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Subject: Re: Those first dev jobs blues Date: Mon Aug 07 2017 08:53 pm
From: Deavmi To: jagossel

On 2017-06-24 05:17 AM, jagossel wrote:
>    Re: Those first dev jobs blues
>    By: Zet to All on Fri Jun 23 2017 17:44:36
> 
>   > So, I recently moved across the world to start my first official job as a
>   > Junior Software developer. I was super excited to be given the opportunity
,
> and
>   > I was really looking forward to earning money for doing what I love... Boy
 w
> hat
>   > a plot twist...
>   >
>   > I don't really know what I was expecting, but I was completely overwhelmed
 b
> y
>   > the new job. Everyone knows so much more than I do, and I cannot help but 
fe
> el
>   > a little inferior. The guy in charge of training me intimidates the hell o
ut
>   of
>   > me too. He's been working on the system since the beginning, and when I as
k
>   > questions, he always answers it with this "how don't you know that" tone i
n
> his
>   > voice which really makes me feel stupid.
>   >
>   > Another unexpected problem is that there is not a single comment in the
>   > thousands of lines of code. Other than that, it seems that there exists no
t
> one
>   > document describing how the system works or fits together. The smallest
>   > assignments has me hunting for hours instead of actually developing, which
 i
> s
>   > annoying the hell out of me, and also adds to my insecurity. Add to this t
he
>   > fact that I am adept (at best) at speaking the language, and you have a to
ta
> lly
>   > unsure and frustrated new employee.
>   >
>   > Why am I telling you all this? Simply, because I need to vent. I am very
>   > frustrated, and I am having doubts in my abilities because of this. Luckil
y
> I'm
>   > not the kind of person to give up easily, and I will keep giving my best, 
bu
> t
>   > man is it hard!
>   >
>   > Also, is it normal for large companies to not have any comments in their c
od
> e?
>   > I swear if there were at least some vague explaination of the code, I woul
d
>   > have been productive so much faster!
>   > .[0m
> 
> Friend, hang in there.  Among you still have the passion for it, that passion
> is what should motivate you to stay and stick with it.
> 
> The more senior developers should have been more open to the newer developers
> and shouldn't expect the newer developers to know everything up front. That is
> one thing I struggle with myself, and greatly appreciate the more experienced
> developers guiding me with the system. I have been at this same position for
> over 8 years, and I still don't know the system thourghly.
> 
> I suspect that it is normal for software to not have comments to explain what
> it is doing. There is a standard where I work: comments should only be used to
> explain WHY the code is odd, not WHAT thr code is doing. The trade off here is
> that the code should be, "self-documented", meaning that it should use more
> meaningful names and does one thing only, should be easy to read and follow.
> 
> It sounds like there is a lot of pressure to get code out the door as quickly
> as possible. This will lead to nasty cycles between new features followed by
> critical issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible, Where I work is
> like that righr now: years of pressure to get new features done, leading to
> enough unhappy customers question how we do things and logging a lot of criica
l
> issues.
> 
> Hang in there, bud. But keep other opportunities open. :)
> 
> -jag
> Code it, script it, automate it!
> 
So wise. So wise. :)

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