Ask HN: How to improve as a struggling junior software engineer?

Re:Ask HN: How to improve as a struggling junior software en... by jwmcglynn on Sunday April 10, 2022 @04:50AM (#30975434)

For asking basic questions all the time, I still do this as a senior engineer. At large companies, this is due to tribal knowledge, and one of the best things that can be done to reduce tribal knowledge is to take notes and make some simple docs.

If you had to ask someone how to open tickets? Create a short doc or wiki with those instructions.

That's a good way for even a junior engineer to start producing value, for established teams they often have tribal knowledge without realizing it.

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Re:Ask HN: How to improve as a struggling junior software en... by mmcnl on Sunday April 10, 2022 @01:38PM (#30979510)

I like to think there's no such thing as "basic" questions. What does that even mean? If a question is "basic", then the answer must not be complex either, so what's wrong with asking a basic question? All people who I've worked with that were subpar usually tend to ask too little questions, not too many.

Also you'd be surprised how often basic questions actually are not basic at all, when instead people are all assuming everyone knows the answer and are too far in to ask the question.

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Re:Ask HN: How to improve as a struggling junior software en... by ratww on Sunday April 10, 2022 @01:49PM (#30979646)

Yep, exactly!

I had to ask at our last planning "wait, what, where do add the red flag to JIRA tickets". Considering I'm the one who's been conducting meetings and co-managing JIRA, and the one who red flags most stuff, that was 100% a brain fart. Someone telling me "you shouldn't be asking basic questions" not as a joke wouldn't go well.

Unless you're asking the same question every single week, that's not a problem. I doubt that's the case since OP already said his problem is he asks too little.

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