A guide to the care and feeding of new devs

@amesimmons

2009

Journalist

2013

My first line of code

rails new railsgirls

2014

Learning in my spare time

Jan 2015

12 week, full time web development course

Apr 2015
First developer job

Sep 2016
#Twitter

Being a junior dev...

"In my first week I went into panic mode. I was trying to do the job at 100%, but the reality of my skill base is that I know maybe 20 or 30%."

"One day a senior on my team said in a really frustrated voice, 'I don't understand why you still don't get this!' I felt really stupid."

"I was embarrassed to ask questions that I felt I was supposed to know."

Key findings

On average, developers rated the level of support they received as a junior as 5/10

The top four emotions felt by junior developers were excited, overwhelmed, frustration and fear 

80% of developers who responded said juniors could be better supported in the workplace

git.io/v41CJ

Recommendations

For seniors & mentors...

Regular 1:1s

Pair programming

Code reviews

Time to learn at work

For juniors...

Ask for help*

Be open about what you do and don't know

Review code

Get involved in the community

Keep learning

@amesimmons