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Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#161

Post by sodafountan »

rc-1140 wrote: post #124
andrewflnr wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one actually do this? I have a hard enough time finding close friends of any kind. And mentorship is a pretty big thing to ask of someone.

You don't. One thing I've noticed is that mentorship is one of those things people like to toss about as well-meaning advice, but it's an empty suggestion more than anything else. Realistically, what you can do is make an effort to join some kind of programming e-community that's more intimate than HackerNews and integrate with that community over some time, and then ask them for advice. You can find a language-speci…

This.

In my first two roles I found that more senior level developers gravitated towards mentoring me anyway. I didn't really even have to seek it out, usually just getting in the door and humbly admitting to yourself that you don't know as much as you thought you did is enough for people to want to share their knowledge with you.

Don't be afraid to ask questions in the workplace when you're new, that's the only cardinal mistake you can make, the mentorship will come automatically.

Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#162

Post by mmartinson »

fb03 wrote: post #76

do not burnout I know you are young and you feel like you're invincible. I know you can pull an all-nighter and work the next day just fine. We have all been in that situation and believe me, it is gonna take a toll at your performance ... and it could even trigger or help you develop some health issues in your life that can sabotage you down the line. Realize there's only so much progress one can do in the day. Stop…

Also maybe you are not young. Maybe this isn't the first sort of work you've done. If not you, then maybe someone else reading and wondering the same thing.

Try to be consistent and avoid plateauing for long stretches. Consistency will take you far. Maybe you make some sacrifices of other hobbies and uses of time to get some early traction with your skills, but be intentional about doing this and don't put the other things that nourish you on hold forever.

Embrace the beginner's mind that comes easy to you now, remember it so you can cultivate it again more easily when things inevitably feel a little dull or tedious down the road.

Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#164

Post by vinayms »

busterarm wrote: post #148
vinayms wrote: post #141

1. Don't blindly follow advice of "experts" you read. 2. Don't write clever code, write readable code. Participate in code golf or obfuscation contests to scratch the itch if you have one, but keep it out of production code, even if its a private project that you will never share with anyone; it will save you from yourself.

On point 2, I think it's very possible to write clever, readable code. I think Rob Pike's 5 Rules of Programming[1] are better advice here -- in particular rules 3 through 5. [1]: https://users.ece.utexas.edu/~adnan/pike.html

> On point 2, I think it's very possible to write clever, readable code.

Of course its possible. People can shift gears in manual transmission without clutch by revv matching, but its not for everyday use.

Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#165

Post by dolessdrugs »

eksemplar wrote: post #34
theshadowknows wrote: post #33

If you’re the smartest person in the room then you’re in the wrong room.

This quote is so silly, and misused. It’s like one of those facts about Einstein that you’ll see on Facebook. For one, in this context, a junior developer will rarely be the smartest person in the room. So it’s really terrible advice for the context. I think it’s really terrible advice in general though, the places I’ve learned the most is exactly when I’m the smartest person in the room, doing stuff like mentoring o…

In a non-technical environment, it is very easy for a junior developer to end up the smartest person in the room as far as tech is concerned. Think meetings with SMEs, PMs, or Sales.

Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#166

Post by donkeyd »

C4stor wrote: post #160

Read the error messages. Reread them. Extract every piece of information from them. Never close an error popup without having read and understood what it means. Always read stack traces when you're blessed enough to have them. 100% of the juniors (and an awful lot of seniors) I've ever trained simply ignore those and then come ask for help debugging. 99% of the time, the explanation for their problem is literally the…

Definitely this. Reading logs is a skill.

It's pretty much the same for debugging. I notice the juniors often start to look at where the problem may be. I usually try to first look where it isn't, so I can drill down to where it actually it, in stead of just looking at code and hoping to find what's wrong.

Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#167

Post by hakanito »

Some great advice in this thread already. I'd add learning to use git from the command line (together with the concepts of a rebase, a merge etc), it will be useful in every single CS job.

Figure out what parts of the stack you're more passionate about. This may shift over time, but if your working on things that you truly think is interesting it will keep work from being work.

Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#169

Post by alevans4 »

C4stor wrote: post #160

Read the error messages. Reread them. Extract every piece of information from them. Never close an error popup without having read and understood what it means. Always read stack traces when you're blessed enough to have them. 100% of the juniors (and an awful lot of seniors) I've ever trained simply ignore those and then come ask for help debugging. 99% of the time, the explanation for their problem is literally the…

I agree that this is one of the most useful things that you can do and one of the most commonly overlooked for whatever reason. I can't underestimate the number of times I've worked with someone who is looking in seemingly random places to solve an error instead of tracing backwards from the error message in front of their face.

Re: Ask HN: What is your best advice for a junior software developer?

#170

Post by Rooster61 »

davedx wrote: post #152

Learn multiple programming languages. It will truly expand your way of thinking about solving different problems. Conversely, don’t spread yourself too thin. Try a lot of languages out then narrow it down to a few you find interesting and useful, then focus on learning those few.

I'd expand on this by saying that one should learn to program, not to simply code. This sounds silly at first glance, but what I mean is that if you learn how programming languages work, and truly grok what is going on under all that syntax, you'll find it's much easier to transition to other languages as you already understand the conventions at play (unless you are switching to a completely different paradigm e.g. OOP to functional).

This is one of the things that is dangerous about these code bootcamps you see. They are taught enough to write cogent programs for a given language, but the underlying bits and pieces of what make software tick is left out. There simply isn't enough time to truly learn the craft in a 6-8 week course.

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