Great post Steff, here's some perspective from someone on the other end of the experience spectrum.
Dropping the db. It's great that you are cautious around the production DB, but the company should really have better processes in place. A new team member really shouldn't have that kind of access until they are more comfortable. At my last startup, I had a rule that NOBODY was allowed to run any sort of write query against the production database without someone double checking their work. That included me, the CTO. I made sure to call someone over to sanity check my queries before running them.
Same thing with accidentally pushing to the wrong branch. It's a structural issue. Production branches should be protected from careless pushes.
If you know how to solve a problem, speak up. If your team is good they will listen to you no matter your experience level, and ideas stand on their own merit. If they don't, find a better place to work.
"You move other’s cards in Trello by accident." - Again, seems like a UI or setup problem with Trello if it's so easy to do the wrong thing.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. Unfortunately, you will undoubtedly encounter prima donnas among senior developers, but the best senior developers (or senior anything, really) do embrace their roles as mentors. The only thing I ask is they you've made an earnest effort to solve the problem yourself first, and don't just go asking for help the instant you get stuck.
It's normal to feel like you don't know what you're doing when you're thrown into a new codebase, no matter your experience level. Every codebase that has been worked on for a while has its quirks and nuances that you only really learn over time. Good programmers understand and respect this and start by being very cautious with their changes. Bad ones think "I have 10 years of experience, I can start mucking around right away", and probably break things because of all the things they didn't know.
"How can she/he find the problem just by looking at it for like 3 seconds??" It's true that more experience will help you spot things quicker. Sometimes a problem that other people are stumped on will trigger something at the back of my head that I've seen a long time ago that leads to the solution. On the other hand, sometimes all it takes is a fresh pair of eyes. I was once stuck on something that seemed silly and called over the developer who sat next to me to take a look (she'd was about 2 months out of a bootcamp), and she immediately spotted something that I had become blind to from starting at it too long.
“I hope I can be a great professional like this person one day!” You seem to be smart and have a great attitude, I think you're well on your way!
Building programs that train developers for excellence @hexdevs . Rails dev, community strategist, avid reader and cats lover. Driven by curiosity & kindness.
"Unfortunately, you will undoubtedly encounter prima donnas among senior developers, but the best senior developers (or senior anything, really) do embrace their roles as mentors." THIS, this is exactly what I think! I wish there were more people who think like that, but that's not only software related, right?
Thank you so much, these are awesome tips that you are sharing. Thank you so much for this final comment, sending you the best :3
but the best senior developers (or senior anything, really) do embrace their roles as mentors." THIS, this is exactly what I think!
Based on my recent interviews at several different companies, they seem to prefer to hire prima donna (aka know-it-alls) senior developers instead of people who would embrace a role as a mentor and guide.
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Great post Steff, here's some perspective from someone on the other end of the experience spectrum.
Dropping the db. It's great that you are cautious around the production DB, but the company should really have better processes in place. A new team member really shouldn't have that kind of access until they are more comfortable. At my last startup, I had a rule that NOBODY was allowed to run any sort of write query against the production database without someone double checking their work. That included me, the CTO. I made sure to call someone over to sanity check my queries before running them.
Same thing with accidentally pushing to the wrong branch. It's a structural issue. Production branches should be protected from careless pushes.
If you know how to solve a problem, speak up. If your team is good they will listen to you no matter your experience level, and ideas stand on their own merit. If they don't, find a better place to work.
"You move other’s cards in Trello by accident." - Again, seems like a UI or setup problem with Trello if it's so easy to do the wrong thing.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. Unfortunately, you will undoubtedly encounter prima donnas among senior developers, but the best senior developers (or senior anything, really) do embrace their roles as mentors. The only thing I ask is they you've made an earnest effort to solve the problem yourself first, and don't just go asking for help the instant you get stuck.
It's normal to feel like you don't know what you're doing when you're thrown into a new codebase, no matter your experience level. Every codebase that has been worked on for a while has its quirks and nuances that you only really learn over time. Good programmers understand and respect this and start by being very cautious with their changes. Bad ones think "I have 10 years of experience, I can start mucking around right away", and probably break things because of all the things they didn't know.
"How can she/he find the problem just by looking at it for like 3 seconds??" It's true that more experience will help you spot things quicker. Sometimes a problem that other people are stumped on will trigger something at the back of my head that I've seen a long time ago that leads to the solution. On the other hand, sometimes all it takes is a fresh pair of eyes. I was once stuck on something that seemed silly and called over the developer who sat next to me to take a look (she'd was about 2 months out of a bootcamp), and she immediately spotted something that I had become blind to from starting at it too long.
“I hope I can be a great professional like this person one day!” You seem to be smart and have a great attitude, I think you're well on your way!
"Unfortunately, you will undoubtedly encounter prima donnas among senior developers, but the best senior developers (or senior anything, really) do embrace their roles as mentors." THIS, this is exactly what I think! I wish there were more people who think like that, but that's not only software related, right?
Thank you so much, these are awesome tips that you are sharing. Thank you so much for this final comment, sending you the best :3
but the best senior developers (or senior anything, really) do embrace their roles as mentors." THIS, this is exactly what I think!
Based on my recent interviews at several different companies, they seem to prefer to hire prima donna (aka know-it-alls) senior developers instead of people who would embrace a role as a mentor and guide.