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How to deal with deadlines when you're still learning

Milecia on March 05, 2019

After you get your first job as a web developer, you'll realize there's so much more to it than you initially thought. There will be a learning cur...
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Marek Zaluski

Great advice, and I like this point especially:

If you get stuck, go get help

One of the most common issues I've seen when working with junior developers is when they sometimes spend WAY too long trying to figure out a problem on their own without asking anyone for help. And then the stress just starts compounding as the deadline gets closer.

Often the obstacle is the fact that the codebase has idiosyncracies or the project documentation is unclear. That's when a quick conversation can clear things up almost instantly.

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Milecia

Yes! I think they're just nervous about looking like they don't know what they are doing.

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Ross Henderson

Beginner devs: One thing to keep in mind is that you will get stressed. So when you do try and do something that is productive but also will help you get organised. Such as:

  • Write a to-do list. Or prioritise the one you're on.
  • Write out (using a pen/pencil) the problem you are having in basic language. Sometimes that helps with understanding the problem in a slightly different way.
  • Rubber duck to another dev/or whoever. If you can explain the problem to someone, sometimes that is enough to find the answer.

Other than that just remember: You are capable of finding the answer, but that doesn't mean help isn't the wrong way to go.

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Danilo Miranda

Good point with this article! Since I'm not a professional developer and only a few weeks ago I started applying for some jobs this is the exact thing that concerns me the most. How should I deal with pressure and deadlines when I'm not fully ready to perform the task?

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

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Milecia

I'm really glad it helped! Good luck! Just try not to let the stress get to you.

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Habib ur Rehaman

Great article this is what i have been through when i was a junior dev, procrastination is bad for junior dev as they don't have full idea how that work will scale and later on the practical part they get to know that it's at-least lengthy if not challenging.

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Brett Schmidt

How do you estimate the time to completion for those iceberg tasks like the select option while you are new?

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Milecia

Here's a few ideas:

  • look up codepen examples because that can help you see about how much code you'll be writing
  • Stack overflow is always a good place to look for questions you might have about a task when you get into those details
  • ask your coworkers because they'll be able to help you figure out those trickier task estimates
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Brett Schmidt

Thank you, the Codepen idea sounds like an exceptionally good idea.

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matbcf

Thank you very much for this great article.
I have a question about my situation: I'm the only developer in my workplace and specially lately I get struck very often with the new project based on new framework/language that I just start to learn.
In this case what is the best strategy to avoid to get struck?

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Brett Schmidt

I am in the same boat and feel for you. I find it easiest to go straight to reading the documentation compared to Dev/Medium tutorials or stack overflow.

I find Dev/Medium tutorials always give me environment issues or, stack overflow too, will get me started on the wrong foot in an unseen way.

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Jen Chan

This is something everyone needs to hear. Thanks so much!