Introduction
In this issue of Behind the Dev, we're taking a look at Steve McDougall and his life as a developer.
Steve is an experienced Laravel developer and recently started writing for Laravel News! He has a blog (which I would definitely recommend checking out) that is full of useful guides and tutorials. He also has a YouTube channel that is packed with useful videos from his coding live streams.
If you don't already follow him on Twitter, make sure to check out his profile at: @JustSteveKing!
Behind the Dev
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hey I'm Steve McDougall, a Software Engineer living in South Wales. I am a huge fan of PHP and Laravel, and like to focus on quality standards and architecture. I have a wife and 6 kids, and when I am not working or writing for Laravel News I am usually spending much needed time with my family. I was late to the development world and didn't come from a transitional route, I was in my early 20s by the time I realised what I wanted to do with my life. I have no degree and no formal training, most of my learning was self taught until the PHP community really started to grow online.
How did you first get into web development?
I first got into web development back in 2011, I was working as a Linux System Administrator and used to travel from home to the office every day carrying a USB stick with mp3s on it - this was before spotify or iTunes or even the "cloud". One day I forgot to pick it up because I was rushing, when I got to the office and realised that I had no music to listen to for the day - I was so frustrated and annoyed that I vowed it would never happen again. So I taught myself PHP, with some help from my Senior System Administrator who was a C developer too. I built a web application that would let me upload mp3s, build playlists, and listen to my music no matter where I was - by hosting it on a server of mine in the companies data center. It was at this point that I realised that I loved the problem solving aspect of being a developer more than being a Linux System Admin.
As a developer, what’s your typical day like?
I usually start my day anywhere between 07:30 and 08:00 as I like to start early once the kids have left for school. I start by opening slack and seeing what is going on - is there anything my team needs from me straight away. If there is nothing I jump into email and GitHub, checking to see what meetings I have and what communications are needed. Going through GitHub notifications has become part of my schedule, I check it multiple times a day, making sure that my PRs are going through and if there is any feedback or changes requested. By 09:00 I am into the swing of things and join the company stand up where we discuss our plans for the day. Then it is straight into our project management tool, or picking up a task that I might have not finished the day before.I then spend the rest of the day working through tasks and PRs - jumping on pair programming sessions to help the other engineers in our team as and when they need me. I typically finish my working day at around 15:30 as I work through my lunch break and finish early. This allows me the most flexibility to spend time with my kids as soon as they get back from school.
Are there any tools that you use on a daily basis?
I use a mixture of tools daily, from PHPStorm to GitHub and Warp. Warp is where I spend a lot of my time when not writing code, it is a modern terminal application where I run most of my tests from, and run things like PHP CS Fixer and other tools. I am currently using the Early Access Preview of PHPStorm, with the new UI, and I have been a lot more productive since switching - it is great to see how simple changes can help! I have recently started using GitKraken to help with version control, because at work we rebase instead of merging - and they can get quite complicated from the command line sometimes - so far it has been an absolute life saver.
Is there anything in particular related to development that you enjoy working on the most?
It is kind of related, but the part I enjoy the most is actually writing tutorials. I love helping others, and spend quite a bit of my spare time sharing knowledge where I can. I used to stream on a regular basis until life got a little too busy, and it was a way I could give back to the community that has helped me the most. When I was learning to be a developer, seniors weren't very helpful and there wasn't a big online community that you could lean on to help upskill yourself. So I spend a lot of my spare time trying to help others in the way I wish I had help.
If you could go back in time and give younger Steve some advice when you were first starting in development, what would it be?
Believe in yourself more, and don't worry about mistakes. The biggest problem with being a new developer for me was the self doubt and anxiety around making mistakes. It took a while to understand that it is ok to make mistakes, it was how you reacted and recovered from them that was important. Self doubt is massive in newer developers, they look at the community of amazing developers who are always killing it and never seem to get it wrong. This is one of the reasons when I stream, I stream a raw unplanned approach where mistakes happen and it is ok - a way to combat this is to show newer developers that making mistakes is normal and ok.
Do you have any hobbies outside of web development?
I recently got a VR headset, where I like to play games. I spend spare time now playing games like Gun Raiders and Contractors, and found it is a great way to wind down after a day at work. On a weekend when I have more spare time I like to cook and BBQ and am always experimenting with new ideas in the kitchen. So far most of my culinary experiments have been a success - but if they do fail, there is always Just Eat right?
I see that you have a lot of PHP elephant plushies! How many do you have?
I have quite a few plushies so far, and am still collecting! I currently have 13 Elephpants with 1 more on the way {a Laravel one}, 1 GitHub Octocat, 2 Go Gopher (I used to have 4 but my kids liked the look of them), a Digital Ocean Sammy the Shark, and a Ventrasaur which I swapped a PHP Yorkshire elephpant for with a nice guy in Australia.