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Dimitrios Desyllas
Dimitrios Desyllas

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Why even the simplest task seems like a struggle?

Hello guys, I work as software engineer in a small company. What I find is that even in simplest tasks I struggle. For example I struggle to just place some metadata into a website.

By struggle I do not mean the technical aspect, from a technical standpoint seems ridiculous, though what I am afraid of is a possible interrogation known as code review and the fear of need to explain every time.

What I am afraid of is the "why you did this", "why you did that", "why took you so much time". Etc etc On the other hand I worked on an another company that had an uncertainty on the payment method whist doing an MSc and was much more bearable than my current job. Why?!

So guys how do you manage this thing?

Top comments (2)

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emma profile image
Emma Goto πŸ™

Do they actually ask you questions like "why took you so much time" or is it more that you're afraid of them asking that?

If you weren't experiencing these issues in your previous workplace it may be the tone of voice your coworkers use on your pull requests. I find it feels nicer when people phrase their code review comments like "what do you think about..." or "we could improve this by..." instead of saying "why did you do it like this". But the phrasing of their comments isn't something you can easily change.

You could try reading up on having a growth mindset, and try and detach yourself from your code - a criticism of your code isn't necessarily a criticism of you as a person. It's easier said than done to detach yourself from it, though! I also find code reviews are a great place to learn new things from your coworkers, so I always try and take that mindset going into it.

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pcmagas profile image
Dimitrios Desyllas • Edited

Do they actually ask you questions like "why took you so much time" or is it more that you're afraid of them asking that?

They seem both. On the written aspect of the code review seems no issue but once I go to show the task I get bursted with why and how and SPEAK.

Though I struggle to explain whilst I am interrupted. Also I find hard to explain everything in 5min and be accurate. Also not being able to read whenever comment I type explaining why I do this, or even any piece of documentation is a torture for me.

For me just to explain in a timely manner I need even to reheace whatever I am going to say. For exaple it may take even months to prepair myself for an 2hr presentation

Also in my previous jobs I had code reviews and they were awesome felt like colaboration and not interogation. Also in my MSc I had one colaboration that actually I am not satisfied, I did all of my job and whilst I pushed to try something new me coleagues did not allow me.

So I had no good experience on colaboration, hence in a colaborative environment I fell like I am tortured.