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How 3 Months of Pair Programming Impacted My Developer Career
Observing my CTO approach problems has been an immensely valuable experience
It’s been about three months since I began consistently pair programming. Although it didn’t start off smoothly, I can definitely say it’s been a valuable addition to my somewhat new developer journey.
Here’s how it started, the progress, and what I’ve learned along the way.
A bit of context: I work at a startup where I was hired as the first employee. This means, at the time of writing, that I’m currently 25% of our entire company and 50% of the “Engineering Department.” The pair programming I do is with my CTO.
How It Started
I’d always been vaguely interested in pairing, but it wasn’t something I had much experience with. My first developer job was at a small, fast-paced agency. Everyone worked on their individual client projects, so it wasn’t really a part of the company culture. I’d previously pair (and group)-programmed during bootcamp, and like most other students for whom this was a new thing, we all found it a little awkward.
My interest was piqued by this (oh so timely!) tweet by James Tucker a week before I started my new job:
