Typical rakes in the way of a programmer from Junior to Senior
A young programmer, who has barely finished or has not even finished a university, is ready to move mountains, study, study and study again and he thinks of the nearby future:
But the more experienced comrades know that, in fact, the rake has long been carefully laid out on its path and the path from Junior to Senior looks something like this:
')
Let us recall some typical rakes that we all (well, or most) have attacked without even noticing. Of course, for experienced developers, a lot of things will seem obvious captaincy, but young professionals such traps can easily lead to the dark side.
Symptoms :
A small firm, gaining programmers without experience. At the interview about future responsibilities they throw out a huge list of “telephone support, network installation, testing, business analysis, user training ... what is programming? And yes ... of course, and programming "
What rake :
In the best case, you will be deceived just programming in the list of your duties and is not included, or enters according to the principle if you really want in your personal time, you can give us something for free.
Why at best? Because at worst, you will write the code with your left heel, pressing the net with your right heel, holding the phone in your left hand, trying to understand the problem of a dissatisfied customer, and making records with your right hand. This situation is very typical for a small company that is trying to do everything at the expense of small resources. Eternal time trouble, the principle of fig-two and in the product, the range from drawing pages on the web to the administration of sites. The problem is that it is very difficult to learn how to program correctly when you work as a human orchestra, and there is nobody from whom.
Pros :
After such work, any other will seem calm and unhurried.
Recipe :
If possible, look for organizations where they are not trying to combine the roles of a programmer and a loader. In extreme cases, learn everything you can and look for a new job.
Symptoms :
A large firm, down to the bloody Enterprise. During the interview, you are told a long time about your wonderful core, how many inventions they have. It is quickly possible to understand that the firm has everything its own: ORM, collections, framework, integration, platform, everything is naturally closed and proprietary.
What rake :
The first time you play with interest with someone else's code, add it and understand other people's ideas. It takes a year, two, five, you decide to change jobs, come to the interview and all the questions "do you know open framework A or library B" answer "no, we had our own", in the end, the darkened interviewer starts asking you elementary questions about the collections, but you understand that even the collections you had your own ...
Pros :
You will learn a wide experience in cycling for a variety of tasks, sometimes it can be useful ...
Recipe :
Participate in open-source projects using popular technologies and frameworks. Always try to update the knowledge of modern technology and frameworks of your language.
Symptoms :
It took a couple of months at work and you were transferred from junior to midals for heroic merit in coding, a couple of months already called senior, then leading programmers, etc.
What rake :
Take a look. Is it true that you are such a genius or the management of your company, according to the old Russian tradition, replacing a normal salary with orders and titles? The problem is that you cannot become senior for a year, since one of its most important qualities is professional intuition, the ability to find a middle ground between patterns and simplicity, between commenting on everything in a row or vice versa a complete refusal to comment, on clean code precepts. This is tantamount to becoming a great surgeon a year after graduation.
On the one hand, there is no big problem in this, but a person usually seldom includes common sense and really starts to believe that he knows and knows how. He is very offended by the minuses on the review code and is very surprised if his other companies do not want to be senior.
Pros :
Self-reliance is great, especially when it’s reasonable
Recipe :
Self-criticism, self-criticism and self-criticism again ...
Symptoms :
State or semi-state company or a company whose main activity is in no way connected with IT. There are no technical interviews about hiring or they are being carried out by an obviously weak specialist ... or an old man who is trying to ask about the programming languages ​​that have perished together with punch cards.
What rake :
In such companies, people who can not learn, the authorities often do not understand what and how to do, the production process is built “ask the accountants there, they need to do some kind of program”, often programmers and engineers, in understanding the manual, are almost the same too, and often developers are forced to do presentations and reinstall the OS. Development Methodologies? No, did not hear ...
Pros :
Even the most average junior in such a swamp can feel like a cool specialist, since all more or less good specialists have long escaped from there (if they ever were), besides, this same junior can try to develop an application in all roles from business analyst to the tester.
Cons :
It is very difficult to learn something in such a company, simply because there is nobody from whom.
Recipe :
In general, change jobs, but if it is impossible ... Learn yourself anywhere and anything.
Symptoms :
You are a Junior developer who is going to constantly work only in freelancing.
What rake :
Freelance can be useful if you have already gained experience and have taken place as a specialist, when Junior developer starts with freelancing, then freelancing of the brain begins, he has no examples of senior developers, the customer’s code doesn't really care about the code, as a rule, the same junior freelancers that he himself. Short orders / projects form a development model “to put it together, to make a patch, to get the money and forget it forever.”
Pros :
As an extra income, there is nothing wrong with freelancing, just like if you have 5 years of industrial programming behind your back.
Cons :
It is very easy for a young developer to get used to the product and to the product, from which it will be difficult to unlearn later. And real employers are very skeptical about the experience in freelancing, especially if the experience is only in freelancing ... there will generally be doubts whether a person is able to work in a team in principle.
Recipe :
Do not go completely into freelancing at the beginning of your career or constantly study materials on writing the correct code.
Symptoms :
Your boss comes to you and speaks. “And let you become a business analyst / project manager / designer / technical writer, etc.” Hooray! - you scream in your heart, because you were taught that raising is always good.
What rake :
If you translate the speech of the chief in Google translate from diplomatic to Russian, then it sounds like, “but let you stop being a programmer, throw out all the years of experience and a diploma and start learning from scratch a new profession”? If it seems to you that programming is impossible to unlearn a bicycle and you can combine the functions of a manager and a programmer - you are mistaken, in six months or a year without programming your level will drop very much. If you think that the manager does not need to be able to do anything, just lead - you are mistaken. In general, a manager is a completely separate profession, almost completely unrelated to programming, you can be an excellent project manager and not be able to program at all. Even combining the work of a programmer and a team lead without a loss for one of the specializations is already difficult, for a project manager to combine his work and programming is generally harmful.
Pros :
If a new profession is something you have dreamed of all your life - go ahead! If you are tired of the old role and you have lost motivation - go ahead!
Cons :
You may lose the experience of a previous profession and fail to quickly learn the skills of a new profession. Actually, as soon as you become a manager, you will no longer be a programmer and it’s not yet a fact that you will be able to become a really good manager.
Recipe :
Or do not go to the managers, or if you are offered, then from what you can not refuse, engage in open source / own personal commercial projects to maintain programming skills.
Symptoms :
You work from call to call, you think that you already know everything and there is nothing to learn, you are completely satisfied with the current work.
What rake :
The programmer is like a bicycle, as soon as he stops - falls. Having ceased to develop, the programmer inevitably begins to degrade, turning into a robot for writing code. The problem is usually that he himself, as a rule, does not notice it, he seems to be working and working, copying his old ideas from project to project. Here, the criterion is simple, if you have not studied / created a single technology / library / language / framework for a year, then you have something wrong with self-development.
Pros :
You are in the comfort zone, there is money, there is stable work, you are fine.
Cons :
You got into a time machine and found yourself in the era of Brezhnev’s stagnation.
Recipe :
Decide whether this is really what you need, if not change - change jobs, open your own business, run open source projects, eventually become a manager.
...
And then everyone can write their favorite rake in the comments. And yes! All with Friday!
But the more experienced comrades know that, in fact, the rake has long been carefully laid out on its path and the path from Junior to Senior looks something like this:
')
Let us recall some typical rakes that we all (well, or most) have attacked without even noticing. Of course, for experienced developers, a lot of things will seem obvious captaincy, but young professionals such traps can easily lead to the dark side.
1. Man Orchestra
Symptoms :
A small firm, gaining programmers without experience. At the interview about future responsibilities they throw out a huge list of “telephone support, network installation, testing, business analysis, user training ... what is programming? And yes ... of course, and programming "
What rake :
In the best case, you will be deceived just programming in the list of your duties and is not included, or enters according to the principle if you really want in your personal time, you can give us something for free.
Why at best? Because at worst, you will write the code with your left heel, pressing the net with your right heel, holding the phone in your left hand, trying to understand the problem of a dissatisfied customer, and making records with your right hand. This situation is very typical for a small company that is trying to do everything at the expense of small resources. Eternal time trouble, the principle of fig-two and in the product, the range from drawing pages on the web to the administration of sites. The problem is that it is very difficult to learn how to program correctly when you work as a human orchestra, and there is nobody from whom.
Pros :
After such work, any other will seem calm and unhurried.
Recipe :
If possible, look for organizations where they are not trying to combine the roles of a programmer and a loader. In extreme cases, learn everything you can and look for a new job.
2. We have everything in Greece
Symptoms :
A large firm, down to the bloody Enterprise. During the interview, you are told a long time about your wonderful core, how many inventions they have. It is quickly possible to understand that the firm has everything its own: ORM, collections, framework, integration, platform, everything is naturally closed and proprietary.
What rake :
The first time you play with interest with someone else's code, add it and understand other people's ideas. It takes a year, two, five, you decide to change jobs, come to the interview and all the questions "do you know open framework A or library B" answer "no, we had our own", in the end, the darkened interviewer starts asking you elementary questions about the collections, but you understand that even the collections you had your own ...
Pros :
You will learn a wide experience in cycling for a variety of tasks, sometimes it can be useful ...
Recipe :
Participate in open-source projects using popular technologies and frameworks. Always try to update the knowledge of modern technology and frameworks of your language.
3. Copper tubes and star disease
Symptoms :
It took a couple of months at work and you were transferred from junior to midals for heroic merit in coding, a couple of months already called senior, then leading programmers, etc.
What rake :
Take a look. Is it true that you are such a genius or the management of your company, according to the old Russian tradition, replacing a normal salary with orders and titles? The problem is that you cannot become senior for a year, since one of its most important qualities is professional intuition, the ability to find a middle ground between patterns and simplicity, between commenting on everything in a row or vice versa a complete refusal to comment, on clean code precepts. This is tantamount to becoming a great surgeon a year after graduation.
On the one hand, there is no big problem in this, but a person usually seldom includes common sense and really starts to believe that he knows and knows how. He is very offended by the minuses on the review code and is very surprised if his other companies do not want to be senior.
Pros :
Self-reliance is great, especially when it’s reasonable
Recipe :
Self-criticism, self-criticism and self-criticism again ...
4. Swamp
Symptoms :
State or semi-state company or a company whose main activity is in no way connected with IT. There are no technical interviews about hiring or they are being carried out by an obviously weak specialist ... or an old man who is trying to ask about the programming languages ​​that have perished together with punch cards.
What rake :
In such companies, people who can not learn, the authorities often do not understand what and how to do, the production process is built “ask the accountants there, they need to do some kind of program”, often programmers and engineers, in understanding the manual, are almost the same too, and often developers are forced to do presentations and reinstall the OS. Development Methodologies? No, did not hear ...
Pros :
Even the most average junior in such a swamp can feel like a cool specialist, since all more or less good specialists have long escaped from there (if they ever were), besides, this same junior can try to develop an application in all roles from business analyst to the tester.
Cons :
It is very difficult to learn something in such a company, simply because there is nobody from whom.
Recipe :
In general, change jobs, but if it is impossible ... Learn yourself anywhere and anything.
5. Freelance
Symptoms :
You are a Junior developer who is going to constantly work only in freelancing.
What rake :
Freelance can be useful if you have already gained experience and have taken place as a specialist, when Junior developer starts with freelancing, then freelancing of the brain begins, he has no examples of senior developers, the customer’s code doesn't really care about the code, as a rule, the same junior freelancers that he himself. Short orders / projects form a development model “to put it together, to make a patch, to get the money and forget it forever.”
Pros :
As an extra income, there is nothing wrong with freelancing, just like if you have 5 years of industrial programming behind your back.
Cons :
It is very easy for a young developer to get used to the product and to the product, from which it will be difficult to unlearn later. And real employers are very skeptical about the experience in freelancing, especially if the experience is only in freelancing ... there will generally be doubts whether a person is able to work in a team in principle.
Recipe :
Do not go completely into freelancing at the beginning of your career or constantly study materials on writing the correct code.
6. Horizontal and diagonal growth
Symptoms :
Your boss comes to you and speaks. “And let you become a business analyst / project manager / designer / technical writer, etc.” Hooray! - you scream in your heart, because you were taught that raising is always good.
What rake :
If you translate the speech of the chief in Google translate from diplomatic to Russian, then it sounds like, “but let you stop being a programmer, throw out all the years of experience and a diploma and start learning from scratch a new profession”? If it seems to you that programming is impossible to unlearn a bicycle and you can combine the functions of a manager and a programmer - you are mistaken, in six months or a year without programming your level will drop very much. If you think that the manager does not need to be able to do anything, just lead - you are mistaken. In general, a manager is a completely separate profession, almost completely unrelated to programming, you can be an excellent project manager and not be able to program at all. Even combining the work of a programmer and a team lead without a loss for one of the specializations is already difficult, for a project manager to combine his work and programming is generally harmful.
Pros :
If a new profession is something you have dreamed of all your life - go ahead! If you are tired of the old role and you have lost motivation - go ahead!
Cons :
You may lose the experience of a previous profession and fail to quickly learn the skills of a new profession. Actually, as soon as you become a manager, you will no longer be a programmer and it’s not yet a fact that you will be able to become a really good manager.
Recipe :
Or do not go to the managers, or if you are offered, then from what you can not refuse, engage in open source / own personal commercial projects to maintain programming skills.
7. Loss of motivation for development
Symptoms :
You work from call to call, you think that you already know everything and there is nothing to learn, you are completely satisfied with the current work.
What rake :
The programmer is like a bicycle, as soon as he stops - falls. Having ceased to develop, the programmer inevitably begins to degrade, turning into a robot for writing code. The problem is usually that he himself, as a rule, does not notice it, he seems to be working and working, copying his old ideas from project to project. Here, the criterion is simple, if you have not studied / created a single technology / library / language / framework for a year, then you have something wrong with self-development.
Pros :
You are in the comfort zone, there is money, there is stable work, you are fine.
Cons :
You got into a time machine and found yourself in the era of Brezhnev’s stagnation.
Recipe :
Decide whether this is really what you need, if not change - change jobs, open your own business, run open source projects, eventually become a manager.
...
N. ...
And then everyone can write their favorite rake in the comments. And yes! All with Friday!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/271297/
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