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Discussion on: Advice for Developers in the Early Stage of their Career

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keptoman profile image
mlaj

I have been a web dev for almost 3 years.
As a "soon not to be anymore" junior, I would like to share these things that I have learned the hard way :

  • Find a place where there's a structure to help you learn how to be a good employee. Not too strict, not to loose.
  • Keep learning, reading about new things. Anything really.
  • You don't need to know everything. Don't spread yourself too thin.
  • Don't be afraid to learn or understand what your colleague's jobs are. Knowing a few things in design, front-end, back-end, and management can help you understand the workplace better.
  • Talk to other people. Make friends.
  • Get extracurricular activities, such as sports, arts, video games, whatever... Anything that is not about coding. I will also help to stimulate your creativity.
  • Don't forget to sleep. Work is not your personal life.
  • Eat well.
  • Find a mentor, if possible. It could be at your workplace or even on the internet! It really helps to have someone with more experience guide and help you throughout your journey.
  • Share, talk, write about what you are experiencing. Don't keep it all inside.
  • Once you have more experience, share it! Find a younger dev who needs mentoring.

Everyone has ideas, ways to do things, preferences... Make sure all of your knowledge doesn't come from a single source.

Also, I've seen that the more a workplace has fun activities, free time, parties, and "fun" at work, the worse and unhappy its employees are. The startups usually don't have the structure necessary to take care of a new dev. Maybe some of you have had different experiences?

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lauragift21 profile image
Gift Egwuenu

Thank you so much @mlaj. I totally agree with your points. Super useful!

Regarding your last sentence I think it's different for everyone and the fact that a company is fun to work at or have parties etc. shouldn't affect a developer's skill or make him any less happy. IMO

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cfecherolle profile image
Cécile Fécherolle • Edited

That's a really useful list of reminders, thank you :)
I kinda get what you want to express by saying "the more fun the workplace provides, the more unhappy people are" because in some cases, companies market tons of fun and parties (or pool tables and whatsoever) to hide much bigger problems in the organization and the project. Don't fall for fake advertisement about infinite fun, but for what i've seen, in very bad conditions a team of devs almost always get pretty close and compensates the stressing or boring situation by being friendly with each other. Solidarity exists and is even more present when the work itself sucks. Again, this is just what i've seen. ☺️