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I work in a tiny (~10) company. I am the only developer in this company and have to deal with all the IT related stuff such as servers, SEO etc. Of course, I also program which should be my main task.
Now, my question is, what are the pros and cons of working alone as a developer?
Furthermore, I consider myself a junior since this is my first real job. Will working alone now be a problem in the long run?
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You already named some cons, having to deal with servers, SEO etc. Some more may be:
Pros I can think of:
If you like being some kind of IT janitor with all this different tasks, this is the perfekt niche for you. If you want to evolve as a developer and probably climb the job ladder, you might want to look for something else.
I was a sole developer at a company for several years and, while my use of various tools and languages did improve through use, I was making some big mistakes in design; the applications would always work, but I would do things like rolling my own XML parser. This was pre-StackOverflow days, so finding good communities to help make software engineering decisions was not great. Developers need other developers to grow; Stack Overflow, Code Review SE, or the Software Engineering SE site might be able to replace this, but I still don't think it would be as beneficial as an experienced developer being around. If you stay on, make great use of the people in these communities.
That said, being the sole developers can be extremely rewarding. Your contributions can be huge and greatly impact things; this is an awesome feeling because you'll be able to see the value you bring to the company. Your sense of accomplishment should be huge. I was able to conceive, research, and implement my own solutions to things I thought could be better with very little oversight. IT WAS WONDERFUL. You will not get that same latitude at most large companies even if you advance to a more senior position. If you do a good job, you will also be hard to replace which makes your job quite secure.
Con: You have no one to learn from
Pro: You have a job at least
Maybe there are more Cons, but the first one is so huge it's not worth continuing. Basically, it's an acceptable alternative to unemployment, but it will slow or even stop your learning. You won't get good at this profession working in a vacuum, no-one does. I wouldn't recommend this unless it's all you can get. Even as a senior, I still hugely value working with other people and learning from them.
Keep your job for now, but look out for an environment where you have learn from others more senior to you.
I’ve wound up more or less doing that for over 10 years of my career and would recommend riding it out for a bit, but plan on it being short term. An environment like that can lead to a more rounded understanding of what you do and even as a junior, you are that company’s expert and have more freedom than you likely will otherwise. If you were someday considering leadership, broader understanding won’t hurt you there either.
It won’t take terribly long before the focus lost on your core career skills and lack of mentorship slow you down. Google and StackOverflow are nice, but piecemeal learning on individual issues will be no substitute for a team. If you’re holding out for this company to grow, the odds of it ever even hitting 25 people are pretty low so there’s little chance there’ll ever be more than a couple of you. And if it does manage to really take off, you MIGHT bubble up with it or there may just be more layers inserted between you and the top.
Overall…it’s a rounding out experience but unlikely to be a good move for more than a year or so.
Just to expand a bit on the other answers, being the sole developer (as opposed to the jack of all trades of IT, which will ruin your focus) can be an interesting experience for learning, as opposed to simply a stagnation sentence.
Take into account some established teams don't necessarily follow worthwhile practices, so you get to avoid that possibility entirely if you're fresh in the business where you can't go cherry picking those.
Being the sole developer among people who just want things done lets you implement stuff however you want, and with the right mindset this can either benefit or doom you.
This is by all means a double edged sword because:
You need to plan to move on eventually:
Another thing worth mentioning is that, as contradictory as it may sound, being in solitude and having to think for yourself for a while may give you desirable traits as a leader and overall problem solver, as portrayed in this speech by William Deresiewicz at the WP Military Academy; here's an excerpt:
[...] Institutions are being guided by people who are good at keeping the routine going, but bad at thinking; specifically, bad at thinking for themselves. The solution, then, seems to be to teach people this trait. However, “thinking” isn’t something that can be taught, it must be done alone.
Ideally, a great sole developer will make themselves replaceable and eventually move on to become a very valuable asset within a team with their experience in decision making.
