I Wish I Knew This as a Junior Software Developer
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
The Secret Developer seems to think that they are “The perfect coder”. They are in a fortunate position where they are somewhat established in their career and can ignore some of the nonsensical advice they are given in the course of their work. So, how are software developers able to get to a position where their opinion is listened to by their peers?
“If I had a time machine I would go back to my younger self and talk about a few things. I would give them 5 top tips to be a better coder and a better member of the team.
Would everything have changed for the better if I did these 5 things? Perhaps not, but I think I would have been a better developer and perhaps not made as many costly mistakes.”
Get a Mentor
It’s common advice to get a mentor in the early years of your software development career.
“I could have prevented my software development career from plateauing. I might have got the advice that would make all of the difference in my work.
Part of getting a mentor is working to find out how they are different from you to learn from that. The stages should be simple:
- Find a mentor
- Find what they are doing
- Make a plan towards your ideal self
Of course, now I am the best developer AND the best mentor. If only I had time to take you on.”
Think long-term!
There is a working habit of short-term thinking within the software development community, and The Secret Developer thinks that this thinking needs to change at the level of the individual contributor.
“I think long-term thinking is essential in terms of your work and your career. You should think about the long term as your career is long.
Let me make this real for you. Imagine you have two job offers. You should employ long-term thinking in your decision for your career. Things to think about are balancing the size of opportunity in a small company with the possible prestige in a large company.
Most advice on the web is to take the small company role as later in your career you will want the stability of a big business. I’m different — I think you should weigh up the options and make the best decision for you. Just think in the long term and what you want to achieve.
Just remember it’s easier to hide your bad code in a big company. Don’t ask me how I know.”
Keep Listening, Keep Learning
It seems unusual that The Secret Developer thinks listening is important as their colleagues often say that The Secret Developer isn’t easy to work with as they feel they are always right. Let us see what they have to say.
“I learned what NOT to do from our FE junior today.
That seems like a joke but it isn’t. Whatever stage of your career, you should try to learn from those around you. Senior developers can learn from juniors, and vice-versa. There are opportunities everywhere, and it is important to look out for them wherever they arise.
Take them without fear!
That’s easy for me to say since my work and attitude are perfect.”
It Gets Better, Not Easier
Something about the attitude. Something The Secret Developer needs to work on certainly so let us see how they navigate through their career.
“Remember at the beginning of your coding journey? Everything seemed difficult and there were so few places to turn! StackOverflow became a scary place, and a first job seemed so far when you’ve never even created a PR.
The world of development gets more interesting as you progress. You move into more difficult problems, based on your existing knowledge.
Your rate of progression actually declines as you progress in your career. That might lead some people to proclaim it gets easier. It doesn’t, since the complexity in terms of technology and people increases. Over time the standard problem-solving patterns work in more situations and the rewards increase. It just gets more fun.
More difficult == more fun”
Changing Jobs == $$
The Secret Developer has changed jobs many times. Let us look at why they have had this mercenary career, and what we can learn from it.
“This one might not be suitable for everyone. I’d say one thing though. When you move to a new context you learn much more than is possible staying at the same job. You learn from the onboarding process. You learn from a set of colleagues. You learn from the different technologies in use.
If you want a promotion, it is probably easier to move to a different company than hope you’re going to be recognized in your current position. Yes, change is scary sometimes but also exciting!
Go Get That 25% + increase”
LeetCode Suckz
You might think that The Secret Developer would love LeetCode and celebrate their superiority in coding challenges.
“That’s not correct. I hate LeetCode as I think most developers do. I didn’t pay sufficient attention in CS101 so every time I want a new job I need to brush up on those skills.
Is there any real utility in remembering Floyd’s algorithm as you can easily look this up — a timed test is testing your recall of something that frankly isn’t that useful.
The answer is to suck it up and get it done. There is no particular reason other than you need to get a job and should suck it up and get it done.”
Haterz Gonna Hate
Instead of shaking it off The Secret Developer thinks it’s time to ignore those negative people in their life.
“For good or for bad, software developers can be a judgmental bunch. When they close your Stack Overflow account for asking too many questions, ignore them. When you are told that you are “too junior” to have an opinion, ignore it.
Just make sure that you continue to learn.
So then you’ll be able to make juniors suffer, too”
Conclusion
None of us have a time machine, Marty. None of us are getting any younger, Benjamin Button. However, there are people reading this who still have time to learn more and change the direction of their careers.
If you’ve taken some useful knowledge from this article, please do share it in the comments section.
“If you’ve some nonsensical complaints, keep them to yourself”