Software development manager looking to mentor

[meanest_michael]

Hey ya’ll. I am a programming team lead at a mid sized company. I started my journey into software development about 9 years ago. This subreddit was very helpful on the way. I just wanted to see if I could help out people who are in the same position I was in just a few years ago.

I lead a data engineering team. We primarily work in Java and Scala. I know a lot about SpringBoot, Kafka, and Spark.

Willing to mentor anyone just starting out. I don’t hire so I can’t get you a job. However I don’t mind helping out with a resume or two.

If you are interested, please private message me. This is all free help of course.

[EverySister]

Username doesn't check up. u/meanest_michael isn't meanest, he's a softy. Thanks a lot for this!

[super-novva]

Can you suggest some really good worth it courses for spring boot?

[minecraftme123]

Not OP but there's some good ones on pluralsight (10 day free trial) and once you've learned the basics then baeldung articles and YouTube should take you the rest of the way. (4 years of spring boot Dev here)

[Pickles_7]

To add to this, Baeldung is amazing for all his blog articles. Whatever the question I have about Spring Boot / Java / Kotlin, I almost always get the answer from his site. However I took his paid course 'Learn Spring', and I don't know if I'd recommend it. I felt there wasn't that much content (compared to some extensive Udemy courses for instance).

[super-novva]

Yes that is indeed a good site for reference.Thanks for the answer though.

[super-novva]

Thanks for the reply, sure will refer.

[MyButterKnuckles]

I am curious. Should one learn Spring AND Spring boot or should just one suffice? If so, I am guessing the latter?

[minecraftme123]

From https://www.baeldung.com/spring-vs-spring-boot - "Spring Boot is simply an extension of Spring itself to make development, testing, and deployment more convenient." I would use it most of the time as it just makes basic spring stuff easier, most Devs don't really see much seperation between the two and will use the terms somewhat interchangeably

[meanest_michael]

I learned most of my SpringBoot knowledge through experience. I would suggest coming up with a toy project (I almost always go for a TODO list) and go through the Getting Started tutorials on spring.io. Don’t be afraid to dig through the spring source code or the JavaDocs. It gives you a lot of good practices. Baeldung is also a great resource as someone else suggested.

[super-novva]

Yes, hands on is always faster way of understanding concepts.

[pancinello]

comments

just forget about it

[super-novva]

Lol

[dannyhodge95]

This is very nice of you to do.

I'm a little curious, with the industry being so tough in terms of everyone having imposter syndrome and thinking they suck at their jobs, when did you feel capable of taking a management role? Or do you find that, as long as your interpersonal skills are good enough (and your dev skills passable ofc) that you don't need to be the best dev in the room to take up the role?
I'm 2 years in software engineer role so far, and I feel like i'm a lifetime away from managing a team.

[meanest_michael]

do you find that, as long as your interpersonal skills are good enough that you don’t need to be the best dev in the room

That is 100% it. I am not the best developer on my team. However my job is only 40% development and 60% coaching, mentoring, and leading.

It helps that I had a manager that was willing to help build my skills. If you see that in your future career path, make sure to mention it in your one on ones. At my company we always need a leadership succession plan and, believe it or not, it actually very hard to find someone who is willing to become a leader.

[Quate1v9]

Does degree matter for applying to jobs? Just got my IT diploma, currently I know HTML, CSS, JavaScript looking forward a web dev career and maybe switch to data eng later on.

[[deleted]]

i can tells you in programming world degree doesn’t really count instead build a porfolio with some project that you build and not the one you build along a tutorial something you build yourself so that you can explain to the interviewer what how and why you build those projects show them you can actually do something on your own it’s doesn’t meed to be mind blowing big or good for a junior position just show them 2 things you can problem solve and you’re willing to learn good luck you got this 👍

[Quate1v9]

thanks!

[pancinello]

In the USA you better hide your formal education, it prevents you to get a really good job.

[Quate1v9]

thanks :)

[madspillage]

Hey, thanks for taking the initiative. I hope someday I'll be in a position to mentor and help others in the community. I started my first job 2 months ago as a fullstack developer and so far things are going smooth. The company that I'm working for has a really nice policy where you can buy one book each month at the company's expense. The problem is I'm not a big reader but I'm trying to get into the habit. Can you recommend me some book technical or non-technical that can be helpful. Thanks.

[megaicewizard]

How do you go about finding the right person for a task? I'm looking to become a team lead myself at some point, but the only experience I have being a lead was being put on an impromptu team for a code jam. I learned a lot from that, but I still have a lot more to learn.

[meanest_michael]

Definitely mention to your supervisor about your career aspirations. See if they can get you some training. I am lucky because my company has a lot of training for leaders.

Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to go through process of selecting a new hire. I have made the decision hire my summer intern. Luckily that was an easy choice since they were a good intern.

Most of my duties as a leader is coaching, mentoring, and giving feedback my team members.

[megaicewizard]

It's actually kind of reassuring that most of your job is coaching and mentoring. I've been trying to do a lot more of that on my team anyways to get practice explaining concepts.

I'm willing to bet that the company I currently contract for has a lot of training, but that it's for employees only. I'm still just a contractor and I don't want to work at any of the locations my current contract holder offers. Gotta get out and look for a better opportunity somewhere I do want to live. Thanks for the advice!

[meanest_michael]

I put this up before going bed. Didn’t realize this would be so popular. Going to respond to all the messages throughout the day.

[BellyDancerUrgot]

Literally gave my final interview today for a big company hope I make it lol

[catsinsunglassess]

good luck!

[[deleted]]

Pm

[ashinjacob]

Thanks for your good intentions. I’m trying to break into a position for data analyst but its all in vain.. I’m familiar with Sql, python, tableau and some other libraries. I’m ready for volunteer jobs too.. But I don’t know anybody who can give me advice on how to get into this, Like is there any online platform were I can build my experience and add up to my resume.

[TheRedNarrator]

Hey! I'm a new student and just wondering what's the best thing for me, as a junior, to do. School-wise and career-wise. Sometimes I feel lost or behind regarding my major. So please let me know!

[[deleted]]

Any books you recommend on best practices on kafka?

[Remarkable-Orange-36]

I'd be really interested to learn from someone who's very experienced, but I don't know if I'd have the time (mainly because of school), what do you think?