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It sounds like our worlds are different, I don't work for a FAANG, but in my world: A junior is someone who has put time and effort into learning our programmi

It sounds like our worlds are different, I don't work for a FAANG, but in my world: A junior is someone who has put time and effort into learning our programming language, but may not have previous industry experience with it. After speaking with them, I'm either convinced or not that given a reasonable burn in time they can become an independent and productive member of the team. I like to see a work history with other stacks of course. There's really no concrete basis on which to judge what anyone is truly capable of, especially in our industry, sometimes it comes down to giving someone a fair chance and hitting the eject button if it isn't working out. As a remote independent person who hires other remote independent people, on a contractual basis, I think I'm allowed to take more humanitarian liberties when I have hiring decisions to make, due to the structure of remote work and the qualities that independent people tend to have. Hope that helps.

algaeontoast 7y ago
This definitely helps! I think my biggest blind-spots have to do with system design / tooling. At least in terms of grappling with what changes are / are not reasonable (basically knowing what tasks to stretch myself on - but somehow gauging when I think the scope of a task is wonky and avoiding those to not screw myself) Do you have any tips for finding companies that might be as open to "moderate juniors" like you've described?
- CameronBarre 7y ago
  Search for easy wins, shun refactoring, and always try to build the next thing better, rather than going backwards to retroactively "fix" working (but perhaps less than ideal) things. I can't really advise on finding companies. I haven't had to search for one myself in a while. Like I said, I'm a freelancer, so I just go with the flow until I can find a new opportunity. Good luck, believe in yourself more and don't worry so much about categorizing yourself!

algaeontoast 7y ago

This definitely helps! I think my biggest blind-spots have to do with system design / tooling. At least in terms of grappling with what changes are / are not reasonable (basically knowing what tasks to stretch myself on - but somehow gauging when I think the scope of a task is wonky and avoiding those to not screw myself) Do you have any tips for finding companies that might be as open to "moderate juniors" like you've described?

CameronBarre 7y ago
Search for easy wins, shun refactoring, and always try to build the next thing better, rather than going backwards to retroactively "fix" working (but perhaps less than ideal) things. I can't really advise on finding companies. I haven't had to search for one myself in a while. Like I said, I'm a freelancer, so I just go with the flow until I can find a new opportunity. Good luck, believe in yourself more and don't worry so much about categorizing yourself!