Local dev creates better software with this mind-blowing trick!
“Junior devs hate him!” … and he doesn’t give a shit if they can’t handle a direct, blunt feedback.
You have to wake up eventually Photo: Flickr
After years of playing around with computers, hacking games, writing scripts, tinkering with your website, you’ve just gotten your first part-time job as a software developer. You get to spend most of your time following online lessons & tutorials, you’re getting paid for it, and you’re only in high school. Life as a software developer sure is great.
What’s next?
So a few years pass, high school is over, there’s a full-time position opening up at that company, and you could probably get that instead of going to college. After all, you’ll get actual experience, and that’s what really matters, right? Who needs college anyway when everything you need to know is available online - you can just skip the boring parts instead of wasting your time attending lessons.
Let’s see … there’s an algorithms course, but it takes three months. How about “quick algorithms online course”? It covers lists, queue, and dictionary. You already know those. Let’s just find something that won’t take too much of your time, preferably with a somewhat trustworthy certification to show for yourself. Ideally, something that will also help you solve interview questions.
Advancing your career
You’ve done a few courses, you’ve got a few years of experience, you’re entirely independent at your current position, and after listing it all on your LinkedIn profile, you’re already getting quite a few offers from recruiters. One of them is this medium-sized company which offers a pretty good salary for entry-level positions, a relaxed and relatively young work environment, big and exciting projects, and they don’t require formal education as long as you got what it takes.
The only catch? Your senior is The Cranky Dev, and he can be pretty harsh when someone doesn’t take time to find a proper solution on Google, or when they fail at things basic formal education would’ve taught them.
It’s that easy; it’s that hard Photo: SHEN COMIX / owlturd.com
Welcome to the real world
Yes it’s an entry-level position, yes you’re still a junior dev, but we didn’t hire you to learn things while others help you with your work. We’re willing to let you work on somewhat important code, we’re happy to give you more time to research your solution, and we’re here to direct you towards the right solution. Prove yourself, and you’ll get a higher position, more autonomy, and a better salary.
Analogously, if you think an O(n^3) solution to a problem with lots of data is okay or if you fail to utilise basic database indexing, prepare to get shit from anyone who actually sat through Algorithms 101 & basic concepts of databases. And if your approach sucks, accept that and try something else, stop crying because another dev gave you a blunt answer instead of doing your job for you.