Battles Of A Junior Developer (Part 1)
As a junior developer, I was very excited to start my first job, mostly because of the opportunity to work on a real project with real users. There’s only so much satisfaction one can derive from building small projects while learning how to code, because it’s just you and maybe a couple of friends that will see them (and you’ll probably never have external users … lol).
Once I got on a real project, it didn’t take very long for me to realise that there was so much I didn’t know. While preparing myself for my first job, I had spent so much time learning Ruby on Rails and then JavaScript, I also tried React and Angular (maybe I’ll write sometime about how the world of JavaScript can make newcomers mad), just to discover that I had only scratched the surface. One week into my new job and I had heard enough technical jargon to fill up a sizeable exercise book. Working on tasks didn’t do much to boost my confidence, however, despite how difficult catching up and closing the knowledge gap has been, I have survived and will continue to survive by keeping the following in mind:
Nobody knows everything
I used to have this notion in my head that there are some developer gurus who know it all, this myth has since been debunked. After watching a presentation by Eileen M. Uchitelle (@eileencodes on twitter) in which she talked about not knowing how to go about a task she was working on while contributing to Ruby on Rails, I have learned to get comfortable with being clueless (If someone like her can have that experience, who am I 😂). The key is to have a desire to learn. I may not know that concept or technology today but with dedication and consistency I’ll learn it.
There are no dumb questions
A lot of people do not ask questions because they are afraid to appear dumb. A developer that is afraid to ask dumb questions will soon be jobless. Sometimes something may seem obvious, you may even think you are expected to know it, but the truth is if you don’t know it, you don’t know it. Asking a simple question can save you hours of painful labor. This has helped me time and again in understanding exactly what my tasks are and how to go about them. It has helped me deliver quickly.
I am smart
Learning to code is no easy feat. Making it to the point where I actually have a coding job speaks volumes. This is what I tell myself when I am faced with a task that questions my intelligence. If I can’t seem to crack it now, I’ll take a break and come back to it again.
My Colleagues are invaluable
Many a time my colleagues have given me pointers that have saved me a whole day’s work. So whenever a problem begins to look difficult, I grab one of them to explain the problem. Sometimes I figure out the solution while explaining, at other times they just suggest a simple approach that cracks the case. Its important for one to have colleagues that are always available to help. I would recommend this to every junior dev.
The list above is but a few of the actions I take that help me daily. That huge knowledge gap is still there but I’m not gonna let it defeat me. I hope to one day be like Linus Torvalds or Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but until then I’ll keep chipping at it one day at a time.
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