Ask Experienced Devs Weekly Thread: A weekly thread for inexperienced developers to ask experienced ones
Posted by AutoModerator@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 68 comments
A thread for Developers and IT folks with less experience to ask more experienced souls questions about the industry.
Please keep top level comments limited to Inexperienced Devs. Most rules do not apply, but keep it civil. Being a jerk will not be tolerated.
Inexperienced Devs should refrain from answering other Inexperienced Devs' questions.
RezhwAmanjj@reddit
I feel like I've rubbed my EM the wrong way and have put myself on a long-winded path to getting fired. I hope I'm reading too much into this, would really appreciate some thoughts...
Context: I'm the technical lead of a client-facing team of 5 engineers. I've been on the team for 2 years and became its lead 9 months ago. My EM got promoted from the tech lead of a sister team in March. EM dwarfs me in experience & tenure, but I feel confident in my own standing at the company, including being given an above-average pay bump last Sept.
When my EM first got involved with my team we had some technical disagreements. Nuanced discussions on things we both felt strongly about bc of different learned experiences, neither side was unreasonable, but still disagreements. My EM was definitely impacted by this - at one point there was a "I get the sense that you don't respect my authority" directed at me. While I don't believe I was ever unprofessional, I have done plenty of soul-searching on how I could've communicated certain opinions better, and we managed to get things sorted over a few 1:1's. Anyway this whole episode passed 2 months ago, but my interactions with them have definitely felt different since.
Last week, there were 3 important meetings which I wasn't invited to. The calendar invites included two ICs on the team I'm leading, which felt weird as these were convos I could've contributed in. Now my team is lean and ICs handling things independently isn't new, but I'm typically in the loop and giving direction or speaking on behalf of the team. This didn't happen at all, and I found out about these calls through others. One time someone other than EM even FW'd me one of the calls, EM explicitly asked me to leave when I joined.
This is the latest in a string of minor things that have made me feel weird. When I press for general feedback from my EM I only get positive notes, and my comp manager (different person) also says they haven't received anything constructive since this period ended. But all of this still feels a bit wrong to me. Am I thinking too much into it?
ivan0x32@reddit
Theoretically, if I had to make a software based business (with employees) - where would I find clients/business opportunities?
I know that conventional wisdom is to convert your past employers and colleagues into clients, but is there anything else? What about "easy" fixed payment contracts, where would I look for those?
I'm asking because if I had to do this, I would probably hire 2-3rd year CS students and try to level them up. So my typical contracts would not be well suited for them. I'm based in Europe also.
Zylothh@reddit
Hello I'm currently a CS student who's working their second internship at a well known global SaaS company but I've been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of people my age who are participating in the "hustle" culture of CS. It seems like nowadays you're only successful if you work for FAANG+, Quant, or a Unicorn. I'm happy with my internship as it's fully remote, pays well, and my team understand its just a job (i.e you're not expected to work >8 hours a day). My manager has been fully transparent too and has been inplying they'll extend my internship and try to get me full time.
But sometimes I feel like I should be achieving more, my roommate is going into Meta as an entry level dev, her boyfriend is a previous Robinhood and Jane Street intern (now at a startup in Bay area), and one of her friends has interned at NASA, Tesla, and Meta. My school is a target school (non ivy/not T20) so a lot of classmates I see are entering prestigious entry level positions or internships. And then when I go on LinkedIn I see so many people at T20 CS schools doing crazy things I could never even dream of. Like man, I'm just someone who likes games and storytelling and wants to use CS to make art.
I guess, my question is if more prestigious pathways are really more enriching? I love software development but I don't like the hustle culture that's become of the industry. I hate leetcode and the constant "grind" some devs put themselves through. Some days I wish there was more passion to learn and build things from my peers rather than chasing titles. And especially as a woman, being in the field commonly feels unwelcoming if I look outside of my bubble.
Sorry for long post but I feel like this subreddit is one of the only tech related ones thats safe from the hustle culture and FAANG glorification. Hopefully this made sense.
sweetno@reddit
Jane Street have a rather unique technology stack (and what's important, it works for them).
You can always try FAANG when and if you lose interest in your current job. Some people advocate for them, but there's neither integrity nor trust anymore.
oskaremil@reddit
You can join the hustle and climb the ranks. Make your job your life. If successful you may become a millionaire and hopefully be able to live your later years without a cardiac arrest at 40 or a complete burn-out at 30.
You can ignore the hustle, focus on doing things well, and notice that over time you will still climb the ranks. When successful you will live a comfortable life with a decent income and healthy interests.
I went for option number 2. 42 years old with 18 years of experience. Hell, it feels like it's not even a job! I just get paid to do the things I like best.
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
It’s your life. Live it for yourself.
No joke someone literally sent me “you might as well go for like jane street if you want high money and high stress?” In response to me considering Netflix earlier.
The fact is this isn’t new people have always been overly excited about companies like Facebook and Google and a lot of them hate it once they’re there. A lot of the jobs are boring and they are now constantly talking about how they aren’t going to need engineers in a year. You don’t need that bs in your life imo. At least I don’t.
HiddenVelociraptor@reddit
Hey folks, hoping for either some perspective or validation here.
My team and a closely related sister team have worked mostly independently, mainly due to the breadth of the work both dealt with. After a recent round of layoffs / reorg, my team lost its two most senior members and the engineers on the other team have been redistributed throughout the company. The handful of us left have our hands full with the feature development and prod support for our own services, but management wants us to also be fully responsible for the disbanded team's applications.
It was pitched as a temporary stopgap for stable, maintenance mode apps until they reach EoL, which I had already spoken out against strongly. Since then, those apps have had a sev1 outage and multiple investigation heavy OC tickets pop up. Management has also started slating new feature development surrounding these services.
There's 4 of us left dealing with the suite of apps 10 engineers across 2 teams were responsible for a few months ago.
Is this as absurd and unreasonable as I think it is? Or do I need a reality check here?
sweetno@reddit
They want to feel how much can be done with less people.
Well, since there's less people, clearly some work no longer can be done. The management has to decide what should be done in the given time frame and what should be abandoned. Giving them realistic estimates is crucial here. (E.g., since certain skills are no longer here, acquiring them again takes extra time.)
I'd raise the topic of cutting rarely used features. No sure if removing features will free up any time, but it'll be interesting how they react to this signal.
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
It kind of depends both on these apps and the other apps.
I do think it’s worth a conversation of, if they are actually EOL the you should just not fix them. We had this at my company and I basically said “you can give me time and requirements, or I can just shut it off the next time it fails”.
Basically eventually you always have more code than people. The problem is someone has identified maintenance mode as “we don’t want to spend time on this” not “this is stable”. You basically have to convince someone it’s not in maintenance mode. Which is not the easiest thing on the planet.
devinejoh@reddit
Recently agreed to join a company. That being said after the agreement was signed they told me that it is "bring your own device" (though they do provide a stipend... That has to be paid back if I leave in less than a year), and I have to install an app called Clockify (they claim it is for manual time tracking). I'm pretty uncomfortable with both of these, especially coming from a company with relatively strong engineering practices. I've been out of work for some months, so should I suck it up and keep looking?
AccomplishedLeave506@reddit
Either run a virtual machine or partition your device with multiple OSs. Keep your personal stuff COMPLETELY separate from your work stuff. NEVER install work software on your personal device and vice versa. Install work stuff into a VM would be my suggestion.
If you have work tracking software on a machine you use for personal things then your company has access to everything. Bank accounts, emails, your reddit account. Everything. Always keep them separate.
oskaremil@reddit
This is good advice.
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
So when I had a job like that I basically told them that I wasn’t willing to install anything weird on my personal machine and if they wanted me to do that they had to buy me a machine. In my case the weird thing they wanted me to install was windows.
But it depends how much you need the job. If it’s a lot then you know don’t rock the boat too much.
But this would be a red flag to me generally if they didn’t bother to tell you this up front
HolyPommeDeTerre@reddit
It's really hard to say. Some workplaces are tracking time. I prefer to avoid them but I did choose some when I was out of a job.
The pay your device and come to work is something I really dislike. From a startup I can get it (and even then...). But from an established company it feels like a scam. Especially if they make you pay for it instead of repurposing it for someone else. This makes little sense to me but maybe there is something I am missing. Even from a security point of view it feels bad.
This workplace screams trust issues or they are expecting high productivity.
Now, you are out of a job. The main thing would be, do you have months of money in your bank account ? Are you getting other promising hints ? If not to both, I guess you could just suck it up while looking at the market to find another job. But you'll need to assess the risk the company throws you out and make you pay the stipend...
This feels like a risk to me but depends on your situation.
devinejoh@reddit
Just to be clear, it's not a "you have to buy a new machine with this stipend" situation; it's more like "if you want to buy a dedicated machine for work, you can use this stipend". But like you said, it's a bit of a nightmare to co-mingle personal and work machines, for security, privacy, etc, and that's not even bringing up the bizarre outlook of paying someone hundreds of thousands of dollars and not providing the tools to do the job.
As for the time tracking, I've gotten clarification that it is manual time tracking for tasks, no actual screen/key recording, etc. If they wanted to record what programs were running, or the screen, or keystrokes on a personal machine, that would have been an immediate hard no from me.
I don't think they are a scam; they have been around for several years and have some very large clients. I just think they are inexperienced (engineering is two people, not including me), or they hire mostly contractors. Most definitely not a tech company.
Money is not necessarily an issue right now, but I need to work. The stipend isn't that much that it would be an issue (I would raise a stink if they laid me off, though).
ShoePillow@reddit
What happens if you buy a laptop, claim the stipend and then leave?
Are you stuck with the laptop, and having to pay the stipend back?
devinejoh@reddit
If I leave within a year I have to pay the stipend back, otherwise I do not have to pay it back.
Either way I keep the device.
Imnotneeded@reddit
Are you more "AI is going to take job now" or less than this time last year? Thanks!
oskaremil@reddit
Unchanged. Not worried at all.
AI is the mathematical averages of everything.
As a newcomer, or a senior exploring new topics, AI can be a very good helper as long as you use the output for self-learning.
AI will never compete with senior experts in their fields.
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
Less I think. The ai that seemed really great 6 months ago seems to now be getting worse. I think it took 10 years to get to noticeable. We probably have a good number of years before the next step happens.
AccomplishedLeave506@reddit
AI is not going to be taking engineers jobs any time soon. In the future? Maybe.
I saw a comment earlier in one of those ai chat groups that went something like "Claude is amazing. I'm a senior engineer who is way faster with Claude. Sometimes It'll give me code I don't understand and I can cut an paste it". Very telling.
I'm a senior engineer and in my entire career I have NEVER added code to a codebase that I didn't understand. That guy is not a senior engineer. He's a junior engineer with the wrong title and years of experience he learned nothing from.
80 percent of software engineers can't do the job. They just type and cut and paste stuff they don't understand. They're a hindrance. And now they're a hindrance with a high powered auto complete so they churn out even more junk they don't understand then they did before. They might get replaced by the 20% who can do the job I guess. But nobody will notice.
casualPlayerThink@reddit
There is a quote: "Now, with AI/GPT/ML/GenAi, two can create 25 years worth of legacy code debt under a few months!"
Everyone tries to make it happen, but ain't closer or further than the previous year. It is a tool, and there will be people (see MS, Google, and others firing east-asians already) on very low level of tasks that can be replaced. Later they will realize, decision makers, managers, HR could be replaced, so there will be some uproar :)
IMHO, it will cause disruptions, but I feel the real question is how we can use it to advance in our job rather than replace us.
Also, don't forget, it is extremely expensive yet (will be better and better in a 5-10 year of time span) but it causes more and more slob and problems (as reference, check the "vibe coders" work) that will be extremely expensive to fix. Also, people who heavily use it wrongly - e.g,. Instead of thinking and understanding, they won't become good engineers by any means. If I am right in this, then this will means that, for a generation, there will be no junior devs and many self appointed senior (like US fresh grads after half a year in a job) engineers will be super low-quality workers.
Probably I poked many people with my comment, my intention is not to offend anyone, but to have a raw mirror over the things.
Imnotneeded@reddit
I have faith I will still have this job in ten year... cope cope coping
markvii_dev@reddit
How has the industry become so inundated with fake engineers? Was this always a problem or is it just more common in the highly digital age we live in?
By fake engineers, I mean that in my org there exists a tier of senior engineer who does not contribute a single line of code to any project they are in. They merely exist to make incorrect technical points and monologues in meetings.
I understand writing code is not all there is to the job and that as you move up you code less, but a senior to me would be someone in their prime contribution years and these people act like they are already in the consulting phase.
666codegoth@reddit
Here's some feedback - it sounds like you might be asking this question in bad faith and with a specific engineer from your team in mind. In my view, the ability to regulate your emotional response and respond tactfully and collaboratively when other engineers make mistakes is an important core competency of a senior+ engineer.
I struggled with similar feelings in the past, but holding on to negative emotions towards teammates will only hinder your career growth. If your teammate is actually a "fake engineer", the business will eventually catch on and the issue should resolve itself.
Maybe challenging yourself to overcome your frustrations with this particular engineer is the best path forward? If successful, you would gain a useful skill which will only become more relevant as your progress in your career!
markvii_dev@reddit
I am afraid in my case it is around 6 "seniors" strewn across different teams.
So, while I am sure the above would be a tactful way to approach the situation - the egregiousness of 6 different people at senior level, who do not produce any output is what has prompted me to ask if this is a wider issue within the industry.
666codegoth@reddit
Does your organization have an internal document that describes the expectations for each level? In some organizations seniors are not expected to write much code.
Ultimately though, I stand by my previous point. The best thing you can do is to stop letting it get to you and try to accept that the engineers in question might provide a lot of value to the business in ways that are not as visible as commit count, LOC, etc. It doesn't matter if n=1 or n=6.
I am also curious about your methodology - are you really tracking the output of six senior level engineers in your organization? If they are your direct reports, great job. If not, why are you burdening yourself with the responsibilities of an engineering manager? This is not a good use of your time and energy.
markvii_dev@reddit
They have job listings and they would be in line with what I am describing - i.e expectation would seem clear to me that you would have to be contributing materially to a project, and for a senior I would not think that somehow excludes code contribution.
Maybe they do provide business value outside of code contribution, but then this would mean they are in the wrong role - because we have plenty of principles and architects who provide higher level direction.
To check output it's as simple as typing in a name in a search bar on bitbucket? i became curious after some extremely alarming technical misunderstandings.
I'm not here to complain, they are pretty chill people, I only am curious to know if this is normal or not, would you expect a senior engineer to contribute code to a project they are assigned to in your own org?
666codegoth@reddit
The simple answer is "it depends on the org/team". In some organizations I've worked in, seniors were expected to produce a majority of the code output. In my current role, seniors are expected to spend the majority of their time working on software design, documentation and mentorship. It sounds like your organization is okay with seniors not producing very much code output (plainly obvious if you can easily think of 6 examples!).
Why do you think this particular situation bothers you? Do you feel undervalued in your current role? If my question comes off as accusatory that is not my intent - I am just trying to understand your situation a little bit more.
markvii_dev@reddit
It does bother me a lot - not so much to do with feeling undervalued, more so because I had a preconceived notion of a senior engineer and it included that person being a very good and active programmer. I was quite scared of not being good enough at coding tasks a few years back, I think I compensated by going in hard and now anyone who does not do that makes me feel hard done by.
Seeing how these individuals operate it feels like they gamed the system to get where they are and that coding knowledge is being severely undervalued in the org.
But I've read over your initial comments and I have taken it on board as a sign that maybe I myself need to just pull back and spend more time not coding and trying and work on other skills - like design and I have some documentation to do that has built up so who knows, the engineers could be complaining that I leave undocumented code everywhere 😂
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
Not new. 8ish years ago I worked with a staff front end dev who didn’t know how css classes worked and I had to explain it to them. And then they told me I was wrong. They never merged a single line of code before they got fired.
bleep_bloop_92@reddit
Any recommendations on how to keep up with new technology? Do you have any favourite podcasts or newsletters or are there specific subredits? The tech I use at work is mainly python + aws but I'm interested in anything exciting.
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
I like low level and primeagen for like actual tech content.
I highly recommend following content on the edges of tech. A lot of financial content talks a ton about tech for obvious reasons and is much less hype and much more factual.
Also when you see an article that says “study says insane claim” go read the actual study. It probably doesn’t say that.
Assume anyone trying to sell you something is probably lying.
tikhonjelvis@reddit
I've gotten comfortable reading academic—mostly PL—papers. Either from recent conferences or ones that are suggested by friends/online/etc.
casualPlayerThink@reddit
Not sure if you should turn on the noise and hop on the hype train. There are good lists (like HN and dev newsletters), but keep in mind, this kind of technology creep shall give you the same bad thoughts in the long run as Insta and other fake/filtered images give bad examples and thoughts to young people.
Career-wise, I would rather recommend focusing on one field and doing some projects to practice it to have on-field experience with that, and that could lead to the decision if you are really interested in it.
bleep_bloop_92@reddit
HN?
atlkb@reddit
Hacker news
pwd-ls@reddit
Follow the subreddits, social accounts, and/or blogs for major tech that you use.
There are podcasts and YouTubers you can follow too; many are mostly for entertainment, but often you’ll get some practical things to consider. Prime’s tech article reads are a good example of this, “edutainment”.
NowAUser42@reddit
For the experienced devs, do you think you can grow well enough, maybe to medior or even senior in a startup company when there is no dev with senior (years of) experience but all are around the same level?
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
Yes but it’s much harder. I don’t personally like it. Basically you have to find outside mentorship. Or like maybe you can get ai to do it these days if you ask right. But there is a ton of stuff that you only learn because a human tells you something is wrong. All of that is lost if you are the smartest person in the room. So you have to go find a room where you aren’t. I used a lot of meetups early in my career.
Honestly, I’m 10 years in right now and I still think it’s a negative to be the smartest person in the room.
casualPlayerThink@reddit
Yes, you can grow, but your path will have more downs, and will be longer without a good mentor.
[Tl;dr] Being senior is not just the passing years (i worked with a guy who had 27 years exp, and his knowledge level in PHP was on a junior level). It is experience (facing problems), as well as different solutions (of the same problem) as well the mindset (and maturity behind it).
AccomplishedLeave506@reddit
Yup. Ten years of experience? Is it ten years of experience, or the same year of experience ten times? There's a vast difference between the two.
NowAUser42@reddit
Thanks for the answer!
fakeclown@reddit
What books do you think that all junior developers should read? My current list is
Reading these books shouldn't be like reading the bible. The point of reading these books is more about having awareness on industry practices. I think these are classics that programmers should read. I am building a library for juniors who are joining our team. What books do you recommend to add to this list?
nio_rad@reddit
"Code" by Charles Petzold. Probably somewhat too basic for CS-students, but recommended for everyone else imho
https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/code-the-hidden-language-of-computer-hardware-and-software-9780137909100
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
This is one of my favorite books it’s the only book I will actually buy and give to people
ShoePillow@reddit
As a junior, I enjoyed and learned from code complete 2.
tikhonjelvis@reddit
My two main suggestions are The Essence of Software to learn how to think about conceptual design and Debugging: 9 Indispensable Rules to learn that debugging is a skill you can approach systematically.
I've actually given away like 10+ copies of Debugging to folks I've worked with because almost nobody teaches debugging. The first time I even heard of the idea that debugging was a systematic skill was in a presentation during an internship I did after junior year in college—and, as far as I can tell, most people never even got something like that!
SucculentSuspition@reddit
The Pragmatic Programmer. Stands the test of time, and several concepts like tracer bullets serve as a sort of conceptual secrete hand shake with old timers.
NetGroundbreaking913@reddit
1 YOE, honestly considering quitting.
Hey y’all, I need some advice. I got a new position at a large company as a Junior dev and I don’t know where to start honestly, it’s all a confusing mess.
One thing I have done wrong is I did stop trying to take as much initiative with trying to find out more about the product and just focused on making sure I have no user stories go over the deadline or defects, which so far has never happened. I just got tired of being told no and that seems to be the easiest way of doing things. OH YES, I also use AI too much I feel. I need to actually get into the practice of writing more syntax myself, but i do prod the output to make sure it makes logical sense and debug it. But yes, this will be an impediment to my bare minimum syntax knowledge and that’s kind of embarrassing for me. It’s not like I can’t read and understand the code, I just can’t write it off memory. It’s just hard to fit learning into the constant never ending time crunch, I do 6-7 points a sprint sometimes.
Also, I still haven’t met with my manager to set goals and it’s been 6 months so I have no idea if I’m performing well or not. I asked, and was ignored.
Oh yes, I wrote a doc on all this and presented it to my manager in the performance feedback meeting but he rushed me through my doc since he was on a time crunch and said the “sit next to your tech lead” part. HR did nothing as well.
Idk man what do y’all think.
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
Couple things.
endurbro420@reddit
Tbh it sounds like you work in a very toxic environment. The lead laughing while watching you work is completely unprofessional and telling of the culture there. I suspect the good manager you had left for similar reasons.
casualPlayerThink@reddit
I highly recommend to leave that place, it won't help you in the long run.
This is, unfortunately, quite generic. I experienced many years back (not just as a junior/med, but I saw that happen to others). Leave that place. They fell into the typical stupidity of expecting senior knowledge from juniors, and everything is just sprint/task/ticket points. Highly toxic. Good for learning experience and to get pressure and learn about yourself (how you can tolerate). We know, we are just numbers in a spreadsheet, ultimately, but this kind of behavior is counter-productive.
In your upcoming new job interviews, you already have some questions, how often they have performance reviews (should be like one per year only), as well as how they manage tickets, sprints, deliveries, expectations, etc.
Don't forget to write down what you have learned at this place, which will come in handy in later years.
NetGroundbreaking913@reddit
Thank you for your feedback. Yes, in this job market, I unfortunately have to upskilling and wait it out in the mean time. I already have two relevant popular industry certifications and I plan on getting a third(this is a big one and I study in my off time). I plan to use my certs and sprint points completed in defense of my performance and use it to possibly leverage a new role, either on a new team within the organization or outside of it. But it’s definitely a constant stress. Not as stressful as college gets since I have money saved but it’s a stress working full time and then studying for two to four hours on top of that daily.
sannysanoff@reddit
You are in bad luck. You should try starting in small company on role that matches your level. What you describe is bad place to start.
solojinwoosan@reddit
What's the recommendation on working with a coworker who doesn't pull their weight? So far I've just kept quiet because I searched around on reddit, and it seems people suggest "snitches get stitches".
My manager does mid year performance feedback where they gather feedback from team members about other members. I'm going to be asked to give feedback about this coworker.
I'm currently work on a project with two other members, with one being a senior. Since I joined the team, myself and the senior have been doing 98% of the work. The other coworker is almost never in the pair programming sessions or if they are, they're quiet the entire time. We use Github for our repos, and in the Insights page, it shows the coworker hasn't made a commit in 3 months. But despite this, during daily standups, they give updates as if they're regularly involved. The occasion they do pick up work, they get it done eventually at their pace.
I can't say if it has affected our progress directly; maybe we might be further along if all three members were doing equal work. I wouldn't want the coworker to be praised or promoted if they don't deserve it.
How do I go about giving feedback; do I mention the Github insights page; do I mention this and say ask the senior for more confirmation; do I keep quiet and mention when they occasionally pick up work they get it done ("occasionally" as a way to allude what's going on); etc?
0dev0100@reddit
Give honest, professional feedback. No more. No less.
666codegoth@reddit
If your teammate is not meeting expectations for his or her role, I would let the business come to this conclusion themselves. Pointing out another engineer's poor performance will have no positive impact on your performance rating, and might result in you being labeled as a poor collaborator, which can hinder your progress if you're aiming for senior+ roles. If the teammate in question is repeatedly underperforming, it is only a matter of time before someone with power/influence in your organization notices. I have seen this happen countless times.
I think your best option is to speak with the engineer directly in a private 1:1 call/meeting. I don't have a particular playbook or script for this type of tough conversation, but the general tone should be "tactfully honest" (as opposed to "brutally honest"). In my experience, a direct, friendly and honest conversation is the best route to resolution.
solojinwoosan@reddit
Most of what you've mentioned is why I've kept quiet so far. But now I'm being asked to give in person feedback about this teammate, good or constructive feedback.
Can I say "teammate doesn't seem to be actively involved and it would help the team if they were"? Is that constructive or is that also considered pointing out poor performance? Otherwise I don't have anything to say and I'm worried the manager might try to solicit more out of me.
ShoePillow@reddit
No, it sounds like complaining to me.
In your shoes, I would ask an AI how to present this in a positive light, while answering only what has been asked. It usually has better approaches to these HR type situations than what I come up with myself.
solojinwoosan@reddit
This is a tricky situation to be in.
Chatgpt is suggesting to point out that the work is being done mostly by myself and the senior. According to it, this is to help bring awareness and improve team effectiveness. Mentioning the coworker working independently can potentially mean they're making meaningful contributions when they're not.
I've played around with different prompts but it's mostly the same.
xeteriop@reddit
Hey devs I’m a student in college and wondering what you guys think is a good way to get foot in the door. Currently gonna be a junior with multiple projects but no real experience. How would you guys move in this economy? Also if anyone could review my resume it’s be great!
AccomplishedLeave506@reddit
I know it's the standard response, but it's what I would do if I was starting again. Join one, or possibly even two, open source projects. Something that you would find interesting. You may need to shop around for a project that will work for you.
When I was starting out there wasn't anywhere near the same level of open source stuff so it was much harder to get into. Find a project you like. Preferably one you use. Could be software tooling, a framework, home automation (like home assistant) - just something you would like to improve. And then send a message to the maintainers explaining you are relatively new to the field, trying to gain experience and something for the CV and the project they maintain is something you are interested in and would like to help with.
Ask for something relatively simple to do that they'd like to get done but haven't had the time to get to. Remind them you're only just starting out so might need some pointers. Like I said, you might need to shop around until you find a project that suits you. Not all of them will be interested in hand holding someone with little experience. The projects that do though will be a goldmine of knowledge for you.
The open source work might not get you a paying gig itself, but it will gain you valuable contacts and experience you can talk about during an interview.
apartment-seeker@reddit
Sure, I will review your resume.
ccb621@reddit
Get an internship.
False_Tomorrow_5970@reddit
How often should I be updating my manager?
We've been busy working to support a highly visible project with a lot of higher up interest. Each dev works somewhat separately but has to communicate with people (designers, domain experts) outside the team i.e. chase people to provide missing/incorrect details. I do this independently and it mostly works well and I'm able to get things done.
There's an instance where I kept following up with designers but no one was willing to own and provide the design I needed and it stretched on for months. I followed up many times privately and publicly and it became clear to me I won't get a response so I implemented it myself but the QA required the designs for verification. I mentioned it to my manager and PO trying to get their help but no luck from their involvement. I had long moved my task to the blocked column and continued working on other things, but I think I messed up by not continuing to harp on it. It was visibly blocked on every tracker we have so I assumed there is no need to repeat it (no updates = no movement), but while self-reflecting I'm sure I could've handled this better. Should I have involved my manager earlier? Should I have reminded him more often? Should I have been mentioning this during every standup?
Imo, continuing to bring the issue up past 2-3 times felt unproductive and like complaining to me, but I always made the issue clear when asked about the status.
casualPlayerThink@reddit
Normally, I would say, it is healthy to update your team/manager each day once or when there is a significant changes introduced.
In your case, there are many problems that block you, but aren't in your power to change it. There are miscommunications (aren't designers updated and assigned to tasks???), as well as your manager seems not fulfilling his/her only duty to manage the team. I would go for a higher level and address this there. You either need to step up or need a different team or manager.
Fearless-Top-3038@reddit
Recently ended a 4-5 month job prep + search and landed an offer at a big tech adjacent company (in terms of TC). Open to any direct questions here as a way to give back