any concepts that seem unknown to you, and then try to find the books where these concepts came from. An apprentice should have a list of these books on their reading list.

However, you cannot read every book. There is just way too many and there is too little time. So instead of reading every book, you should invest your time reading the good books. The good books are ones that are useful regardless of time. If you find yourself asking if a book is outdated, then you are reading the wrong type of book. Good books hold timeless information and concepts. Being able to determine which book is good and which book is not a skill that you will be able to pick over time. By reading constantly and reflecting on your work, you will be able to distinguish the “long lived” books.

While reading the good books is certainly beneficial, there is such a thing as taking things too far. If you focus too much on the classics, you might end up abandoning or forgetting pragmatic knowledge and information. This is the knowledge and information that enables software developers to improve on their day to day craftsmanship. Therefore, it is important to strike a balance in your reading list between the classic “long lived” books with modern, pragmatic books.

I personally think reading the classics is one of the most important things that an apprentice can do. An apprentice’s job is to learn as many skills, techniques, and concepts as they can about their trade. As apprentices, our inexperience and ignorance means that we still lack core concepts and skills. Reading classic books could help us attain such concepts and skills. It is from these classic books that we can expand our list of concrete skills and build a foundation for our craft.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern discusses how software developers need to chart their own paths. It talks about how a software developer’s career is their responsibility, and they must take an active role in shaping it. The pattern notes that it’s not up to your employer, your career counselor, or your professors to decide what the next step is for you career. You should also not let company culture or expectations prevent you from achieving your goals. Only you can decide what is the right step and what is not.

To make progress in your career as a software developer, first you need to identify an ambitious but logical next step. Then once you have identified your next step, you need to come with up with smaller intermediate steps that will help you reach that next step. The pattern really emphasizes breaking things down. This is because the pattern notes that difference between doing things in a daydream and doing things in reality is the willingness to take that very important first step. The pattern recognizes that this could be a terrifying thing to do, and so breaking your goal into small bite sized, realistic, and achievable steps would help make taking this first step less daunting.

The pattern also highlights that there is no such thing as a single path or a perfect path to take. Everybody’s career map is different because everybody has different circumstances and values. Your own career path should be based on your own circumstances and values. You should be continuously reassessing your career map as your values and circumstances change. Sometimes this results in your career map aligning with those around you and sometimes it does not, and you must chart a new path.

I think this apprenticeship pattern can be summarized into three simple steps. First, search for and pick a logical but ambitious goal that advances you in your career, break down those goals into small and achievable tasks so you can turn it into reality, and finally make sure that you’re following your own path that’s based on your own values and circumstances. By following these steps, you will have a much easier time analyzing and identifying the next destinations on your career map as well as being able to do what’s necessary to turn your goals into reality.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern discusses how software developers should prioritize placing their desire to give useful products to customers over their desire to create novel and fantastic code. Given the choice between using a simpler, proven solution and taking the opportunity to create something innovative and artistic, software developers should always choose the latter. This is because if software developers are to be considered craftsmen, then they need to focus on the craft. If a software developer loses their job because they keep creating beautiful code that customers simply do not find useful, then they have left the craft. This does not mean that the software products developed can not be beautiful, they can be, but they also must be useful and provide value to the customer. This apprenticeship pattern is about how software developers should develop the ability to sacrifice beatify for utility when it is necessary.

However, this apprenticeship pattern is not only about sacrificing art for craft, but it also encompasses the idea that the craft should always maintain a certain level of quality. Every piece of software produced should meet a set of standards. Being able to hold on to these standards will ultimately help develop an understanding that beauty and utility are not opposites, but interdependent. The more important a piece of software is, the more important that the software be of high quality. To achieve quality work, software developers must constantly make tradeoffs between beauty and utility. However, the tradeoffs we make might not always be the right ones, and so learning how properly refactor and repair code is essential to fixing our mistakes and correcting the balance that is desired.

I think this is an important apprenticeship pattern to learn because every software developer needs to have the skill of being able to strike a balance between beauty and utility in their code if they wish to be craftsmen in the craft of software development. I personally never gave much thought about striking a balance when writing code before reading this pattern. However, from now on I will start reconsidering how I should prioritize my desires when writing code to try and strike the right balance between usefulness and art.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Fadi Akram by Fadi Akram and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.