Pybites Podcast

#164 - Mastering Python Development: Overcoming Common Pitfalls and Building Success

• Julian Sequeira & Bob Belderbos

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Welcome back to the Pybites podcast! This week, we delve into six common pitfalls that Python developers face and offer insights on how to gain control and influence in your programming career.

Tune in for tips on networking, continuous learning, developing good habits, showcasing your work, bouncing back from failed interviews, and the importance of community.

Check out our PDM coaching
If you're more beginner, check out PDI first

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Rust:
- Exercises
- Bob's blog

Kids book tip:
- The Anxious Generation
 

Yep. And I think related to that is also not putting your work out there. So if your only way to learn new things is just passively reading about it, it's no surprise that you cannot really find a habit because it can be boring. Right. So if you put your work out there, you share your learning, you build stuff, then it becomes way more fun. And then I think going back to your point and the habit will be easier because you get in every day, and now you have to sub goal build XYZ. Right. And you're going to blog about it. Hello, and welcome to the PY Bytes podcast, where we talk about Python career and mindset. We're your hosts. I'm Julian Sequeira. And I am Bob Baldebos. If you're looking to improve your python, your career, and learn the mindset for success, this is the podcast for you. Let's get started. Hello and welcome back, everybody, to the Pibytes podcast. This is Bob elbows here with Julian Sakhaira. And this is episode 164. Welcome. What's up, man? It's good to see you. Is that a good intro? That was fantastic intro. Thank you. How long have you been away from recording? Maybe a month and a half since. Since Pittsburgh together? Yeah, maybe a month. Wow. Okay, so we're back. Yeah. Welcome, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. What do we have for today? Well, first we have some wins. So I started a rust blog. Well, I started learning rust and then blogging about it. Yeah. And we'll talk a bit more about it later on because it's kind of related to the topic, but, yeah, that's it. It's called pythonista learning rust because that's exactly it. It's just sharing my journey. Why rust? Well, everybody talks about it, and I wanted to learn a compiled language, and it's interesting, so it also makes me reflect more on how python does things. How compiled language does things. And it's a good journey so far. I like it, man. I love your updates on it. So very, very cool to see you learning a new language as well as Python. I think it's awesome, gives a lot of energy, and I think it also stems from the conference, right, where we got a bunch of inspiration, and I think that was the final notch to really all said, like, yeah, I should learn. I should learn it. And then, you see, I went to the rough talk. Just talk with people about it. That's. Yep, let's do it. Another reason my conference is so valuable. Very nice. Yep. What about you? Very good. I am celebrating that I just finished up my last day at Amazon, so. Aws, see you later. I am done on Saturday. That was my last official day on paper. I know I talked about this a couple of months ago, but there's that whole grace period they give you. And so the final day on paper was Saturday this past, uh, couple of days ago. And I celebrated in style. I was actually in Vietnam with one of my good mates who's going to be on the podcast soon, and we were there together, happened to celebrate. We were in the middle of Saigon having a cocktail, and the place that we were having the cocktail in used to be his mum's old house back in like the sixties or seventies or something, and it's now converted into a restaurant and everything, so it's a very special time. That's my win. Just celebrating that it's officially done. I'm out. It's piebytes full time and I'm very excited. Stego. Awesome. Finally, man, like, I was. I was waiting, I was in a desert and he finally joined me. So I also liked your install celebration. Like, some people just go to the local pub. No, you took an eight hour flight to. Went overseas and they got food poisoning that night. Of course. Of course. Well, thank you. But the last one I'll share, which is very special to both Bob and I that we want to share, is that we're super busy. Hi bytes is. Has been going nuts the past couple of weeks especially. We've had more people sign up than we've had, I think, ever busiest we've been. And we're at a point where we have to scale and have more coaches now. So we're actually got two calls scheduled over the coming weeks to bring in two more coaches to the team because everyone's inundated at max capacity. And, Bob, how many people are you coaching right now? Eight. Eight? Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah, I feel for you, man. No, but it's really cool. All levels building, all kinds of cool things people see. You see the light bulb moms where you spoke about it. It's amazing. It's busy, but it's very gratifying. Yeah. And it's a. It's a nice nod to the industry at the moment. While the industry is saying things are tough, these people are taking this plunge and they're diving into coaching so they can have the leg up over the next person in the jobs that they're applying for. So I'm very proud of the work they're doing and proud of the way we're working and able to support them. And it's just awesome. And obviously, to all of you listening, if you are on the fence, this is my plug to say, get into the program, because the, the results that everyone is getting is just incredible. And then seeing them land their jobs is just. It's like a drug. It's like a drug for me. So, I don't know about you, Bob. No, it's. It is addictive. Yeah. Uh, so how do people get in? Because first you have to get on a call. Right. Well, first you have to sacrifice a small goat. Um, no, I'm joking. No, just come and chat with us. There's so many ways to chat. There are links in the podcast description, uh, go to the website, fill in the form, everything. But at the end of the day, what we want you to do is have a chat with myself or Bob, where we can actually talk with you about whether it's appropriate, how it'll help you, you know, what you're going to get out of it, what it's going to look like for you specifically, because it is a bespoke program. It is unique to your situation, and that's where the value and what makes it so special, like nothing else that's out there. That's why it's not a freaking boot camp, because it is unique to you and that's why people love it and come out of it satisfied. So, yeah. Anyway, classroom building projects, individualized, customized. So hence we need the first talk. So if you're interested, link is in the description. Yeah. And that's. That's a fantastic segue into the six things we're going to mention in this episode. Right now, we're on these calls with people, and we get these messages from people wanting our support with coaching and so on. We identify so many common threads where there are gaps with people, and we want to identify those now and highlight those. So. Oh, I'm actually the first one. Do you want me to kick it off, Bob? Yeah, no matter who knows. Yeah. All right. So, number one, the first thing I spot as well with a lot of people as they come and chat with us is that they're not constantly networking. So a lot of people think networking is just for when you've lost your job, when you've been made redundant. Like me. Right, I was made redundant, but that's not when the networking started. The networking started 15, 2030 years ago. Right when I started working. It's something that you keep doing. You have to constantly do it regardless of your current job status. And I think that's the key point I want to drill home to people. Don't wait until it's too late. If you've only started networking when you've already say your job's been terminated, whatever it is. I wouldn't say it's never too late, but that's pretty late. You should be building that network at all times. So wherever you are right now, make sure you're putting that into your day. And that's it. Yep. Awesome. Secondly, continuous learning, so it's very dangerous to get comfortable. You can do everything in Python, so it's very easy to stick in Python, but it's good to explore, for example, the rust learning I'm doing right now. Nobody really asked me to do that, but it's self imposed and it's uncomfortable. Right. Python is very comforting for me after twelve years. Right. At rust, it's a whole different language. It's a compiled language, there's no garbage collector. You have the ownership and borrower, I think. And it's a whole new paradigm, so it's not always comfortable. The compiler is ruthless and you will have to work through a lot of errors. But that's also the challenging part. And yeah, the industry also is moving so fast, so there's AI, there's all these new frameworks coming out. So it's just a really good habit to constantly learn because you have to. It's also compounding. Right. So every new skill you can add to the tool box, that will add over time. And it's easy to get comfortable with a certain technology, especially python, but you have to keep looking at the greater picture and. Yeah, think outside of the box. Yep, perfect. And that's a great segue into the next one, which is that people just don't have good habits. I'm not talking about habits of eating junk food and smoking cigarettes and things like that. I'm talking about they just haven't built good habits in their lives with productivity, you know, so people want to do things like the continuous learning that you just mentioned, Bob, but they're like, when do I do it right? And we've talked about this so many times where people make time for the things that really don't move things forward for them professionally or towards their goals, such as, I managed to watch the entire Game of Thrones series in two weekends, right. But then they'll say, I don't have time to, you know, practice my python or learn this, or figure out this framework or troubleshoot this problem or investigate this. So one of the big tips here for me is figure out your habits, figure out where your time is going and carve in time and build good habits around your learning, around your self development, around your growth, around your career, around the networking, all those different things that you need to be doing to ensure that your career is healthy and that you're moving forward. So yeah, habits, that's the next one. Yep. And I think related to that is also not putting your work out there. So if your only way to learn new things is just passively reading about it, it's no surprise that you cannot really find a habit because it can be boring, right? So if you put your work out there, you share your learning, you build stuff, then it becomes way more fun. And then I think going back to your point, then the habit will be easier because you get in every day and now you have to sub goal of build XYZ and you're going to blog about it. So that's a great enforcer. And yeah, it's scary to put stuff out there, especially what do I know about rust? I'm a newbie, but I try to just write about it from a perspective. Like I'm just sharing my learning and I'm a beginner and just honest about it. But yeah, that aspect of putting work out there, it forces you to explain stuff better. All the habit forming around it, it forces you to build stuff, to have something to talk about. And people might find it interesting. So you can, over time, as your collection of articles or content grows, then it will help other people, people will find it. And it's a way of giving back as well. In just twelve weeks, Pywrites elevates you from Python coder to confident developer. Build real world applications, enhance your portfolio, earn a professional certification showcasing tangible skills and unlock career opportunities you might not even imagine right now. Apply now at Pibit Es PDM. Yep. And it's like we crafted these in order perfectly because it's a great throw in to the next one, which is about getting knocked back from a failed interview or just not getting a reply to a job application. So again, these tips are based around things we're seeing recently. These aren't lifetime, right? And right now, one of the big problems facing developers, technical people, whatever it is in the tech sector is the whole job market. It can be difficult. It is difficult, whatever, right. One of the mistakes people are making at the moment is assuming I've applied for one job, I got knocked back. That's the end of the world. I was not meant to be this. I was never going to get that job and so on. You need to be applying for many. You need to be giving yourself the biggest leg up that you can. So back to number four that Bob mentioned is not putting your work out there, having work out there, your blog, your GitHub, repo and everything. That's a great way of getting an edge over people in the interview process, in the application process. But if you still don't get through, that's okay, right? So the mistake people make is just giving up and saying, that's it, too hard. I'm just going to go do something else. No, if you really want it, keep trying. It's going to take time, it's going to take a lot of effort and it's going to be repetitive, but you need to keep doing it because the people who are persistent and consistent, they're the people who get the jobs, not the people who just try once and just miraculously get through the door. That doesn't happen. So just make sure, you know, if you are in the job hunt, you just keep going. Might be 100 interviews, might be 200. Just keep going and you will get it eventually. Yeah. And that's also the hardest at the start, right, when you don't have any track record yet. I was doing the pivot search, made an endpoint for our content pieces. I saw like 1500 content pieces and I'm like, where did that come from? Yeah, well, it has been seven years, right? So that's that compounding effect. Like, if you just keep going, you build up such a massive portfolio that it totally gives you an edge. Well, then number six is it's very hard to do it alone and scary and boring even. So, seek a community. Right? Find people that are having similar goals and interests and partner up. Right. So a beautiful example. Yesterday, Blaze and Jeff in PDM did a code clinic on Pytest and they had been going through the Brian Aachen Staple book testing with Pytest. I guess the Pytest resource definitely plug that. They were doing a demo and it was really well done, the pacing everything thing. And yeah, they had been rehearsing, practicing that, and they did that together. Right. So they partnered up. They have their weekly practice sessions and so it was just beautiful. And that all came from joining the same community, volunteering to do something, partnering up. They were at Pycon as well, so that, I guess would contribute to that as well. So a. Find a community, of course, for Python. Join ours, Pybytes Circle. So. And yeah, post there, say what you're doing and find an accountability partner for example, for Rust, I have Jim Hodap, right, who was on the podcast before, and yeah, I'm sharing my learning with him, and he's a big rust fan nerd. So that definitely apart from sharing it with you as well and some other people in PDM, that definitely keeps me motivated. Right? Yeah, I love it. And it's just a great way to find people, because so many people out there are not surrounded by developers, not surrounded by technical people who would understand the pain they're going through learning Python or whatever framework, you know. So when you're in this community, you can find those people, you can chat with them. You'll feel so much relief when other people say, oh, you're not crazy, you. That's exactly what the process is like. Or I found that just as difficult and got through it eventually. One of my favorite things at the moment is there's one of the guys in the community has been asking for support and feedback and ideas with regards to some interviews. He is coming up or meta, you know, and same with referrals and just different things. He's been asking for advice, and you've got the community jumping in going, yeah, here's what I know. Here's what I know. And then you've just got this collective body of information to come back as a resource. It's there forever. It's wonderful. It's really good. So that's our final point, and that's probably one of the most important because it helps you with all the others, you know, is to have a good community. You can put work out there. You can get support as you get knocked back from interviews. Help. People are there to help you with the habit building. They might jump on that same journey with you. Like Bob was just talking about, uh, everyone's always learning new things, and it's a great way to network. So that was a nice bow on it, Bob. I like. That's a crown. Crowded jewelry. Yeah, exactly. Cool. All right, nice. So six things, quickly. Do books. Let's do books. Are you reading? Do you want me to. Me. Okay, what am I reading? Let's wrap this up. I am reading this book, the anxious generation. I'm holding up to the camera, if you. It is a heavy book. Heavy to read, heavy to hold. So it is a book, long story short, where they talk about how the youth, the youth, the younger generation, they've gone through a sort of rewiring of the brain since social media, and always on Internet access, has been there for them through the form of a smartphone or a tablet. And it's exactly what I was looking for because I've been looking for the data to show that, hey, kids growing up with social media and screens, surely that's not great for them. But it was also new that they didn't have a long period of data to draw from, and now they do. And so because they have this data, they are able to start making educated decisions on what's happening and assumptions and so on. So I like it. Very scientific approach and some good insights so far, which we can talk about another day on like a bonus episode or something. Yeah. Because it's an important book right now with kids and. Yeah, yeah. And you and I having kids advisors in the social media. You've got kids, I've got kids. Screens rampant. And so this is very important for us to read as parents, so highly recommend it. Yeah. What about you, Bob? Yeah, mostly rust to supplement my learning. So the official guide online is great. And the O'Reilly one programming rust, I think it's called second edition. It's kind of the fluent python for Rust. So that's a good one. Okay. As you said, that whole thing. So if this is on YouTube, don't judge me. Um, get attacked by crap. No. A spider in this country. But I'm glad you're reading. Glad you're reading a rust book. That's good to keep that learning flowing. Yeah. But, uh, definitely practice. Like, there's a lot to take in. And, um, so, so if, if you're going to learn rust, one shout out. Uh, the rustlings exercises. Super cool. You can just do them in your ide or, or vim, whatever. And it has a watch, watchdog thing going. So when you edit an exercise, it will run the test. So there's a little exercises. And those were really good to get the fundamentals down. Okay, there. You have to put a link to that. Nice. All right, well, that's it. I'm good. I'm happy with that. How do you feel? You're good? They're pretty concise. Been talking for about 25 minutes. Yeah. Nice. Can't complain. It's better than what we normally do. Less tangents. Yeah, but, yeah. So, look, my final word and call to action, everyone is. Now is the time to be pushing. Right? It's, it's not. As the industry is kind of shaky, people are worried. There's a lot of fear. And one of the best ways to get through that is to educate yourself, to learn, to put yourself at the forefront and to not stagnate. And all the tips that we've given today. These are based on real conversations we're having with people and we're spotting the same trends and gaps. So we're not just pulling these out of, you know, where we're actually. This is data that we pulled from our conversations that we have every day with people. So conversations and also the occasional glance at social media. Right, where there's a lot of posting and. Yeah, it's so hard and this and that, right. And then it's almost like giving up control. And hopefully the six points we share today show that there's a lot you can actually control. Yep. Help you take that control back and build the confidence in the process. And obviously, I'm going to say it one more time. The coaching program with us, it's what gets people the greatest results we've seen. People were excited about at the conference, lots of interest in it, and that's continued to be the truth. You know, the reality after coming back from the conference is just more interest than ever. So get on it. We believe in this. Early programs, plural programs, sorry, programs. We go PDI for beginners, for advanced, and then PDI for veterans coming. It's pretty much here, isn't it here already? It is here, but there's just more exciting stuff that I can't. I can't wait to announce on this stuff later. So we can do a dedicated episode now. Yeah, exactly. All right, well, thank you for listening, everyone. I'm good, Bob. Anything else? No, just that we hope these tips are helpful and please take action. And when you do, then the community is there. Post what you have been up to and people are more than happy to read those updates and chime in. So. Perfect. Awesome. We'll see you in the community. Thanks, Bob. Yeah, thanks, everybody. Bye. We hope you enjoyed this episode. To hear more from us, go to Byebyte Friends, that is Pibit es friends and receive a free gift just for being a friend of the show. And to join our thriving community of python programmers, go to pibytes community. That's Pibit es forward slash community. We hope to see you there and catch you in the next episode.