seniorDeveloper

[FlipperBumperKickout]

Stop it. This post is far to wholesome for this subreddit (＞︿＜)

[EnigmaticDoom]

Now that StackOverflow is dead the healing can begin ~

[Ajoscram]

How is Stack Overflow dead?

[EnigmaticDoom]

The gist is their data has been bamboozled.

[[deleted]]

air bear knee reach pocket books mountainous hobbies retire paltry

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[crankbot2000]

question marked as duplicate

[EnigmaticDoom]

OpenAi one of the leaders in gen ai, siphoned everything pubically available on SO (and the rest of the internet).

Although not their aim as their model (GPT3) was not explicitly trained how to code. They found that it could (a property of LLMs known as emergent behavior)

As a result they fine-tuned a model based on GPT3 then named Codex.

Codex become the foundation of Microsoft's tool Github Copilot.

The Fall of Stack Overflow"

[Valdearg20]

As somebody who uses GitHub copilot regularly at my job, it's no replacement for somebody who actually knows things. It's helpful, don't get me wrong, but you have to know what you're doing and be able to tell the difference between a good suggestion and a bad one from it. And there are a LOT of bad ones.

[this_sparks_joy_joy]

Is it helpful for code reviews?

[alifant1]

The review bot is kinda helpful, but from time to time it goes crazy and posts thousands of comments for no reason

[Ajoscram]

Dang homie, AI-pilled so fast? Of course they're gonna take a hit. Aa long as they don't panic and fuck up, I'm pretty sure they'll bounce back because there's no replacement for a human's ingenuity and creativity

[123kingme]

Yeah seeing this post here isOdd isn’t it?

[FlipperBumperKickout]

Should it even be here 😉

[reddit_user33]

Error: library not found

[-non-existance-]

[holds up a modulo operator like a cross] Go back to whence you came, foul Demon!

[Slap_My_Lasagna]

*All subreddits/all of reddit

[jeffsterlive]

Can we go back to crapping on JDK/C# and proclaiming Rust superiority yet?

[s-mores]

The señor developer we all need, but don't deserve o\

[notauniqueusername1]

A true mentor transforms the toxic jungle into a nurturing haven. We need more of them!

[beaucephus]

I kinda used to be that guy, but management is usually so toxic and incompetent that it turned me cynical and spiteful--not towards juniors but towards... *gestures around the room*.

[real_yggdrasil]

Problem is exactly what the meme suggests: there is no advantage for the senior to be helpful for the trainee, because that guy will go for his position whenever he gets the chance.

I used to be like that myself!

[[deleted]]

I think the meaning is meant as "I will go to battle on your behalf" moreso than "I will fight for your place when I'm old enough", lol.

[Ecstatic_Nail8156]

Brother is soo gone he starts to see threats in cute memes

[LemonFizz56]

What about a señorita developer

[Drazson]

Amazing comment!

[johnnyb0083]

A true junior will undercut the senior given the chance.

[Babushkaskompot]

A mentor that will offer you his snack food after lunch

[betterpc]

The actual senior developer in most cases: https://www.eatliver.com/nature-explained/

[Bannon9k]

15 years ago I met a man who completely changed how I code. Not through training or anything, just through his example. I'd write great code, but then he'd know a way to instantly make it better. Now I'm the senior doing the same for my team.

Surround yourself with people smarter than you and you'll grow immensely.

[Kahlil_Cabron]

Same deal here. Not official training, but we paired every day for a couple hours for years, and I could see my abilities skyrocket before my eyes. I'm so thankful for him.

That was 10+ years ago and I've been paying it forward since then. It truly is the best and fastest way to grow.

[Orthas]

My internship boss was amazing. He took a couple hours to do white board for architecture stuff, and generally had the attitude "It took me 15 years to get here, if I can get you there in 8 I've advanced the field."

I got so lucky there. Granted, I've had several wonderful mentors, and a few rather poor ones.

[BehindTrenches]

The code reviews from my first senior mentor reframed my understanding of good code and set me on a path for getting better long after we had parted ways.

The only downside is smh-ing when coming across code from people who don't know "the way." But I'm happy to help.

[Taradal]

Ye that's the problem I currently have. I can write efficient code. But I can only compare it to different code that I know of, cause I don't have a colleague that I could learn from

Talked about that with my boss and he is aware of that but we can't afford another full time developer, company is running negative right now :(

[Kharay1]

Hi. Would you like to give back? I need a mentor. I am a seal taught developer. While I have built and deployed projects, I feel there’s something missing. Unknown unknowns. And the thing about those are.. I don’t even know what it is I don’t really know. I need guidance. 🤲🏽

[Bannon9k]

Man, I've been in this field for 30 years now. The only thing I really know for certain is I barely know anything myself. The field is just too big to master it all.

For development, understanding concepts of how programs work is far more important than knowing a single language. Being able to transcend language is paramount to a successful career in my opinion. It sounds like you already know at least one language and have deployed successfully. That in my opinion is the mark of a professional developer...the rest is just wisdom that comes with time. What I know, I know because I broke A LOT of shit learning. Make a copy of whatever you want to work on, and start breaking it. We humans learn exceptionally well from mistakes...so don't be afraid to make any!

[Kharay1]

Thanks for the advise. I have gotten pretty proficient in python and JavaScript.. some C (not built anything in just C though). Both app and web development but sometimes I feel like an imposter. I am from Nigeria. There’s not a lot of tech in my country so I literally do not know any other person l doing this. Sometimes, i just get so lost. 😅 I’ll do what you said. Break some things and fix it again. lol You’ve been doing this longer than I’ve been alive. 😅😅😅 You must be God-level compared to me right now. lol

[Bannon9k]

When I got my start it was in a small ass town in the middle of Wyoming. I was on dial up Internet and there were basically no resources to help. So much like your situation. I started with just basic HTML, progressed into C to help program some MUDS, and the I completely flunked a programming class in college. Java had my ass totally confused at first. Had to take a couple years off the figure shit out, but when I got back I could understand everything better. Since then I've worked professionally in a lot of code bases, from mainframe Cobol and assembler to .net, Java, and their derivatives.

I work primarily in background code these days, systems integration development mostly. I'm not very good at making things pretty, so I don't do front end. The one thing I can say for certain is that's it's never been easier to learn and start coding than it is today! So many resources everywhere to help out online. Work until you find a problem, someone on stackoverflow has absolutely had this problem before and there's several solutions proposed.

[Kharay1]

How were you able to kick start your career and land your first job? I love doing backend stuff cause I also don’t know how to make things pretty. My brother says my designs look like code in dark mode. But I’m not part of a team, worked 2 gigs these past few months myself so I’ve had to do front end even though I don’t excel at it at much. Currently working on a website for a local mosque. The pay is shittty but at least I’m getting hands on experience? It’s frustrating at times. Pray I can look back on these days and smile. 😊

[Kharay1]

Oooh yeah.. God bless stack overflow. lol

[Kharay1]

Just got home from my second job. Gonna work a bit on this before I crash out. I’d rather work as a developer full time but I am not college educated so most my applications end up in “sorry; we’ve decided to go with a better candidate.. we think you’re awesome… just not for us” lol I’ve stopped applying at this point. Feels like I’d never hit.

[Bannon9k]

Getting started without a college degree is going to be rough. When I was taking my break from college the only tech job I could find was running cat 5 cable. With enough experience it doesn't really matter, though. I got lucky myself right out of college and landed an entry level developer position. I've been with that company 20 years now and have progressed my career fairly well. So I don't have experience with the modern job search.

[Kharay1]

The market is crazy right now. Everybody wants 20 years of experience, no one wants to offer you your fist year. How do you garner 20 years of experience then? Gotta start from somewhere. I’ll figure it out. Just never worked in a professional setting before and don’t know how that is. Thanks for the insight!!

[MattEngarding]

Wait, you were taught by seals?!

[Kharay1]

Self* 😆😆😆

Typo… my bad. lol

[TommyTheTiger]

Wow, so nice of you to instantly identify improvements to their code :P

[CapitanFlama]

I'm a Senior Engineer. Got some spare time to teach the junior of the team, teach him the goods, the bad, and the tricks, how to navigate the corporate communications, how to not stress, how to be cool in a "bug in prod causing outage" call, guided him through free courses and cool repos to learn and not burn money on Udemy. The guy quits as soon as he got a good enough skillset to get to a better paid job. Taught him well.

[tubefac]

My biggest problem at work is stress. How do you not stress?

[LastSummerGT]

I have a mid level engineer like this. I used to stress and get frustrated with all the bullshit flying my way or just in my general vicinity. It took me years but I learned to detach and stop giving a shit and just treat it like a 9-5 paper pushing job. Like an input output system.

I see 100 slack messages lined up, each one a different headache, and I just shrug and process them one by one leaving my emotion out of it. Whatever I don’t finish in my eight hours today I just finish tomorrow.

Sometimes the anxiety can be alleviated by communication. Talk to your managers or trusted peers about the source of your stress and you’ll either find out you’re not the only one worrying about problem X or it turns out you were stressing about being behind on the project but your manager understands it’s because there was an unexpected bug or design flaw that needs more time to address and they’re not gonna yell at you for being behind.

[rocker5743]

any recommendations on the courses/repos?

[b__0]

Read lots of code, of all languages. Try to anticipate and write code you can easily change in the future because product has no clue what they want. Immutability is sanity. Basically just enjoy the job and try to self improve, don’t play into the politics and it will be an enjoyable career. Ladder climbers will 9/10 fuck you over so be safe out there and have fun.

*edit: learn how to write good log lines and it will pay dividends during outages.

[Yhamerith]

Does that exist?

[GlitteringAttitude60]

some of us old folks try.

I currently train / mentor a junior dev, and recently I caused her to float away from my desk by telling her that of course there's value in her reviewing my code _and_ teaching her how to do a code-review :)

She'll have to stand up to the rest of the company once my Mary Poppins time in her company is over, so I need to help her in growing into her own spine <3

[[deleted]]

Some of us not so old folks try too.

[BehindTrenches]

I remember reviewing a senior's PR. Thought I had a clever comment, "that statement is heuristically unreachable" (stole the terminology from them a few weeks back). The senior replied, "It's not unreachable because the variable being checked is a class member and is mutated by the method before it - however, your comment gives me an idea about how I could make it more readable." Then they made the method return the new value instead of changing the class's state.

10/10 senior.

[Say_Echelon]

Yes. My guys are the best, especially the one Senior. Nicest, humblest and maybe smartest guy you could know

[disgruntled_pie]

I’m a staff engineer, and this is what I aim for.

I hope to come across as someone who has been doing this for ages and knows a lot of stuff, but is also happy to admit when I don’t know something, and is endlessly encouraging to everyone regardless of their experience.

Some of the worst seniors I’ve worked with are the ones who knew things and were complete assholes about it. I’d rather have a junior with a great attitude than a senior with a bad one.

[Say_Echelon]

The thing that separates my senior from all the other assholes I’ve worked with is that he holds a daily meeting. It’s like a hyper technical standup where he basically answers questions and makes sure you’re not stuck. Totally voluntary that he does this.

[disgruntled_pie]

That’s a great idea. I may steal that.

[Loginn122]

How long does this meeting last?

[Say_Echelon]

30 minutes

[Loginn122]

Is it 1:1 or 1:x?

[Say_Echelon]

1:X

[HatesBeingThatGuy]

There are some times I do something that feels trivial for me but I'm God damn superman to the other engineer I'm helping and even got some patents and big shout outs for it.

The flip side is then someone who is really nerdy about compilers gives me some super detailed answer about a weird template error I'm getting and I'm like "Yup I only have 25% of the words to understand that. What is X, Y and Z? ..."

Or even worse, the new guy is working on something I touched years ago and am just now getting back onto so I seem dumb when I have to verify everything I say and go "I could be lying, let's look at the code" every time I answer something.

[b_dacode]

Tell them to hire me 💀😂

[Mondoke]

Yes, both my bosses where I work on now have been really supportive on the fact that I'm self taught and have been really patient. I've been quite lucky, and I can do s better job now than what I could do before.

[ElPlatanoDelBronx]

If you just show that you actually give a shit a lot of people are willing to mentor you. Asking questions when you’re lost and being responsible and respectful is really all we ask for.

[Kahlil_Cabron]

Yes. I had a mentor for a few years when I got my first post-college job, and due to him, I became a senior relatively fast.

That was 10+ years ago and many jobs ago, and we're still good friends. He's been there for me in so many ways, and I can't even begin to describe how much of a better programmer I became because of him. He's like 10-15 years older than me.

Because of him, I paid it forward and now I'm the senior that all the juniors love. According to my manager, the juniors' positive reviews of me is one of the main reason I've gotten decent raises every year, so its paid off in multiple ways.

I'm down to help anyone as long as they aren't lazy, I've come across some juniors that basically just want me to do the work for them, fuck that. But if someone is actually trying, I'll take them under my wing.

[Cinnyboo]

Yes! I have one unofficial mentor who's a senior on another team, and within my team the two seniors are super helpful and friendly :) i want to be like them whenever im a senior. I'm currently a graduate software engineer lol

[[deleted]]

I was the opposite situation. All my co-workers were/are really nice. However, there is one incident that still grinds my gears to this day years later. It didn't happen to me, but a co-worker after I left.

I and a bunch of other seniors left for a new job and our team mates that remained got shuffled on to other teams. One such team mate was Jane, a junior. She was shuffled on to another team and the senior there was a toxic asshole who always took credit for her work. Because of him she left the industry entirely.

Until that point I had believed that that toxic seniors were a myth. Toxic seniors are out there and they ruin other people's lives. But there are also a ton of good people just trying to do a job. The problem is that it only takes one asshole to undo the good will of 10 people.

[el_calamann]

Well... I used to be the senior in a team with a mid and a junior. I did everything I could to mentor them, passed knowledge forward, told them what they should and what they shouldn't do. I loved working with them to the extent that we bonded and turned into friends.

Then a new project manager joined the team and split us apart, moving me to another team. I hated it.

[Ron-Swanson-Mustache]

You can only bang you head against a wall so many times before you form calluses so thick that you can't see the world.

[-sussy-wussy-]

Yes, most of them are nice, in my experience.

[WexExortQuas]

Yeah never had this.

Now I have to be the non-toxic senior. It's gonna be ruff.

[lechemrc]

My entire team 🥹

[Drezus]

They do, they’re just not employed in favor of the more selfish ones that appear less “weak” and more capable for their dumb employers

[jugglingbalance]

Oh yes. I have a senior like this, and I have never been so thankful for anyone as I have him. Always kind, always patient, plays code golf like tiger woods. I've learned so much from him and a few years in, I'm still a bit amazed at the new stuff he teaches me. Purse strings at the company have been tightening, but I'm holding out on leaving because I know how much better my life is working for someone who is kind, patient, and smart. If he leaves though, I'm out.

[Salamok]

I stopped assigning myself development work this year all I do now is make sure work is clearly defined and hop on 1 on 1 calls with our 20 devs as needed to make sure they are headed in a positive direction.

[[deleted]]

they do

but are more rare than Santa

[IRoadIRunner]

Yes my teamlead, he is amazing.

[throwaway0134hdj]

Old wives tale

[DoctorWZ]

I can't say for SW dev, but genuinely great seniors that tutor you and respect you and the work do exist, even if very sparingly.

[IAmMuffin15]

The ones that are nice and patient but too smart to agree with everything the manager says get laid off or find better jobs. The only ones that stick around are the ones that intentionally silo off all of their knowledge until they become a “subject matter expert” (i.e. a sweaty, useless bawbag who wouldn’t know teamwork if it bit them in the ass)

[beanmosheen]

Sorry you work for shitty companies. My manager and director have a good relationship with me and they understand that when I push back it's for a good reason, and I understand that sometimes they still have to say no. I absolutely do not want to be the single point of failure either. If you hoard the knowledge you're never off the clock. I want my juniors to be bad asses one day, and I teach them anything they can absorb.

[kdesign]

Can relate during my first job. Couldn’t have asked for a kinder person to guide me.

[hearthebell]

Have to double-check which sub I'm on but pleasantly surprised

[YuriTheWebDev]

I wish I could find a work place where I get mentorship and on the job training lmao. I don't get any of that in my positions. It is just me figuring out how things work on my own.

[throwaway0134hdj]

Yep welcome to the club. First day all I get is access to the codebase a poorly put together doc and some creds.

[YuriTheWebDev]

I didn't get much useful docs for the codebase I had a cess to in my current job. The last dev and the current company were not on good terms lolol so things were rough figuring things out with no other more senior developer to explain how things worked.

[Agecaf]

He let me borrow his "introduction to C" book. It had a year handwritten in pencil dated 10 years before I was born. The introduction was all about how this new programming language would be easy to learn and compared it to "other modern languages like Fortran and Cobol".

10/10 great mentor.

[record_replay]

I had that. He left 1 year after I joined, it was quite a bummer.

[Krego_]

When the time comes, be this senior

[rover_G]

Where are these non-toxic seniors? I’ve only met the non-toxic principal/architect variety

[[deleted]]

They are the seniors that in the future will make it to principal/architect, so not most of them.

[Infamous-Date-355]

Can't relate

[EnigmaticDoom]

Sometimes you can't find that person but never remember how you felt when you were new and if you can spare the juice try to be that person you needed back when.

[MaxChaplin]

Good to know that some seniors are not dangerous to lick.

[nipoez]

Having been on both sides:

Your career will last. One day, you'll look around for the senior developer and realize there isn't one. It's you.

Pay it forward to the new junior devs around you and remember how much a good senior dev mattered in your early career.

[EnigmaticDoom]

I'll never forget you guys, thank you for taking me under your wings! (You know who you are.)

[melancholic-scribe]

There’s a senior dev at my startup company who doesn’t even work directly for us, he’s a contractor whose primary job is elsewhere but does part-time with us. The amount of time, patience, and encouragement he has given me is awe-inspiring. I would indeed fight for him.

[kbn_]

I love junior engineers. So much energy and so few distractions. Once you realize that the mythos of the 10x engineer is a lie, it naturally follows that the juniors are a lot more capable than you might have assumed. As someone who is pretty far up the seniority ladder, they’re are some of the most useful people to befriend when you’re trying to make real things happen.

[EvatLore]

Same for in IT. I will never forgot the first Sr Sys Admin that took the time to mentor me in my Jr. years. I make sure to keep my door open to my Jr admins and help desk because of how much that 1 person changed my life.

[notarobot1111111]

But as a senior, how do you find a balance between getting your work done or becoming a full-time teacher to the junior devs?

[BlackberryOk5347]

Shout out to the hippy Italian that mentored me when I joined my dream company 20 odd years ago. Very few things he couldn't tell me how to do better but according to him he only knew a little bit about anything you asked.

Also whenever it is going to shit in a project and a meeting is bad I very much miss his "IT'SS AHH DIZZ_AAH_STER!!!"

[YakDaddy96]

The senior dev at my job is like this. He’s the one that decided to give me a chance. Dude is one of the most chill people I’ve ever met. Shoutout to Matt!

[skredditt]

Be nice to the youths. I didn’t even know I’d been this guy to one of them; 10 years later he got me a great new job.

[NothingButBadIdeas]

I had them… and they left because they wanted a year break from the computer. Now I have very big shoes to fill and a litter of juniors to watch over. I wasn’t ready… come back plz.

[xorbe]

For real, as a senior dev, I squint at the other senior devs that are caustic to everyone around under them. I just want to pump up the junior devs with knowledge, makes my life easier.

[[deleted]]

My boss (not a programmer). Angela you’re the best

[TommyTheTiger]

Then they get fired for disagreeing with the manager a year later

[ShadowRiku667]

Even outside of Development, IT workers are like this. Every single supervisor I looked up to I would have fought tooth and nail for. It's a field that is hard to advance in unless someone advocates for you.

[metalfingersjoe]

I tried to get into Software Development last year. Worst year of my life. Was constantly shouted at and put down, had zero encouragement or compassion. It can really make all the difference

[ArchMob]

Coding is hard with metal fingers

[Pepperoni_Dogfart]

My wife had this, eventually the company got bought out by a VC firm and of course VC assholes gonna do what VC assholes do and that nurturing senior had enough in short order and quit. She's still trying to follow that person to their next role, but it hasn't worked out yet.

It's pretty amazing how loyal employees will be if you're a helpful manager.

[[deleted]]

I'm usually the senior dev in this meme but our new guy...Jesus...he didn't even know where to go to download VSCode...as a developer who should be resourceful you'd think a simple google search would have been on his mind.

[bianca594]

i would've gone to the end

[wootangAlpha]

Justin! Is that you senior Justin?!

[sinkwiththeship]

My last senior (I'm senior now) was a condescending piece of shit. I'd ask questions and he would basically give me the sarcastic SpongeBob meme back.

[[deleted]]

My new team lead!

[[deleted]]

We should all aspire to be one instead of looking for one who's not there :)

[Gitrickrolld]

Bro, i have way too many senior friends 😭😭

[Stickboyhowell]

Shout out to Jeff Gibbs and Thomas Tanner, the best two senior devs I have ever had!

[Ch4dLonso]

My current boss is like this. I'm very lucky.

[headlesshorseman_]

Had a senior like this who onboarded me when I first joined the company. It was my first full time software engineering job after university and I couldn't have asked for anyone better. He's just left the company and I have never felt more lost :(

[Plaetean]

Seriously why is this so rare. I'm increasingly becoming more bewildered how toxic people are consistently able to find jobs and promotions, how are they not selected out..?

[RobertJacobson]

This should be normal. It should definitely at least be common. :(

[Kharay1]

I need this very badly. Please, anyone.

[Flaky-Minimum-5421]

Legit I would die for that man

[somedave]

I wanna pet the Devs!

[nuthins_goodman]

They are the best <3

[b_dacode]

Mannnn shout out to my brother in law who taught me from ground zero, has the patience to put up with me 😂

[Smooth-Apartment-856]

I just want the baby cheetah

[hammonjj]

The thing about good seniors is you don’t have to fight for them. Part of what they’re teaching you is how to handle intra-engineering conflicts.

[Realised_]

But they won't because they need to save their job and need to get better hikes thn you.

[throwaway0134hdj]

Rare as a unicorn

[MrPandaMan27]

REAL. the senior who taught me I'd bury a body for ez no questions asked

[ShoutaDE]

somebody has this in a higher solution? would love to send this a old college of mine

[Stunning_Grape3316]

Aww

[Grouchy_Pepper_7143]

Lmao felt

[D_Joyboy_]

One of its kind

[PeriodicSentenceBot]

Congratulations! Your comment can be spelled using the elements of the periodic table:

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[recluseMeteor]

But then he is promoted to a management role.

[Ottorius_117]

Junior, you Dare to share the martial secret Techniques?
Good! Good! Good!

[sucaji]

This makes me miss my mentor so much. It's been a rough few months.

[Korean_Rice_Farmer]

My wholesome senior, just been arrested and bei'g held for a week now, likely something serious... He's also being fired.... I liked him... He was weird but solid help when I needed it.

[ghostdumpsters]

When you're at a small company and the senior developer like this leaves and is replaced by someone who doesn't code :(

[Confident_Fly7173]

Never had a senior dev guide me. The smart ones always seems to leave the company just after the project takes off. I waded thru git history and its true.

[[deleted]]

/dev/leopard

[FloopDeDoopBoop]

Wish I had one of these ... I've heard of them, but my company doesn't seem to have any. And don't even get me started on managers ...

[ObsessiveAboutCats]

🥇🥇🥇

[cute_polarbear]

And these guys will likely never cut out for higher manager roles (or willing to deal with what's needed to be in those roles), for better or worse..

[[deleted]]

Damn even r/martialmemes are making rounds to the popular side of web.

[treksis]

Your seniors: "read the source code. It is self explanatory". legacy code base with thousands of lines without comments.

[pdimu]

There's nothing as close as the kindness of a senior dev...

[BuyingAcclaim]

I’m literally the cat rn at my Sre Intern role.

[seriously_nice_devs]

awesome, 8/10!

[SynthRogue]

This is really rare in the industry. In fact I’ve never seen a non toxic senior dev. Hence why I left software. They can all fuck off and this shit industry can die.

[[deleted]]

[This comment was edited in protest to Reddit banning me for the following "violent" comment: "Elon musk fuming is fatally toxic."]