Subj : Those first dev jobs blues
To : Zet
From : jagossel
Date : Fri Jun 23 2017 11:17 pm
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 out
of
> me too. He's been working on the system since the beginning, and when I ask
> questions, he always answers it with this "how don't you know that" tone in
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 not
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 the
> fact that I am adept (at best) at speaking the language, and you have a tota
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. Luckily
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 cod
e?
> I swear if there were at least some vague explaination of the code, I would
> 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 criical
issues.
Hang in there, bud. But keep other opportunities open. :)
-jag
Code it, script it, automate it!
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