Roles and expectations of a junior programmer [closed]

Question

Hopefully this is the correct place for this question:

TL;DR: How much should I expect to "figure out" on my own in a major software company's framework and how much should I expect to be trained?

Background:

I recently switched roles at a major software company to software engineering. I came from an extensive background of development (primarily web) and a deep love of programming and learning. I've been having difficulties since I started four months ago in getting adequate training to excel and grow in my new role.

In my last position(s) I was encouraged to OFTEN ask for help and to voice questions. A coworker became agitated when I didn't ask enough in fact. I was able to ask 10-20 questions a day and get great feedback and direction. I grew at a phenomenal rate and was creating full-fledged, non-trivial web applications in Javascript, Php, and MySQL in a matter of a few months. Life was great.

In my new position, getting help is terribly difficult. Although I have had no real negative pressure placed upon me and the expectation is that it will take up to a year for me to "ramp up", I am desperately unhappy. I have a deep desire to work, create, produce and contribute. I have received extremely high praise on my reviews for being a motivated, productive self-starter that consumes and understands information at an unbelievable rate, but in my new job I personally feel like I am stagnating due to a lack of real mentorship. I have read seven solid books on Java, software engineering and architecture, computer science, and similar subjects in the last four months, browsed dozens of additional books and read hundreds of articles in order to get my knowledge of the technology landscape to a good level. Learning the custom framework for my company has proven difficult because there is obviously no book, little coherent documentation, and the usual trait of software engineering being such a tribal model for passing on knowledge. This framework is global. Enormous. Powerful. I'm excited to be a part of it, but with no guides.

I can only ask my coworkers one or two questions a day before they get frustrated, tell me to figure it out and struggle, or blow me off with a "it's not my job to train you". My manager is great and supportive, but unwilling to assign mentorship responsibilities to anyone. We are not blasted with work by any stretch of the imagination, being quite bored recently in fact. The tasks that I've been assigned that do not require mentorship I have been quite productive on. I have even sought out work to help other departments that are willing to spend the 10-15 minutes getting me set up (bug fixes for examples, great way to learn and contribute to your company).

I'm unhappy, frustrated and lost because I WANT to work and produce. Most of my mentors that are outside my department have happily spent huge amounts of time training me and expect that I will need training as a junior developer.

Is this my fault? Should I be struggling and figuring things out with no help, over a year of expected unproductivity? Should my coworkers be actually training me?

Your honest opinions would be most welcome, thanks for reading my essay! :)

Answer 1

It all depends on the job, however I would expect all Juniors to attempt to solve the problem on their own before asking for help.

You learn and grow much faster if you figure out things for yourself instead of being handed answers from someone else. It might be a little bit slower to learn, however you'll retain that knowledge and understand the process better, which will make you faster in the future.

In addition, I've always maintained that a good programmer needs to have decent research skills, and the ability to teach themselves. Technology is always changing, and we need to be able to change with it to keep up.

I'd suggest doing your best to figure out what you can on your own, and what you can't figure out put aside and ask for another developers assistance when they have a few moments of free time.

I can't speak for others, but when I'm "in the zone" working on something, I hate being interrupted with questions that require me to change my train of thought. I'd much rather have alert me of the fact they need assistance when I have a few minutes available, and then I can finish up what I'm doing before what they need.