How do you become the most versatile engineer you can be?

“We should clone you!”

Over the past decade, I had two bosses, and both suggested we perform this most likely illegal procedure during my full-time employment.

When you hear something like this, you should feel good. But you should also be aware of what it means.

It means you were a good investment. The price they pay for you and what you give in return is more than they expected or would have paid for.

You know those job ads where people look for entire IT departments?

Let’s say you put a price tag on that. That price will likely be very high since which Senior Software Engineer does Docker and Kubernetes, who’s also good in communication and can manage a community, and sometimes sneak into a client’s On-demand instances and do some system upgrade on a random Linux distro?

It’s much better if someone does this out of fun and curiosity. And in the eyes of their bosses, they should be cloned – I’m pretty sure that’s still illegal.

So, how do you become the most versatile engineer you’d wanted to clone?

By building skills that make you versatile, no matter position, language, geographic location, or "flavor of the month" technology.

Learn skills that make you versatile.

Here’s my list.

Build Apps From 0

Understanding how things work is one of the best ways to turn yourself into a better engineer or into a better anything. Do you want to build muscle? Great, learn each muscle’s function and figure out the best exercise for them.

For software engineers, that’s learning how to build software from the bottom up—beginning with database design, building custom features, interacting with 3rd-party APIs, testing, and launching your app somewhere.

You can start small. My idea is not to build the next Shopify but to get a taste of how the apps we use day-to-day work.

Sharing your progress along the road is something called building in public, which can connect you with like-minded engineers who also choose to build something.

You make new connections, get inspired, and inspire other engineers. It’s a three-fold win.

Marketing

Three years ago, when someone told me about marketing, I imagined a thick book by 3 Ph.D. authors with Marketing written on the cover.

While it is a science in itself, and I don’t want to simplify it overly, the same way you built that first app from 0, here, too, you can start small.

This also builds upon the previous skill: building apps from 0. Once you can do this, someone may want to make an app or part of it.

Here are a couple of ways to get a taste of how marketing feels like:

Building an Audience

Write something related to your field and make people read it.

You’ll immediately face the problem of copywriting: how to write so that people will keep reading and engaging with your stuff. It is a vital part of marketing, and honestly, if you just spend time working on this skill, you’ll be in a much better position regarding the next item on my list.

Selling Services

If you feel adventurous and have the extra time, try selling your services. You can start on websites like Upwork. It gets a bad rap because of the ton of bot accounts and lowballer offers, but once you post an ad there and realize who all these people are to send you proposals, it’ll give you a 10x boost in your confidence.

Before sending a proposal or connecting with people, whether it’s Upwork or LinkedIn, make sure you do two things:

What it is that you do

I know you’re super versatile and do a little bit of mobile, dabbled with IoT, Web3 and now you’re a Golang enthusiast but think of it like this: what’s the thing, when someone wakes me up in the middle of the night, you can make money with. Search for those jobs.

Who do you want to do it for?

Searching for the right leads will save you time both ways: you don’t have to deal with people who don’t understand why you reached out to them. You write only to the people who actually need your services. If you know 1), this is much, much easier to do.

Writing

Writing will help you:

• make people know you for what you do best

• earn extra side income simply by writing about what you love doing

• build credibility over the years that keeps compounding

• one of the most versatile skills for making you versatile

There’s a simple way to get better at writing:

Write.

Short form on your favorite platforms where people from your industry gather. Long form for long-term gains and credibility.

Two things that will further help you write your first anything:

• nobody cares in the beginning; write anything you want

• Do your best. Not

  Gergely Orosz
  ’s or
  Louie Bacaj
  ’s best, but your personal best. Although, reading and imitating others is welcome and is a great way to start.

Networking

I don’t know what networking events look like because I’ve never been to one; luckily, you don’t have to change your current position to start networking. But please get up and take a quick walk if you’ve been sitting too long.

Again, look up your favorite networks and engage in discussions.

Be patient, thoughtful, and friendly.

We all come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. Intention can be good, but sometimes, it might be lost in translation. Make and take arguments in good faith. Differences in opinion move things further, but if you disagree, explain why so we can all learn.

If you learn to communicate well in writing, it will have multiple returns in your professional life. You’ll write better emails, issue descriptions, slack messages, blog posts, proposals, and copy.

Online networking forces you to go out in the open, accept you have no control over how you will bump into it, and use your writing to get the most out of it.

Social Media

Social Media is a great supplement to raise awareness about your writing, but it should not be used to indicate how good of an engineer you are.

Places like X are built to surface things that capture attention. As a result, the content that surfaces might not be professionally the best but the one that captures the most attention.

What other ways are there to make yourself more versatile? Is there anything you’re actively working on from these things? Please:

📰 Weekly shoutout

1. Real talk on goal-setting from

   Louie Bacaj
   in M&Ms: The One Thing for Goals. Goals are plenty. Your inner motivation? Probably only a couple. Find them!

2. It’s that time of the year when new projects start and get assigned.

   John Crickett
   helps you with that in Smart Project Selection Matters.

3. I’m still new to

   Fran Soto
   ’s writing, but it’s some honest, hands-on advice. Check out 😲 How to write great feedback in 360 reviews (every year)

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