Why Am I A Junior Developer?

Do you cringe or cringed whenever you were referred to as The Junior Developer by your boss or a fellow senior developer? My first every job title as I graduated was Junior Web Programmer (I know that was one funny job title) and that contract job lasted for merely three months where I customized a WebERP based website. That time it really didn’t bother me what I was called.

Ok, let’s talk about why you might still be called a junior developer even after years and years working professionally and writing hundreds of lines of code in the past.

You Don’t Speak The Lingo

Terminology in every field plays an important role because they convey the gist of what someone exactly means when they use them. Not knowing the terminology for certain things say what if ... else statements are called when talking to your peer developers might subconsciously convey that you are new to the programming game and also waste a lot of time explaining things.

Or may be you are using a certain design pattern you being unaware of it. The downside of it is that when seeking help or discussing a certain problem if you don’t mention which design pattern you are using, you won’t know whether it’s you who is doing something wrong or is it the design pattern which is not a fit for your particular situation.

With using the right terminology you help your fellow developers understand your questions/issues easily and may help you better. Do try to learn the terminology as much as you can.

You Don’t Use The Tools

Most of the beginners can’t use tools suitable to their possible needs. Firstly because they are new therefore they don’t know what tools are available. Secondly, they need a kind of a solid reason to use them. Code editors and version control systems are pretty much the basic and the most important tools for any developer. If you have spent a decent year or two writing code and still don’t utilize a decent code editor or IDE and git, you’ll definitely be finger-pointed-at and someone might think you are a newbie.

Modern web development requires a lot of tools to build a website or a web app. From package management to state management to building and eventually deployment. Not only web development, modern mobile app development also makes you use a plethora of tools for building, testing, profiling and publishing.

So start using the right tools right away not because you’ll be called names but because they help you.

You Are Not On GitHub

Should this not be in the previous section? Anyways, today, when you apply for a job as a developer, your StackOverflow and GitHub accounts matter more than your CV and even your references. Go ahead and create your SO and GH accounts and start utilizing them on a daily basis.

Up Your Game Guys!

Being a Junior in any profession is not a bad thing in any way at all! It’s the start of your journey and you have to start from somewhere. As you go, you learn things in the form of terminology, tools and techniques. This is how you grow as a developer, as a professional and as a person. Keep learning and growing at the same time achieving goals, making bucks and winning hearts.