Re:Ask HN: How do you define a junior developer?
by quantumhobbit on Thursday September 22, 2016 @11:53AM
(#12557729)
Nothing fixes this type of junior engineer faster than giving them some real responsibility. Let them fail then learn from it. Don't hold them back because that just builds up resentment.
Re:Ask HN: How do you define a junior developer?
by beat on Thursday September 22, 2016 @01:02PM
(#12558276)
Sadly, it's at odds with the psychology of corporations. At big companies, it's more important to not be wrong than to be right. This is not conducive to the sort of mistake-based learning that really advances people. "Move slow and don't break anything!" is what the corporation wants, whether or not they phrase it that way.
So junior engineers aren't given responsibility, because they might break something.
I was lucky. The first time I was given real responsibility, I broke something badly (which turned out to be an actual OS bug, but that's another story). It was a learning experience - in large part, because I had to learn why things broke in production, but not in development. That lesson sticks with me to this day, 20+ years later.
Re:Ask HN: How do you define a junior developer?
by siquick on Thursday September 22, 2016 @10:25PM
(#12561903)
"At big companies, it's more important to not be wrong than to be right. This is not conducive to the sort of mistake-based learning that really advances people. "Move slow and don't break anything!" is what the corporation wants, whether or not they phrase it that way."
This is a perfect summary of working at corporations
A junior programmer is someone who has never learned from a serious mistake they've made while programming professionally. A junior programmer is someone who thinks they should be senior thanks to the Dunning-Kruger Effect ("Hey, I was an honors student at this great college!"). A junior programmer is someone who can't usefully mentor anyone else. A junior programmer is someone who is not aware of the downstream impacts of their decisions, and is not aware that they're not aware of it.