I hate to be the guy complaining about the site's UX, but that popover banner jumps over the text I'm trying to read whenever I scroll.
How to grow into your best developer self
51–60 of 73 posts
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#52I have a question for senior developers like the author. I've been a developer for 1.5 years and on this article's checklist for switching jobs I have everything except a mentor (that's probably more my fault). According to the this article I should not switch jobs. However I live in the Bay Area and there is a huge COL and also salary difference between top and "2nd tier" companies. Junior engineers at Google/FB/MSF…
Make sure you find out from several sources how many hours those engineers at "top tier" companies are working. They could be making the same as a "2nd tier" engineer, just working 1.5x more. Thats cool if you have the funds to put your kid into a nice school, but you also have to be present to be a good parent.
I work for a top tier company and I work hard, but mostly I do 40-50 hours a week nowadays. I've also worked for second tier companies that I worked 60+ hours a week.
That said I have coworkers that work 60 hour weeks mostly because they're fresh out of school and want to prove themselves.
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#53Constantly biting the bullet and doing the right thing rather than continuing with bad code is probably the best start.
You'll get bored anyway if you don't rewrite your program from time to time ;-)
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#54Finding a mentor probably helps most and is the hardest. I know a few good people who wouldn't have got where they are without a mentor. I never found one and I'm 10 years in the game now. So I'm probably cursed to mediocrity, haha.
I've had "assigned" mentorship at places (which is understandable and I have no immediate complaints) but I feel, personally, being in a supportive environment of coworkers is as good, if not better, than pure mentorship.
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#55I just can't agree with the recommendation to read the comments before articles you find online. Critical thinking is such an important skill for everyone, not just engineers, and this habit all but eliminates it. You go into an article with a framed opinion of what it's trying to convey, and spend the time reading the article looking for confirmation of that opinion rather than thinking critically for yourself. This…
>I just can't agree with the recommendation to read the comments before articles you find online. Your disagreement makes it sound like he made a universal recommendation for all articles in all circumstances. I didn't read it that way. He specifically constrained his observation to staying on top of new technical developments in /r/programming and HN: "When browsing Proggit, I recommend reading the comments before c…
Yeah when I don't have much time I read just the comments.
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#56I hate to be the guy complaining about the site's UX, but that popover banner jumps over the text I'm trying to read whenever I scroll.
Let's see if we can do something about this. Thanks for the tip ;)
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#57Query: As a new software developer, how does one find or develop mentor-mentee relationships? Unlike a technical book or code snippets, one cannot find this information through their own research. There are books on mentorship but they don't really apply specifically to technical fields and there may be nuances I am missing.
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#58I don't think enough can be said about having good mentors and having good mentors that are good at things you aren't good at. My direct manager and I complement each other pretty well and in addition to it being good for our department, I get to learn a lot.
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I too would welcome a mentor! I've often thought this would be a good social network - online mentoring. Lots of upside for the mentee, not sure about the mentor...
People like mentoring, it's human nature. But that will challenging to capture online.
At university, I hold office hours for a mid-level CS course, and it is incredibly rewarding to do so in person, as you can see the flicker of understanding on their face when they get it. That's going to be very hard to capture online.
Re: How to grow into your best developer self
#60Honestly, I have found salary has correlated strongly with responsibilities you are given. Stronger than job title. Probably because higher salaries are given to people who they respect.
If you optimize for salary, you will probably be given more responsibility.