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Career Advice for Junior Developers

Tyler Hawkins on January 06, 2021

Software engineers early in their careers often ask me, "How can I level up quickly?" In other words, how can I become an effective contributor in...
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Khoi Hoang

Not to bash your ideas, but the I never had a good experience by asking questions during the intern. The senior developer got pissed. I had to learn the hard way to keep grinding and shut my mouth. It's like I could ask once in a day only.

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Richard S Prins Jr.

Just because that was your experience doesn't mean Jr. Devs have to look forward to this type of response from a senior.. they gatekeep any true progression that way. Sr devs should always be a beacon of trust and help, otherwise they have no place in a team setting. They can be asshole freelancers all they want, it wouldnonky free up more jotmbs at the very least lol

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Tyler Hawkins

Sorry to hear that was your experience. Senior engineers (or anyone, really) would be wise to react in a better way than that. The unfortunate truth is that there are toxic workplace environments and toxic employees out there, and it sounds like you found one.

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ronca85

I had the same experience but later realized both a senior dev and the team lead who both have had 10+ years of experience in this company had no idea how the platform they were using works. At least in part this is why they were unable to help when I had questions.

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Stephen Bass

This is a great piece! I agree wholeheartedly with points 2-4, but might challenge one (1) just slightly.

I think it's safe to suggest that there are inevitably questions that must be asked in every organization across all levels of seniority and disciplines. Questions are fundamental to:

  1. Learning about systems/tools/processes/the org itself
  2. Understanding how to get tasks done
  3. etc., lots of etc.

However, I personally have found that an important skill to have as a Software Developer is not perfecting the act of asking questions, but rather discovering how to answer them oneself. I truly believe this is an acquired skill whose attainment isn't always obvious or easy, but once mastered essentially turns into @Tyler's third (3rd) point of continuously learning.

Khoi's comment here (one I resonate with dearly) begins to resolve itself within individuals that make it a point to learn whatever it is that sparked a question in the first place.

Thanks for the piece @tyler , and apologies for the unsolicited challenge!

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Tyler Hawkins

Thank you Stephen, that’s a great insight! I think you’re right that there are these different categories of questions, some that you absolutely should ask and really wouldn’t be expected to know the answer to, and others that you need to figure out on your own. Learning how to answer your own questions yourself for those things just outside your current circle of knowledge is an important skill to have.

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Tyler Hawkins

Thanks Greg! That's a great point you've highlighted. So much of getting better at what we do involves our behaviors, processes, and meta-skills. I agree that it's a bit short-sighted to say things like "if you want to succeed, learn these 10 frameworks."

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Gedalya Krycer

Really great tips here. Thank you for sharing.

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Tyler Hawkins

Thank you!

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cooltea713705

Thank you for this article and in particular linking to Michael Lynch’s blog entry: it’s a gold mine!

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Tyler Hawkins

It's so good! It's become my new favorite article on best practices for code reviews.

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westerndad

I really wanna a very big Thank to you..... Wow you just answered my long await research♥️🌟

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Tyler Hawkins

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful to you.

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Diego Guerrero Alexander

Amazing. Definitely gave me a good structure for my first dev job.
Thank you!

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Tyler Hawkins

You're welcome! Thank you for reading.