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How to Support Early-Career Developers

Rizèl Scarlett on December 27, 2021

Because tech changed my life financially, I've invested time into helping people like me join the tech industry. For example: I teach women of c...
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Atharva Shirdhankar

All the points written here I can relate to them. Nice and relatable article 👍

I have gone for interview for Internship once.
During interview I got to know that the complete website maintenance work and feature adding was to be done by me as an intern😔 . And to be honest I don't have that much experience in maintaining production level application. But yes eagerly want to learn those stuff and told that point to recruiter . The recruiter told from day 1 you have to do it from your own. No one is going to teach you .
It was named as Internship but the work load was like Job and pay was like Internship($80/per month).

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𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️

Yep. Society needs to stop accepting worker exploitation disguised as "gaining experience".

If you're expected to bring all the skills you need, then that's a job and should be paid like one.

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Rizèl Scarlett

Agreed

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Rizèl Scarlett

Wow, you are worth more! And as a intern to receive no mentorship? Wow. I hope that you've received better opportunities since.

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Atharva Shirdhankar

Yep I have gone for a Internship thinking that I will learn new things from seniors and get mentorship but it was actually a job in the name of Internship 😔 .

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Valeria

I'm convinced that developers with ego aren't that senior after all. If one needs to constantly prove its worth by diminishing less experienced developers - it's a good indicator that they don't belong in the leading roles yet.
I'm shamefully unaware of bullying in the workplaces as I haven't been exposed to it for quite some time. But I'm with you. Let me know how I can help on your quest

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Rizèl Scarlett

I never thought of this, but that's a good point. Having an ego may be a sign of overcompensating!

Thank you so much!

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Andy Haskell

Excellent post, and a must-read for anyone doing any kind of leadership in tech! Building a healthy and supportive culture makes all the difference for teams and communities, early-career and all experience levels! I know my own career grew a ton from having supportive teammates, and from being part of supportive communities like the Gophers and #CodeNewbie

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Rizèl Scarlett

Thanks Andy!!

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scottshipp

I saw that same HBO tweet and just had a sinking feeling inside. Our industry has always struggled with toxic cultures, especially mentoring and teaching. I can’t count the number of conversations I have had with programmers where their attitude is, “you either get it or you don’t.” I push back and challenge them to learn how to mentor.

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Rizèl Scarlett

Yess, I love that you push back and challenge them to learn how to mentor.

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William Cairns

Brilliant write up. I believe the most important thing is giving the beginner developers meaningful work

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Rizèl Scarlett

Thank you!!! And that's a great point. If a developer doesn't feel like they're making an impact, it can feel discouraging.