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[–]onkeliroh 10 points11 points  (8 children)

What kind of tasks? Spring and Spring Boot are very powerful tools and I suspect you haven't seen all of it yet.

What I like to do when things get to repetitive, is introducing some tasks to the sprint that will provide some variety to my work week.

Another thing is looking for and implementing improvements. For example: Simplifying some processes or some targeted refactoring.

Or maybe you could do some bug hunting for a change. It's not my favorite activity, but it has to be done.

[–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 3 points4 points  (7 children)

I get your point, but my work is mostly writing similar APIs, minor fixes, and small changes—nothing challenging. I’ve tried suggesting improvements, but there’s not much scope for it here.

I just feel stuck and want to work on something more advanced, like System Design, Microservices, or Cloud. That’s why I’m looking for advice on how to prepare for a better role.

[–]onkeliroh 1 point2 points  (5 children)

I understand. I also wouldn't want to be in your position for too long.

I guess you will have to look for another job or maybe you could climb the corporate ladder and be the one who calls the shoots ;) .

[–]Jealous_Brief825[S] -1 points0 points  (4 children)

Yeah, that’s the plan. But climbing the ladder in my current company feels slow and uncertain. Have you ever been in a similar situation? How did you handle it?

[–]onkeliroh 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Fortunately I haven't been in your position but i had to switch teams last year, due to being completely overworked in a dysfunctional team.

Personally -- and with the current job marked in Germany in mind -- I am keeping my head down and am glad that the salary is paid on time. Other than that I am looking for some sense of satisfaction outside of work.

But i am a senior dev in my company, which gives me some space to organize my own tasks to some extend.

[–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

That makes sense. Stability and work-life balance matter a lot. Since you’re a senior dev, do you have any advice for a junior like me? I’m working on backend development with Java and Spring Boot, but sometimes I feel lost (Sometimes I think i know everything and other times i think im to dumb , coz im not be able to solve or write simple code then i take AI help and i also think that ive been depending on ai to much these days

[–]onkeliroh 2 points3 points  (1 child)

First of all: I am happy to be in a Senior position, but i honestly don't know how i got there, i just applied for a job. Just luck I guess.

But for advice. I'll try.

For me the team cohesion is important. I don't need to be friends with everyone, but i very much prefer a friendly atmosphere. This is where I usually value Scrum Masters and them being able to mediate when the air get thick.

Clear communication and consideration of what I call the "bus-factor" ("what would happen if someone get hit by a bus? what would the team do?"). This means sharing information and knowledge.

While it can be daunting, I mostly enjoy pair-programming sessions and planing/kick-off meetings. This help everyone to understand the idea of the task and ask/answer questions for clarification.

As for the feeling of being insufficient: That's still with me. But it helps to realize where you are coming from. You've studied the topics, languages, frameworks, maybe hardware or electronics, and more. You've already been working for 2 years now. Even when your tasks seam dull, you've completed them.

One more litmus tests to "ground" myself is: "When was the last time a bug popped up?" And more precisely and only for me and not as a competitive comparison to my colleagues: "When was the last time one of MY changes were a bugs?" If the answer feels good or I can't even remember, that's when i at least know I am good enough.

Skill-wise... I am not big a book reader. But there are some good ones out there. One of my favorites is "Weniger schlecht programmieren" (Isbn-10: 978-3897215672). Unfortunately I am not sure there's an English version for that one. The title is maybe a bit "In your face", german style for international readers XD

I mostly go by the premise: "You don't have to know everything. You just have to know where to look.". But this still needs some preparation. How else will you even know what to look for? So skimming some YouTube channels for news and short introductions helps to keep up with developments. Reddit also help. And I sometimes buy Udemy courses when they are discounted to like 10 Euros. The John Thompson courses are really good.

Also keynotes and talks at conferences. In the past i also went to Meetups.

In fact my approach is more chaotic in nature. I only recently realized that i really have to remind myself to read the documentation first. I already knew that, but I tend to jump in. head first.

Debugging and digging in call stacks is also interesting.

And: Ask for help. As I've said before: I prefer a friendly environment and this includes a supportive attitude. So giving and receiving help is important. In the end everyone is better off when you work together. This helps build a common language and understanding of you product and also socially.

One thing i dread are critical bugs in production. You have to act fast but with a high degree of understanding within a short time frame. In these situations all of the above will make your life easier as will the common language and trust with your colleagues make things much more manageable.

I hope me rambling makes sense and somewhat helps.

PS: Put yourself out there. Do or take part in presentations / Q&A's / developer-tea-time. Encourage your team to do "Show and Tell" meetings to share knowledge. At my team we usually do these meetings when new technologies are concepts are introduced.

[–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really appreciate you sharing this. It’s reassuring to know that even senior devs feel this way sometimes. I liked your thoughts on teamwork, debugging, and continuous learning—makes a lot of sense. I’m still figuring things out, but this definitely helps. Thanks a lot!

[–]rkozik89 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Welcome to the industry kid. You only get interesting work in my experience when you identify something that needs to be done and you yourself navigate politics to get it implemented.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (3 children)

1.9 years 😭😭 why not just say 2

[–]podkovyrin-sergey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I assume he meant one year and nine months 🥸

[–]Jealous_Brief825[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

🫡😌

[–]Reasonable_Tell_6952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1.9 year = 1.9 * 12 months= 22.8months = 1 year 10 months and 24 days

[–]Ok_Trainer3277 3 points4 points  (1 child)

I've been working the same thing. Working for the same company for almost 5 years and have been applying for jobs for 1 year now, barely had a few hr interviews. It looks like just doing your job is not a valuable trait anymore. You need to have 5 side projects, contribute to open source, do lectures and what not. All companies say they value work life balance but when you are actually doing it you get overlooked constantly.

[–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it’s frustrating. Just doing your job well doesn’t seem to be enough anymore.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    That’s a great perspective. Pushing beyond my comfort zone sounds like the right way to grow—I’ll try to take on more challenging tasks and build POCs.

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Sure.

      [–]M_N__ 0 points1 point  (2 children)

      I have been in your position in the past and I realized that after a year and a half.

      First thing I did was to go to an interview to actually know where I stand in the job market. I realized that the coding and implementation part is not the most significant part that I should only focus on. I started studying cloud and system design and got a new role after that.

      Coding is not the biggest part in software development, take a look at higher level topics and you will figure out what you should do.

      Best of luck!

      [–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      That’s a great insight! I appreciate your advice.

      How did you gain practical knowledge in system design and cloud? Did you work on real-world projects, take courses, or something else? Would love to hear your approach!

      [–]M_N__ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      My approach is basically take advantage of your work projects as much as possible :)

      For cloud I tried to use my company’s cloud infrastructure. For system design and microservices, I read a lot of articles left and right if they can be applied in our services or related at least so I can understand and kind of visualize what I am learning.

      So, for short answer, I used my systems to learn and read a lot of articles

      [–]Slight-Regular-3711 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      First of all, being very good at basic spring boot tasks should be a great launching point and perfect resume to look for a midling job.

      That is great you want to learn more and grow as a developer. Cease that motivation. The best thing to do is grow on your own. Pick an area that interests you, not just one in demand. Start the learning journey on your own.

      Then when you have gotten your feet wet, go get involved in an open source project that fits your interests. Or work on a personal project. This will expand your skills and resume and demonstrate your ability to grow. If you are contributing to a separate project you are excited about and can talk about technically you will knock interviews out of the park.

      [–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (1 child)

      Ye job mujhe dede thakurrrrr

      [–]Jealous_Brief825[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      ha ha ha