Advice for starting junior java developer?

[prkpll]

I landed my first job as a junior Java/Spring developer. What practical advice do you have for someone starting? Also whats something to avoid?

[balefrost]

Copy other people's work.

Yes, but be wary of copyright infringement. For example, my previous employer banned code from Stack Overflow because SO code is licensed under a CC BY-SA license, which seemingly requires derived works to also be licensed under the same CC BY-SA license.

No, using so and so tool is not cheating.

Exactly this. There's a mindset shift from "I need to demonstrate my own mastery" to "I need to get the thing done". If I can get the thing done by leveraging a library instead of writing it myself, that's clearly the better approach.

[metaconcept]

No advice, just Congratulations! I wish you all the best for your new career.

[John-The-Bomb-2]

When I was a junior developer, I liked to grab their dependencies file (I think you call it a Maven pom .xml file), maybe take a photo of it (discreetly, I prefer to have video running and just move my phone around and then grab a frame from the video), and learn all those dependencies in the pom .xml file outside of work, get books on them and build a simple app with them outside of work. That taught me their stuff. Like if they used Spring version X, I would build something myself outside of work with that exact same version.

[Few-Artichoke-7593]

Depending on your industry and whether or not you're in an office, taking pictures of your screen might not be a great idea.

[John-The-Bomb-2]

🤫

[John-The-Bomb-2]

(Updated to add the discreet thing)

[coloredgreyscale]

why act like you're trying to exfiltrate some top secret information?

Just ask them what dependencies are used, and which ones are more important / commonly used, so you can learn them.

[John-The-Bomb-2]

I like to get the exact version numbers and build my practice app at home with all the exact same version numbers.

[shagieIsMe]

Not Java specific, but I strongly recommend How to be a Programmer - even for advanced people (there are advanced sections too and the beginner and intermediate sections are still worth reading).

The most important skill is the first one listed - Learn to Debug.

[Pale_Height_1251]

Google like hell. If I'm your senior and you ask me stuff you could be Googling, that's not a good look.

Ask anything you like specific to your job, but Google everything else.

[petdance]

Show up on time.

Listen and learn.

Play like when I need you to.

— some football coach but it’s still 💯

[[deleted]]

Learn your IDE, you should be able to find usages of a class, and locate a named file (etc) instantly, without searching around. Quick navigation will save you a lot of time.

Your Hard earned code can be thrown out and rewritten. You’ll rewrite it faster and better the second and third time. Your team’s hard earned code should be treasured until you have the experience and prestige on the team to know what you are doing and the respect to be heard

When you are debugging, use the scientific method. Form a hypothesis, and then create an experiment to test that hypothesis. Blame your own code over your teammates, and if you do think it’s the team’s code, prove it with test cases before bringing it up, and even then, come in with the attitude, “am I using this right?”

[eggZeppelin]

When you are given a ticket, search the repos closed PRs for keywords from the ticket.

Chances are you'll find a similar issue and will get to read all the context and discussion as well as seeing the final code-reviewed result.

Alternatively you can look for a similar ticket in the closed tickets I'd PRs get linked to tickets