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Ask HN: How do I keep learning while I am having a job?
I have 3 years experience of backend engineer. I get the things done at my job, though more often I am missing my deadlines by few days.
I always feel I am missing knowledge at the theoretical and practical level when I see myself compare to my co-workers.
I feel uncomfortable at understanding the dev-ops kind of work (how web servlets work, how Nginx works), coming up with good design solutions (which won't need much rework after new requirements come).
How do I make the best use of my surroundings (my coworker's knowledge, online resources) to fill this gap and be a better developer?
- yanilkr 10y agoI had to prepare a developer improvement program recently. After doing a lot of research, I thought plural-sight was an invaluable resource. I don't get anything in return for promoting them. I think it is time and money well spent.
- diehell 10y agoAgreed. Pluralsight was really helpful as a learning resource.
- partisan 10y agoI know you are missing your deadlines, but there could be a simple reason there: bad estimates. Who creates the estimates and where are you in that process? One thing I did when I felt I was stagnating was doing Lunch-And-Learns. I lead a few and for each one, I would research a topic and then teach it during the lunch. Lastly, don't waste time. Go home and read and program. Go to meetups relating to the topics you are curious about. It's not easy after a long, frustrating, and possibly demoralizing day (especially when missing estimates), but watching online videos will only do so much for you.
- umbs 10y ago> Lastly, don't waste time ... From my 12 yrs work experience, I cannot emphasize how innocuous, trivial and prevalent above advise is, thus risking getting ignored. Please don't. This advise is most critical for ones growth (in all aspects).
- saluki 10y agoDeadlines aren't always meant to be made, depends on who's doing the estimate and how much the scope changes along the way. Some managers also setup impossible deadlines to try to squeeze all the productivity they can out of their team. But you can work on improving meeting deadlines or raising a flag early on with your manager that you need to bump out a deadline a couple days. He'll appreciate hearing it earlier rather than the day it's planned to be completed. If there is a topic you're curious about set aside a couple hours in the evening to research it and play around with it. Run through some dev ops tutorials. As you do more and more projects you'll get a feel for how the design UI/UX should be. As a backend engineer I would expect you're not doing much design. But for mocking things up use a framework like bootstrap or one your team uses for projects. Try to learn from senior developers around you. Start doing some side projects at home. Sometimes the most learning occurs trying to build an application you are interested in for your own use instead of following a todo list tutorial. Pick topics you are interested in. Google some tutorials. Don't just watch them or read them. Dig in and do them, extend them, take them beyond where the tutorial stops. Get involved/netowrk with forums, user groups, bloggers and podcasters who develop in your language creating similar things. Check if your company sends employees to conferences. Development is definitely a continued learning experience.
- JSeymourATL 10y ago> often I am missing my deadlines by few days. Life's easy to understand, hard to do. Classic Planner Fallacy > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoFigure out what you want to learn. Find a good training course that will teach you that. Ask your boss to send you to it. Explain why doing so will make you better at your job. That way you get real training without you paying for it, and your company gets a more valuable employee. Your company may decide not to send you. But it's the first thing to try.