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What Junior Devs Get Wrong

vincanger on April 02, 2024

Asking Senior Devs We recently took to the web dev community on Reddit to ask Senior Devs the question: What are the most damaging mi...
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Johnathan James

Regarding the question: "First Quality & Then Velocity", this falls under my general maxim, "First make it work, and then make it pretty". The idea is that the reason we are coding, in most cases, is for the business, for our clients. They are most effective when we can give them working code, even if we can think of ways to make it better. Some of those ways we will do! But they may not be worth holding up releasing functionality.

This kind of thing you only learn on the job. That is why I started the Mock Programming Job. You participate on an active team of developers, and take tasks like you would in a real programming job. We organize ourselves using Agile and we use best practices like code review, continuous integration, cloud deployment (AWS) and more. It's all free, and you get resume-worthy experience. Join us, and we will match your work!

discord.gg/2hk4aCTuJ8

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vincanger

Ooh "First make it work, and then make it pretty" I like that!

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Levi Johnson

🙏

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vincanger

:)

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Mihovil Ilakovac

So being able to take criticism graciously is an important skill to develop.

Sheeesh, this gets me even after 10 years in dev. Having patience and not taking things personally is a must.

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vincanger

It's good to remember that a lot of times others are just trying to help. Even if they are being condescending, there's nothing to gain from being defensive 🤷‍♂️

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FrontEndWebDeveloping

I agree. If the shoe fits, wear it. Fighting back won't improve your skills as a dev one lick.

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Florian

Thanks for this article! The advice to take criticism seriously but not as a personal attack is a valuable reminder which can only make life easier in the long run. Can't wait to see what further insights your YouTube video provides on this topic. 👀

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vincanger

🙏

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Luke Inglis

On the topic of thinking 'That they are bothering a senior by asking questions.'; On thing that junior devs need to know is that they are going to get it wrong and need input. In any team worth its salt they will get that input but it's a matter of when.

If you ask a question of a senior dev you will get input from them when you need it. And while we (seniors) may sometimes feel bothered to be interrupted etc. most of us really do like to talk shop and even if we were bothered initially as long as we know that you are engaged with our input than we will feel like the interruption was worth it.

If you don't ask a question but try to just 'get it done' then you will get your input when a senior reviews your code. This isn't greatl you as a dev are not getting input when you need it. I, as a reviewer, am giving my feedback in a less personal and more prescriptive manner. Which, at least for me personally, feels a lot more like work.

Worst case scenario is that your code makes it through review without being improved/fixed. In this case you are going to get your 'input' in the form of a grumpy senior who has to fix your code later.

TL;DR - Most senior devs would rather engage in discussion/collaboration early on in your process than give you a list of fixes on a PR. We'd rather work with you than for you.

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vincanger

nicely put -- "we'd rather work with you than for you"

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Ashley D

Reading this as a current student in bootcamp week 8. I love what you shared on:

"we think it's probably best for Junior devs to focus on quality first, and then improve their speed of delivery second."

At first, I felt bad for taking longer to complete the homework and labs vs my classmates, but taking the time to slow down can help me learn the concepts right and to echo your point- ensure I'm putting forward quality and accurate work. Excellent share! 🤩

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vincanger

totally! speed will come later :)

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Jake Page

Such a great idea, taking to Reddit like that. So cool to see so many diverging opinions! Thanks for the blog summary though, that turned out to be a long reddit thread. Fair play.

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vincanger

Yeah. Reddit loves when you ask them for an opinion, especially with regards to what people do wrong 😆

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zvone187

I like the cleaning up comment 😄

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vincanger

😎

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Dimitrios Mastrogiannis

Spot on advice!

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vincanger

Glad to hear it

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ARUN KRISHNAN K

Thanks for this article. I'm a beginner in this field, this is more helpful for me. Write more beginner friendly articles like this. ( Star given to your repo ⭐ )
Best regards,

Arun Krish

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vincanger

Thanks for the star! I will definitely write more articles like this! Thanks for the encouragement

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FrontEndWebDeveloping

I too am a beginner. I found this helpful. Thankyou for taking the time and trouble to make it available.

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vincanger

you're welcome!

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Bap

Bookmarked this little gem 💎

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vincanger

thanks, bap!

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Jeff Chavez

I need to hear this.

Be Flexibile & Open to Change

Thank you.

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vincanger

You're welcome! Plus, things change very quickly. We have to be ready to adapt :)

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Vivek Upadhyay

great share

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vincanger

thanks. glad you like it :)

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Madhu Saini

Nice article!!

Thanks for sharing

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vincanger

🙏

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EROS

I love it, thanks for those advices

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vincanger

You’re welcome

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Louis Weston

Love it, cool article!!

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vincanger

Thanks, Louis

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Jack Bridger

Awesome

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vincanger

thanks, Jack

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Juraj

Except for when you think it's going to take very long, then it can be done in half a day

This one resonated with me 😆

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vincanger

haha right?

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Matija Sosic

wow, this is super useful. I also remember how as a junior I felt ashamed to ask anything as it would show that I don't know what I'm doing. As a senior, that's pretty much the only thing I do :D.

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vincanger

Haha the "no shame senior" strategy. I like it :)

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Smileyfavour

Thanks for this article, it really helped alot!!

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vincanger

Oh wow. That’s great to hear :)

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vincanger

thank you!

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Levi Johnson

So helpful article!!
Thanks for sharing. :)

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vincanger

glad you found it helpful!

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elbasiri

Hello, everyone!

As a junior web developer, I recently encountered a concept that caught me off guard: the emphasis on quality over velocity. Starting a new job, I initially believed that speed was paramount. However, upon reflection, I realized the importance of combining both quality and speed. Despite my initial struggle to balance the two, I've come to prioritize quality, investing significant time into producing the best code possible. Admittedly, this approach has consumed more time than anticipated. Moving forward, I recognize the need to refine my skills, accumulate experience, and then shift my focus towards enhancing speed without compromising quality.

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FrontEndWebDeveloping

When did you start developing Elbasiri?

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elbasiri

Like 8 month ago i got into an internship i already been passionate about programming i started using python in 2019 but now i am a web developer php js and of course html/css

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val von vorn

What Junior Devs Get Wrong: Asking Senior Devs

I don't think was the intended meaning, but sometimes it can be wrong to ask senior devs - and try to imitate them, ignoring the different context and abilities. Maybe they had their own ways for certain reasons but that is not the current best practice.