Hey, this is Overpass Insights! My name is Eric and I... make apps!
Now today, I want to talk about why we need to sharpen our development skills in 2020.
Alright, so, it has been a while since I've done an Overpass Insights video.
In fact, I think in the last couple of weeks aside from the live stream which we do
every Friday night, I've only done the Insights video maybe -
maybe once in the last three weeks. Which is not on purpose, right? It's not because
I'm starting to burn out or I'm running out of things to say i'm
constantly sketching out things oh this would make a good video topic
but i've just been full out working i've been working on a lot of client projects
that we have i have a contract going on at the moment
that i'm still working on i've got you know a lot of other
opportunities that are coming in and it's also just getting my skills up
right there's been a lot of stuff going on
because to be honest with you i'm a little bit
nervous about the future right it's kind of this thing with all that's going on
with the pandemic or like four months in or something like
we're over four months in and we're starting it seems like we're in the eye
of the hurricane where things still seem kind of normal to me and not to be
pessimistic about it but i know a few people uh friends of mine who
came up furlough and into redundancy so they had their
their job as software developers and they came off of furlough and
straight into redundancy and it kind of feels like we're at this
point where the government has been propping everything up up until now and
now we're going to start to see all these businesses fail which we've been
seeing in the news every single day and that's
the kind of thing that i notice right um now everybody i mean everybody
knows that in a times of recession lots of businesses flourish
lots of businesses a startup in a recession or a depression
so there's all that kind of stuff that happens but it doesn't mean it's going
to be easy it's kind of one of the things that i've
been thinking about right i'm nervous about being a software
developer and maybe my skills aren't up to
up to scratch so a lot so if i'm not working on the stuff that i should be
working on and a lot of these projects i'm working
on because i'm a developer who's flaked on me
and just disappeared or just couldn't get it done so it's like down to me in
the middle of the night to get these kind of things done which is part of
the responsibility you take on when you take on a client project it's like this
is going to get done regardless even if it's me in the middle of the
night working on this thing with lack of sleep right it's just kind of thing but
it also helps you get keep your skills up to scratch right because
you get you know sharper honed all that kind of stuff because you know it could
start to wane after a little while and ultimately
that's good i talked about this before but a lot of
times in times of recession which i've noticed over my life it's the
middle managers and the ones who have moved up from the skills that they had
that are the first to go so i talked about a lot of times working with
project managers or or middle managers and i'll say oh you used to be a
developer do you think you could help out with this sql query here
and they'll be like i could but you see the thing is eric i'm now a project
manager and if i were to go back and into the code that would be a step back
for me so i don't want to do that and i'm like
yep a step back it's a step into something different
you went to from somebody who could do something who could produce something
into somebody who could do whatever you can manage people and if there's nobody
to manage you know what do you need so one of the
things that i always i'm always adver i always have a
lot of admiration for you've heard me talk about on this channel a lot
is those who can do software developers we're different than other people
because we create something out of nothing we can
sit down at a plain blank ide and build an application we can build
something to put on the app store to sell we could build something that we
could sell to a client we could build a uh we could build something for a client
as a con contractor but we're the ones who sit
there and pour through the code work through the bugs build everything
out and it's the it's the people who are the the middle
tier that end up going and it is very i'm
sure it is very attractive to move from software
developer into a more cush position and that's kind of
what i've done a bit with overpass well i talked about it before i don't do
a whole lot of code anymore but over the last few months i have
right i am looking i am scared of what's coming i don't
think i was scared it's not the term but i know it's going to be
there's going to be well first of all i know this from experience with overpass
there is a lot more opportunity out there there's a lot more companies who
are looking for digital products that are looking they're they're brick
and mortar stuff and they've been dragging their feet before but now they
know how serious it is and they start to look for developers
but there's also a lot more competition out there because there's a lot more
developers out there looking for work so if you are somebody who hasn't
started yet and you're thinking about doing if you're
still somebody who's been trying to decide between java or kotlin
and you spent longer than a day making that decision you need to get into that
thing and start building something even if it's your side project to start
you know getting those skills up to scratch start learning what you need to
learn because it's only by doing i mean
picking up a book and reading it i i've learned so much for with like i
it's usually where i start was it a tutorial
or a book but it's the doing is the actual
sitting there and slogging through it that that's what what actually builds up
those skills and that's what allows you to do
what you need to do so yeah i'm going to continue doing the channel
just because i haven't been doing the insights for a while doesn't mean that
i've given up on it this is my most favorite thing to do is to talk to you
guys right it's hands down but i've just been so busy
with other things and it's i just want to let you guys
know that i haven't forgotten about this i am not um i'm not burning out in any
way shape or form but it's just been busy and this you
know this is the time this is the time we're going to be
tested this is going to time where the lesser developers
are going to fall off and go do something else and only those with the
most skills not only the most skills in actual doing the code but being able to
demonstrate that they know the codes which means marketing
themselves and putting themselves out there this is the time that they're
going to survive and the others aren't and i don't mean
to be pessimistic about it because i'm usually very very optimistic about it
there's loads of opportunities out there but we just have to we have to raise our
game and meet myself included which is what
i'm doing so anyway let me know if you guys disagree
let me know if you were in a position where
um you've been made redundant or you're finding it if you're finding
more easier to find a position or a contract or a client work
or you're finding it more difficult right because for me
getting client work is all of a sudden it's just been
it's gotten easier getting more clients in but getting the developers
is um in the developers and and the amount of time that needs to go into it
is is a bit more hard anyway that is it for today
my name is eric i make apps i hope you guys stay healthy and safe
and i'll talk to you guys again next time