The continuous learning process

I think that software development is an amazing industry to be involved in.

I see my university studies as having been just the start of the learning required to be a successful software developer. It gave me a background to the way software can be developed, and an appreciation for how operating systems, networks and relational databases function.

Back in the 90s software engineering was taught with a significant focus on the "Waterfall Model", but in this day and age of unit testing, continuous integration, iterative development and frequent releases I'd be reluctant to be involved in any project that even mentioned "Waterfall".

The power and availability of IDEs and related build tools have come a long way too. Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA with their various plugins and integrated updates are amazing, particularly compared with using Notepad or UltraEdit and a Makefile.

On the social side, blogs and Twitter have opened the world up so that almost any Joe Bloggs can learn about the thoughts of respected leaders and upcoming pioneers in the field, and contribute to discussions.