DEV Community: mdhilwan

Giving a chance to the Junior Dev

mdhilwan — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 15:47:30 +0000

It’s hard being a Junior Dev

The industry has moved with such astounding speed that Junior Developers are not as useful as they used to be 10 years ago. I know of companies who specifically hire only Senior Developers, because the tech stack is so complex that training Juniors Developers to the point where they will be able to contribute to the project will take too much time that they rather spend it on doing actual work rather than training.

However

I have interviewed quite several people in the past years and I tend to be lenient to Junior Developers or Fresh Graduates. I tend to be lenient even to Senior Developers. If you do not possess certain technical skills or knowledge it is most certainly not a deal-breaker.

The reason being is because, I am a firm believer in the mantra:

"Skills can be taught. Attitude is forever."

Rock star developers, 10x engineers, ninja dev, whatever titles they are called with... it will not matter if their attitude is crap.

It is quite a turn off when you meet another Engineer, Tech Lead, CTO, KnowItAll who will be like:

“You don’t use AWS S3 to host your project? I am not even going to talk to you.”
🤦🏼‍♂️

Seriously? What's with the Diva attitude? Have we as a community come to that stage?

I mean sure... I understand that maybe your company have certain requirements about your project but AWS can certainly be taught. Best practices for writing commit messages can certainly be taught. How to handle merge conflict can certainly be taught.

But attitude. That is a deal-breaker. That is forever. If your cup is already full of yourself, how are you going to bond with the team?

I have reviewed tonnes of online portfolio and they range from simple Github pages to simple HTML, CSS, JS hosted on a popular hosting sites. I even received a zip file once. I have no problem with HostGator or GoDaddy. I think they are great tools. So are cloud solutions like AWS. That’s what it is. It’s a tool. If all you have is a hammer, everything will look like a nail.

Sure AWS S3 works great! Don't get me wrong. I love it as well. But it does not need to be the answer to everything.

Same with any Javascript framework. Every Javascript framework is great. React, Angular, Vue whatever. I don't deny they are all great. But it does not need to be the answer to everything.

We should not be over zealous in our mindset to say, “start every project as a React app”.

My point is

I think Senior Engineers, myself included, have to remind ourselves that we too started from Zero. When we were born our first word was not "Hello World". And at one point at the start of our career someone gave us a chance.

So why not have a bite of the humble pie and forward that same chance we got to a Junior Developer who is trying to start his career?

It can be a simple HR arrangement, 6 months trial period with a probationary salary. Show me you are hungry to learn and absorb like a sponge. Logistical set up can be fairly basic. A laptop on a desk with an external monitor. Access can be limited via github. Progress review to occur at the end of every month. After the 6 months the team will review you and decide if you stay or if you go.

Imagine it like a software engineer’s version of Hell’s Kitchen where Gordan Ramsay complains of compiler error instead of raw scallops.

Make it through the 6 months and we will review your HR arrangement.

I am not saying to accept every Tom, Dick and Harry. There should be a thorough vetting process but it should be focused on attitude and mindset. Technical skills are important but it should not be too specifics like "How would you write so-so type function?"

Anyway what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments if this whole entire thing is nonsense. Or what was the "chance" that you got when you first started?

Leave a ♥️ 🦄 or 🔖 and +FOLLOW and I will see you guys next time! Peace! 😊

5 Important Soft Skills (beside Communication). Non Technical. But ever so important

mdhilwan — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:25:47 +0000

We all know we need them. But what are they?

I have seen brilliant engineers who codes well, but have a hard time communicating his ideas. In frustration he shut himself out and code the entire project by himself.

And I have seen fresh grads who have not much experience, but because they are really good at communicating, they were able to work closely with a team who have more experience and complete the task at hand.

As you can see communication is definitely important. But what other important soft skills would help you push your career forward?

1) Story Telling aka Presentation Skills

I'm not talking about the "Three Little Pigs" story telling, but more importantly presentation skills.

To be able to build a project and present it clearly and eloquently in front of a large audience is really hard. Imagine presenting to a group of non-developers who knows nothing about web technology but you need them to be onboard with you to support the product and not fall asleep while you drone on about why fat arrow functions are better.

It is really very hard to do. But if you are able to do it, you are set!

How to develop that skill?

Answer:
Present to your spouse (or significant other) about your project. Keep it to 30 mins. Any longer and it is going to be a lecture. Explain the entire tech stack and see if he/she is still awake at the end of it. And see if they are able to relay what they learned back to you. If any at all.

Times like these is when your relationship is tested. 😅

2) Not Aggressive but Assertive

Don't be aggressive. Seriously. If the entire organization is still stuck on Backbone JS because it's a monolithic software, it is not going to be the end of the world. Stop moaning about it. Sure it is Backbone JS. Sure it was released 8 years ago. But hey, the software that used it is still able to rake in millions per year. So what gives?

Wait... what did you say?

And who does not love a new toy?

But we need to focus on the product, not on the technology. I covered this in my previous write up, I've been a dev for 11 years. 5 things I learned.

Just because the rest of the world drives on the left, does not mean you can do that in America. You need to see the bigger picture and understand what works and what does not.

But at the same time, if you believe that including a particular library for your team's project is really important, you need to develop your Story Telling skills to communicate and convince your team to be onboard with you.

3) Being a Team Player

You need to divide and conquer.

No one is an expert in everything. Sure, I love Javascript, Typscript. But I need to rely on my teammates for issues with Java.

So how to be a team player?
Answer: Hold hands and sing Kumbaya

No seriously. How to be a team player in a software engineering team?

3.1) Recognize everyone's strength and weakness.

That includes your own.

If Tim is great with Gulp, Webpack, Rollup.. Let him write the build process for it. If Jake is not so great with doing presentation, don't let him go up there and screw your team. Divide the task and conquer it together. If I suck at C++, don't do it! Stop being a god damn hero!

3.2) Share the knowledge.

I know it is an open secret in some organization. To hoard the knowledge in order to make yourself the most important person in that team. So you are untouchable.

That is like the worst strategy ever. No one is irreplaceable.

3.3) Don't disrupt the team.

It happens to the best of us, we join a new team and we try to talk as much as we can in meetings, because we thought that’s how we added value.

Bringing most ideas to the table === I’d be contributing the most

However, it turned out, we were doing more harm than good. The team may eventually get sick of us talking too much and we had to work hard to earn that respect back.

All this contribute to the culture of the team. Everything. If you’re annoying and disruptive, you’ll breed contempt. If you’re positive and productive, you’ll inspire others.

You need to give your team time to get used to your brand new radical ideas. You can't just jump in and say "Alrite y'all! Change all gulp task to RollUp!" You need to give them time.

I know there are certainly more towards being a great team player in a software engineering team. Leave a comment if you want me to talk more about it in a new post 😊

4) Being supportive of Junior Dev

The software engineering tech space have evolved so much in the past decade. So much so that junior developers are not very useful as they were 10 years ago.

When I was a junior it was 2008, all I need to do was Actionscript, HTML, CSS and Jquery (not even Javascript). Show some fancy Flash portfolio online. And great! I'll start next month!

But now in 2019, HTML, CSS, JS is a given. You need to know way WAAAAAAAY more then that in order to be hired. And I know of some organizations who avoid hiring Junior fresh graduates altogether mainly because the tech stack is so complicated, they need an engineer who can hit the ground running.

But Junior developers are definitely a necessity. And seniors devs need to be supportive of that and need to mentor these young impressionable minds to be our future generation of developers.

We need to show them the way.

Sort of

I am not talking about taking a whole class of 20 junior developer and teaching them React Redux. But at least spend an hour a week to share about a particular topic. It could be latest news about ES7+ or techniques on how to make a webpack config more maintainable.

5) Stop being being an a-hole

This will greatly improve you. Not just as a software developer / engineer. But as a human being in general.

Let me give you some real life example:

Example 1

Team mate is new to the project is not familiar about the tech stack. Don't go and rub it in his face!

How many years of tech experience you have?

Seriously. Don't do that.

Example 2

New team mate commit a code for a new pull request and you purposely commented ever single part of it to block it from being merged. Because "Hazing".

Hazing is a tradition in the company

Really? What's the point of it? Am I back in High School?

Example 3

Your teammate got picked by your Tech Lead to lead a technical presentation. You got bitter and choose not to cooperate.

Because I am better than him and I want my CTO to know he chose the wrong person

Get your head out of your ass! Do you job and don't sink the whole team because of your bloody ego!

I know there are TONNES of example of toxic cultures and behaviors out there. And yeah I am sure there are TONNES of soft skills that are just as important. But that's all the time I have for now!

Do share your thoughts, stories and examples if you have any!
Leave a ♥️ 🦄 or 🔖 and +FOLLOW and I will see you guys soon! 😊

I've been a dev for 11 years. 5 things I learned

mdhilwan — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:46:57 +0000

I have been a software developer / engineer for the past 11 years. And here are 5 things that I learned.

Here is a little context:
I do not have a Ba / Bsc / Msc in Computer Science or Software Engineering. I got a Dip in Digital Media Design.

1. The only constant is change

Wait. I know.

You are going to stop reading and say WTF. This is so cliché!

Yeah. Unfortunately it is.

Simple example: Have you noticed how fast Angular gets a new release?

December 2016 when Angular 4 was released everyone cheered and ran with it trying to master it. By the time they "mastered" Angular 4, it was 2017.

Angular 5 got released on November 2017.

Seriously. That is how fast things change.

And we are not talking about simple upgrades. Each new iteration of Angular brings SIGNIFICANT updates!

So that bring me directly to my next point:

2. The very best skill to have: Being a fast learner

You can list out all kinds of coding languages, frameworks and methodologies on your CV. But all these are just tools.

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

I have seen a lot of projects that does not benefit from React, but yet... React was chosen. Because it was the latest fanciest newest toy that everyone wants to play with.

Sometimes React is the answer, but sometimes Angular may provide a better fit? Or maybe Vue instead may bring the most value? Or maybe Meteor? Or Backbone? Or none of them?! Just write in plain vanilla Javascript or Typescript!

Well... That's the responsiblity of the Tech Lead or CTO. Let him decide what's best for the project.

But, to be honest. I have met A LOT of CTOs who knows jack shit about what Agile methodology means yet they are making the decision.

And this brings me to my third point

3. It's totally fine to admit that you don't know certain things

I am not sure why it is so hard to admit that you don't know a certain solution or implementation.

IT IS OKAY!

But some engineers, especially those who have a decade worth of experience, with a Msc in Comp Science from some fancy school... They just refuse to admit that they are not sure or they might need help. They refuse to raise their hand for help if they are unsure with certain build tools or process.

This have got to stop.

Because the only thing that is holding you back from progressing further and higher is your ego.

Don't let your ego stop you. If you don't know something, ask. Even if the person who you are asking from is a fresh graduate or a new joiner. It doesn't hurt to ask.

I know that many developers prefer to figure things out on their own. Heck! That was how I learned. I kept on grinding and eventually I fixed the problem.

But do that on your own free time. If you are still grinding but the dateline is in a few days, I think you should call in the cavalry. At the very least, ask for direction. Ask if you are going the right way. It doesn't hurt.

Yeah we can really get consumed by the technology that we lost sight of the objective. The objective is simple: You are helping your employer make money.

This brings me to my next point.

4. Focus on the product, not on the technology

Technology just enables you to make that business transaction. But it is not what sells the business.

Always think in the business perspective. What function do you provide to value-add the business?

Let me give you a technical example that ties in with the business.

Example 1:
Cutting down loading time from 5 sec to 0.5 sec

That is a HUGE difference. It helps with:

Customer experience
Lowers visitors drop off / exit rate
Increase possibility of transaction conversion
Therefore more business == more revenue

Example 2:
Cutting down npm build script build time from 13 sec to 0.7 sec

This happened to me in one of my previous jobs. This project that I inherited used npm with browserify but it was so messy and clumsy that saving the file with cmd/ctrl + s each time triggers the build script which takes 10-13 sec to complete.

And how many times in a day do we press cmd/ctrl + s? Multiply that with the number of developers working? Multiply that with the cost of paying these developers? How many man-hours is spent just waiting for the npm build to finish running?

You are hired not just to write code. You are hired so that you help the company be more successful.

And sure, once in a while you sit and you wonder, can't I set up my own business?

And maybe you did. Maybe some friends do come up to you and ask if you are interested in their start up. And they will start pitching to you their ideas.

Lots and lots of ideas.

Which now ties on to my final point

5. Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive

Everyone has an idea. But not everyone can execute it. And even lesser can execute it well.

I have heard it all.

We are going to be the Facebook equivalent for digital magazines!

We are going to be the Uber equivalent for part time teachers!

We are going to be like Google! But for X community!

The first few times when I hear an awesome idea, I did get excited. But eventually I get very jaded. And I realised that execution of these ideas are what's missing.

So don't be fazed to turn down an idea. Because there's more.

And because execution is expensive, especially if you have the credentially to prove it, don't be afraid to value yourself equally. Do not discount yourself.

Sure, the stories of the 5 friends invited by Mark Zuckerberg have been circulating the internet like wildfire. So have the Jack Ma original sales pitch in 1999.

But please be wary, and have your BS detector turned up a notch.

The End!

Yup so those are the 5 important things that I have learned.

Ofcourse there are way more stuff that I realized, figured out, came across and learned in the past 11 years being a software engineer / developer. If you wish to reach out to me, feel free to drop me a comment! ^_^