There is a lot going on in the world right now. I often find myself oscillating between being anxious about the wellbeing of myself and those I lov...
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Just wanted to applaud you for your vulnerability here and also offer a thought: our pains and fears are all relative. It's so important to put our struggles in perspective the way you have ("first world problems!") and pay our immense respect to those who are in need of help right now, but you are still a human experiencing a difficult transition right now.
I'm not a dev, but I work closely with them in my job and I really took for granted how helpful it was to have an engineer sitting next to me to go over high-level concepts IRL. You're doing something difficult without that near-proximity support now, but just remember that everyone you look to for questions was once in the same stage as you are now. Be gentle with yourself and also proud of your accomplishments! Your goal to be talkative in Slack is a great one that sets an open, friendly example for others.
Take care, Caitlyn!
Thought I was the only one lol. I started my first dev job a month ago using a framework that was completely new to me. I’ve been picking it up gradually but there are still components of the system I am clueless about. During my time in the office, things were great! My coworkers would aid me in anything I was having trouble on but now even thru slack and the other channels of communication, reaching out seems more difficult.
This was comforting to read. I’m in the middle-end of a software engineering boot camp and have struggled with similar emotions. I’m very excited to enter this field, but nervous for the state of the economy and available jobs(especially with so many experienced DEVs looking for work). I want to stay motivated and hungry but often times find my mind drifting to worries about the future. Thanks for sharing.
I myself am in a similar situation. I have been in the QA department and after this disease happened I started to believe more in myself to improve. I think this is the best time to handle all of those ideas and put them into a list and then build.
You are right, that there are so many Devs looking for a job, but you should not be one of them. You should become creative and start to improve your portfolio. Even if your app shows hello world in different languages , but that is still an app with many of functions which you need to know to get a job :)
That's a great idea!
One thing that I would encourage you to do. Instead of slacking all the questions, it might be more efficient to ask whether if you could jump on a short call instead. That way it's also more similar to the way it would have happenend in the office.
I would say this is especially important if you have an idea for an approach, but you're not sure whether this is the correct approach to take. Discussing that over slack can often get a bit lengthy, and could well be shorter if you just had a video call where you discuss it.
Good luck! I'm sure you will do well!
Thank you a lot for sharing Caitlyn!
I'm from Milan, Italy, I work at DEV and I am currently at the 26th day of quarantine (my calendar says it'll end at day 38, but it's unlikely) but I don't really want to dispense suggestions as I reached the conclusion that whatever anyone of us is feeling during this worldwide crisis is the right thing to feel. Don't know if that makes any sense.
Take care!
Caitlyn, wanted to let you know that I'm a twenty-five year veteran in the industry, and I definitely feel some of the same boundaries and pressures you do. You're not alone, and you're definitely thinking about this the right way, IMHO.
More to the point, your post comes at a great time for me, because I'm going to be working with folks inside my company around how to spin up a virtual program for our incoming interns, and it was very helpful to read this and "get inside the head" of somebody who's new to the industry, given that it's been a quarter-century since that was me. Thank you for your candor.
Super valid to feel all the things at this (almost typed sh*t 😅) moment in history! You’re off to a great start in your tech career and I have all the confidence in the world that you’re going to continue to find ways to grow and learn while the world figures out what the new normal is. Hang in there!!!
Thank you Caitlyn for sharing! This post is great. You have found words for my diffuse feelings.
I started a new job some weeks ago and suddenly I have to work at home. (While taking care for my seven year old kid.) I wonder and struggle: Why am I so lazy? Why can't I learn the new stuff and push my side projects as I usually did? Where is my energy? Although being a senior sofware developer I have the same strange feelings.
Take care and greetings from Germany
It's so hard right now. There is no normal. We aren't trying to cope with figuring out how to work from home, we're trying to figure out how to work during a global pandemic (and you even while teaching and taking care of your kid!). Hang in there!
Thank you for sharing, Caitlyn. I had never thought about junior devs during the current situation.
Thinking back, I guess it would've been quite hard to communicate only using technology in order to get complex (technical) problems solved. At the same time, I urge you to use the current situation as an awesome learning opportunity - yes, it's hard. But it also grows you - more independence, more "thinking through what I want to ask". And I'm sure you've had moment where you start writing a question, but then suddenly come to it by yourself.
Btw. You may want to take a look at my article on similar topic - how my junior days went by:
dev.to/kethmars/from-senior-to-a-j...
That said, keep going! The fact you're an engineer is awesome. Being a junior is hard, but it's also one of the most interesting times as there's sooo much to be learned!
Hi Caitlyn, I became a web dev since last year August! So when my work announced working from home, I also worry about how am I going to grow as a dev. I understand the situation right now and it's important to take all kinds of measures. I generally ask a lot of questions and I need help all the time, I have been working from home for a bit over a month now. It has been better than I thought, whenever I am stuck with something, I just call my colleagues and I just share my screen to show them my problems. Pair programming helps a lot too. I also find it short tutorials of building some simple apps really helps you to get better. Anyways, thank you for sharing. Stay safe and happy coding.
Thank you for this, I can totally relate! I started my first job as a Software Engineer the first week of February, and even though we have the option to work from home as much as we want, I was still working from the office every day because I love the change of environment. I could just ask the people next to me for help with my project which was written in Elixir/Phoenix, something I have never used before. I now find myself asking way more questions (and way longer questions) on Slack since I don't have that real-life back and forth interaction. It hasn't been terrible, but I definitely have that feeling that I am literally the least experienced person in the company, always asking questions and maybe over-complicating simple things. I think in my (or our) case it is important to stay positive and think about it from a different perspective, because if I didn't ask questions I would be stuck forever, and more experienced people can solve certain things way faster than I can, or point me in the right direction. Also exercise could also be really good for the mind ...
Agreed that it's so important to try and stay positive and allow ourselves to feel vulnerable by asking questions. I hope your team is being supportive of you during this time!
I'm finishing up a bootcamp but firmly employed in a job I'm now fairly overqualified for, but this was so helpful to read. I'm a bit overwhelmed by trying to balance my job with my final project with motherhood with housework. It's helpful to know none of us are alone in our feelings right now! Good luck to you.
Greetings from Barcelona! I'm a software developer intern and I share the same feelings you're talking about! I can say don't give up and firstly try to face the problems with no help, that will help to improve your skills a lot!!
Hi @thecaitcode - you may have gotten enough advice by now to last the rest of times :) But I was inspired to write down some things when I read your post - sharing some actionable tips in case it's useful - dev.to/bhumi/to-the-developer-in-t.... Best,Bhumi
Hey thank you so much for sharing! It's great to hear from the other side of this.
It'll require some coordination, but you can always try to call your coworkers on Slack! Also, one positive thing about writing on Slack is that it gives you a way to take notes/save important discussions a bit quicker vs writing notes after chatting in person.
I relate so hard to this! I started my first dev job in Jan & now it's like 😶😶🧐🤯 everyday lol. Keep pushing forward! 💛
You got this too!! 💪🏻
I'm barely at month 2 of my new job after graduating from a bootcamp, and I could relate to everything you said. Thanks for sharing!
Don't worry about your momentum or not moving fast enough. It is sometimes better to slow down, look back and remind yourself of your true goals rather than just moving furiously forwards just for the sake of it. I think this will create a more sustainable mindset. I also tend to reproach myself when I feel like I could have done more than I actually did.
Thanks for this, Caitlyn! I'm curious to know what your "list of to-knows for the associate software engineer title" and "list of to-knows for the software engineer title" are.
Ooh that could be a whole other post! I’ll do that and share
Wow!!! I don't have anything encouraging to say but I'm just wowed by your openess and sincerity to put that all out there. Damn!
Thank you Caitlyn for your thoughts and vulnerability. These are certainly challenging times.
No matter how I try to emphasize you I may not know what you are going through. But stay positive my advice is try read scriptures (bible or Quran) and there is this book too I will suggest to to "man in search of meaning " by Victor Franklie
Really enjoyed this Caitlyn!
Keep doing amazing things!
Enjoy this experience because it will not last long. In a couple of months you will be sharing the usual working facilities with your workmates as it anything had happened