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💫 Writing code | The ultimate junior developer survival guide

Pauline on October 18, 2019

Welcome to the ultimate junior web developer survival guide, part 2! 🎉 If you're new here: this guide is a series of multiple posts where I docu...
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TuWang

Really good retrospectives. It’s valuable advice for engineers at all stages!

Fun fact to share 🤪

  • I have had a new hire co-worker who was absolutely unable to do 1), but constantly doing 2) and 3).
  • He is not able to think independently before taking an action (so asking for help, nonstop) but is constantly trying to kill everyone’s baby, with a strong desire: “oh man I want to walk away from problem task ASAP”.

I appreciate great engineers. Sometimes I think we should give more credits to self-sufficient engineers ;)

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Pauline

Thank you!
Sounds like a tricky co-worker to deal with, hats off to you for working with engineers like that. :-) I can't imagine how hard it must be.

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TuWang

aha :) yes, jokes aside, we all have areas to improve. great tips in the post!

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Eduardo Campaña

The last one is always hard for me.

I think that when you feel you are about to solve the problem you have been working on for a few hours, you have already missed a better solution.

It's like if the right solution is in a path you didn't take and that's already behind you. The only way to get there is starting over with all the new knowledge you acquired that will allow you to see the path this time.

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Pauline

Totally agree, thanks for sharing your refreshing take on this!

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𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️

This is something I still struggle with a lot. Being a front end engineer, whenever I pick up a new ticket, I have the tendency to start writing code as soon as possible. I want to see changes on the screen as fast as I can. ‍

This doesn't have to be a bad thing. I do this a lot myself, and often don't even mean for it to be the final code. Writing code can be a really good way of exploring a problem because you can test solutions easily and see what works.

The key is to not get too attached to any particular solution; if something doesn't work, start the next iteration.

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schnipdip

Section 2 is always hard no matter what field you are in. The more time dedicated to solving a problem the harder it is to let go... much like a dog

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Ripaz

I'm proud of my self for being capable of killing anyone's child, even my own. Agh that came out wrong.

Back to the topic, 3rd point is hard for me. Sometimes I spend to much time on solving a problem and fail miserably. Then next day, boom, I solve it in under a hour. Sometimes hitting a 10 minute walk around office can do wonders.

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Pauline

So relatable. I still struggle with it, too. This week I had to make some CSS changes and after literally spending an entire day on it, I still wasn't getting the desired results. I knew for a fact there had to be a better way to implement it. The next day, I took a step back and suddenly had my "Eureka!"-moment, facepalming in disbelief that it took me so many hours to achieve a very simple solution haha!

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Ebrahim Batran

Great tips!

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Pauline

Thanks for reading!

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Jan Król

As a junior developer myself I have problem with all three. Grate article!

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Pauline

Same here, I guess writing them down and sharing them with the community is a way to hold myself accountable and to remind myself not to get stuck on these things :-) Glad you liked it!