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Wow - this is the best advice on HN (top comment to while I write) in a while. For junior folks I REPEATEDLY say, if you find yourself getting stuck / slowing

Wow - this is the best advice on HN (top comment to while I write) in a while. For junior folks I REPEATEDLY say, if you find yourself getting stuck / slowing down touch base. Or keep me in the loop, let's check in regularly when you have a good moment to chat, I'd love to hear how its going. Here's the other thing I noticed. I work with someone who is is my peer. Ie, 15 years+ experience etc. THEY check in with me proactively 5x as much as the folks who really need to be checking in. I also like that they don't schedule a call, they just zoom me. I know this seems rude, but it actually saves time. If I'm busy I don't answer, but usually I can. This is a personal preference. For junior folks if you schedule some time for early next day that works well (my calendar auto-accepts). Also, not end of world to socialize / connect with 1-2 other devs below your managers level to share tips / get help, just be sure to pass it on to the next FNG.

stef25 5y ago
> For junior folks I REPEATEDLY say, if you find yourself getting stuck / slowing down touch base. Or keep me in the loop, let's check in regularly when you have a good moment to chat, I'd love to hear how its going. Sometimes work goes in such small incremental steps, full of unknown unknowns that there's so many occasions you can get bogged down. Even if you apply the rule of "touch base if you get stuck for more than an hour", you can still end up interrupting the senior guy 5x / day. And when they're obviously annoyed and provide too short an explanation it becomes very uncomfortable to interrupt them again. Often it's not even their fault, they have a high workload and supporting the new guy isn't foreseen. Or, they're good devs but just incapable of explaining things. I had this experience at a fintech company that didn't have a single page of internal documentation and you'd have 8 point Jira tickets that consisted of one bullet point - figure out the rest (everyone remote).
- onphonenow 5y ago
  One issue is turnover, it's annoying to spend time training someone who you won't be working with a long time. I've only had that really happen once. So a tip for junior's might be to look at places where folks have a bit of tenure and stick around (I know some places cycle folks between teams like crazy - that makes this hard).

stef25 5y ago

> For junior folks I REPEATEDLY say, if you find yourself getting stuck / slowing down touch base. Or keep me in the loop, let's check in regularly when you have a good moment to chat, I'd love to hear how its going. Sometimes work goes in such small incremental steps, full of unknown unknowns that there's so many occasions you can get bogged down. Even if you apply the rule of "touch base if you get stuck for more than an hour", you can still end up interrupting the senior guy 5x / day. And when they're obviously annoyed and provide too short an explanation it becomes very uncomfortable to interrupt them again. Often it's not even their fault, they have a high workload and supporting the new guy isn't foreseen. Or, they're good devs but just incapable of explaining things. I had this experience at a fintech company that didn't have a single page of internal documentation and you'd have 8 point Jira tickets that consisted of one bullet point - figure out the rest (everyone remote).

onphonenow 5y ago
One issue is turnover, it's annoying to spend time training someone who you won't be working with a long time. I've only had that really happen once. So a tip for junior's might be to look at places where folks have a bit of tenure and stick around (I know some places cycle folks between teams like crazy - that makes this hard).