290
votes
Accepted
How to handle a developer getting defensive when faced with breaking code?
"Hey, you made this X change to that Y function. This change breaks my
code because it's not taking Z in account, and Z is what happens on my
side. Is it ok with you to do K to fix it?"
You need ...
- 5,012
255
votes
Accepted
As a junior is it unethical to leave after 1 year for remote?
As a junior is it unethical to leave after 1 year for remote?
Threatening to leave will not get you anything other than possibly being let go from your company before you have a replacement job.
If ...
- 79.6k
241
votes
Accepted
When I need to constructively criticize someone's code, what can I do to "soften the blow" and increase the impact at the same time?
There's a couple of things that I've found help a lot with the reception of code reviews:
Don't say "you", or variations on it ("your code", etc).
You're not ripping apart "his" code or "his" ...
- 22.9k
204
votes
I get bored when people talk too much in meetings. What should I do?
What do you advice me to do?
Grin and bear it. Pay attention in spite of your boredom. Take notes.
Not everything can be within your control. Not everything can be exactly the way you'd prefer.
...
- 385k
133
votes
How do I evaluate a candidate for a junior position?
As a slight frame challenge to your question, you need to get some clarity on what the role requires and then ask questions specific to that. In other words, I have the feeling that your real problem ...
- 43.6k
130
votes
Accepted
More junior teammates don’t understand my work...and that’s my fault?
I did a series of talks on what makes code simple and readable. There is no absolute answer. Much depends on the vocabulary the reader brings. Take for example:
bool retval;
if (x > 0)
{
retval =...
- 152k
128
votes
Accepted
Should I lower my expectations when interviewing someone if the company struggles to find any candidates?
However, I have no problems working with very junior employees but I
know that in the first half year/year they will require a lot of
tutoring and may even slow down the projects our team is ...
- 73.5k
125
votes
Accepted
I get bored when people talk too much in meetings. What should I do?
Bring a pad and write, write down anything.
It will keep you from looking like a zombie and if the person says something useful, you'll already have pen and paper in hand.
I have a hard time ...
- 160k
110
votes
How do I evaluate a candidate for a junior position?
For a Junior, it's less about what they know, and more about who they are.
If they don't know the answer to a technical question, follow up with something like?
You said you don't know. How would ...
- 160k
110
votes
Senior wants me gone, one way or another
Talk to your manager. That's what managers are for.
The behavior of a colleague impedes your ability to work effectively. Keep detailed notes. Describe to your manager the behavior and how it impacts ...
- 125k
108
votes
Junior developer struggles: how to communicate with management?
After two weeks, I can say with confidence that I clearly didn't create value for this company and the other developers that helped me could have done my job instead of spending time with me.
You ...
- 13.6k
106
votes
How can I state to junior engineers to not work a ticket unless he / she can own the task without demoralizing?
Your assumption seems to be that junior employees can work unsupervised. It is the very essence of juniors that they need seniors to guide them. They cannot work unsupervised. They don't know what ...
- 145k
105
votes
Can I criticise the more senior developers around me for not writing clean code?
All code should be peer reviewed (but I've worked in a lot of places where that never happened). How clean is clean? There should be coding standards and guidelines; ask for them. As to how "picky" ...
- 9,085
104
votes
Can I criticise the more senior developers around me for not writing clean code?
A few points in addition to the other answers:
Accept that, as a junior, you don't know everything :-) There may be reasons for the style of code that you are unaware of, such as:
Avoiding ...
- 1,806
99
votes
Accepted
Candidate talks over me during interview
I've always been a believer in following your "gut" and your gut is telling you that this guy won't be a good fit. You'll probably turn out to be right. If it were me, I'd follow that feeling and tell ...
- 43.3k
94
votes
How much should I be doing as the Junior Developer?
Let me restate things a little bit and provide some interpretations:
Difficult tasks are being assigned to you. That means people think you can do it.
As a junior developer, it seems like you make ...
- 903
92
votes
Junior Developer doing well but management wants to fire him
Unfortunately, it's not your decision. You can either do it or they will find someone for your position who will.
Tell him and then write him a letter of recommendation and offer to speak on his ...
- 43.3k
86
votes
Is this just impostor syndrome, or am I likely to get fired?
I think it would be extremely rare (e.g. almost never) to let anyone go after 2-4 weeks (for performance related things), and rarer still for that to happen to a junior developer, so take a deep ...
- 13.6k
72
votes
I feel ashamed about my old code
You’re ashamed because you’re growing as a software engineer?
The more you learn, the worse your old code looks... just comes with the territory. Keep looking forward, that “horrible” code you’re ...
- 3,350
72
votes
Why do IT companies hire juniors at all?
Is it cheap workforce for mundane tasks?
Yes - most companies will have a certain amount of relatively "mundane" tasks, (and by that I mean tasks that don't require the higher levels of ...
- 108k
67
votes
More junior teammates don’t understand my work...and that’s my fault?
Disclaimer: this answer will be written as if OP's coding style really is as complex as necessary (not over-complicated) and it's really good, efficient code (not something that could be done easier ...
- 4,642
66
votes
Anxious about daily stand-up meetings
I would treat your standups exactly as they were designed to be, short & to the point; "Yesterday I worked on ticket x, today I will do the same and I have no blockers and I'm open to help ...
- 825
65
votes
How much should I be doing as the Junior Developer?
Senior engineers usually have a lot of "off book" work that isn't very visible, even less visible if you are working remotely and can't see the foot traffic to their desk. You see a tiny ...
- 20.7k
61
votes
Why hire a junior in a startup?
Cheap. People with experience are expensive, people without experience - less so. Now, sometimes the old adage of 'The cheap option costs more in the long run' can be true, but not always
There's no ...
- 40.2k
55
votes
Accepted
How to deal with a difficult junior programmer?
You are the technical lead. You have a subordinate that is not only stuck on a problem for a long time without delivering, but actively refuses to accept help.
You need a one-to-one where you ...
- 170k
54
votes
Junior Developer doing well but management wants to fire him
Upon request to make it an answer...
It sounds like you've already gone to bat for this employee, but management wants him gone for their own reasons. And that really sucks, but you can help mitigate ...
- 2,635
49
votes
I get bored when people talk too much in meetings. What should I do?
As Joe mentioned in the comments, smile and deal with it. You are a junior developer. Unless you are the guy organizing the meeting and everyone that is attending the meeting is inferior to you, you ...
- 1,763
49
votes
Senior wants me gone, one way or another
As a precaution, update your resume and start putting out applications. You want to be in a strong position regardless of the outcome.
Then:
Document every last bit of hostility with an email trail. ...
- 160k
49
votes
Why hire a junior in a startup?
@TheDemonLord gives some excellent reasons in his answer (cheap being the biggest factor). To add a couple more (slightly cynical) ones:
Easy to take advantage of. Juniors will generally not know ...
- 20.1k
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