Did you put in the hard work?

Last Update: 17.05.2018. By Jens in Developers Life | Learning | Newsletter

One thing disturbs me a bit in the dev communities. It’s a similar problem I also notice in other professions. People want everything right now. They don’t want to wait. They want the result. Now, better even yesterday.

Freshly started dev, who expect to be a senior dev in one or two years. Devs, who move on or are lost when they encounter their first problem, which is not solvable in a few minutes after googling a bit. Devs, who think that after one year of experience they are the king. And the old devs are just lazy, don’t get their mad skill and boring and reluctant anyways.

Yeah, being a dev is cool nowadays. I get it, it brings money and same want fame too. They are courted by companies and think they are the king. Getting the title of a senior dev and believe they are one.

I don’t like that attitude. You cant become a senior or master after a year or two. You are an apprentice. Your job is to build up experience. You gain that by doing the hard work. Like in any other craft. Take mangaka for example. The hone their drawing skills, day-in, day-out. And even professional mangaka is working as an apprentice for another mangaka who runs her own series.

It’s what I did as a dev too. Sure, I coded as a hobby since the mid 80iers. But, damn, did I still have to learn much as I started to do it professionally in the late 90ies. I learn at work, I learned by asking and discussing with co-workers, guys who were way better than me. I did code at home, reading, learning design patterns and more. Tried to understand why framework X solved problem Y in their way. Thinking about how that could be better solved.

It took me a few years. But hell did I get better at building software. Step by step, slowly. Like in any craft. That’s what we do. We craft software.

There is no fast track for seniority. Nor a magic potion you can drink and become an expert. It is built one step at a time. So, do the hard work and stop looking for shortcuts.