Step-by-step, from newbie to Happy End from beginner

    Good day,

    In the previous habratopic, there was quite an active discussion about employee motivation. I thought about something else to write for a long time, and now, in fact, the topic was born of how a novice grow to a high grade.

    One way or another, career growth is one of the components of employee motivation. I don’t think that the lion's share of your employees (not everyone, of course) stupidly wants to be developers all their lives, sooner or later a person begins to think, “what’s next?”. Actually, the habratopik is for almost everyone, for those who have already achieved something and for those who are just going to achieve it or not going to do it at all (I strongly hope that the habratopik will reanimate your craving for a new one). But it will focus on those who are just starting. Although it will help those who manage, in the steps necessary for training an employee and making him a full member of the team.

    Leaders, in any case, even if you work not so little, remember, you are always a beginner and always learn.

    To begin with, that you can achieve in life just is not what you'll get and that you will get depends only on you. Even if you have an obstacle in the way, only you can overcome it. It doesn’t matter what baggage of experience you have at the moment - everything in life is achievable, this is a fact and try to take this for an axiom.

    So, you are a young man from 15 to 50 (maybe more) years old. The fire in the eyes, the thirst for knowledge, the hands are burning to write something, somewhere to shine with the mind, everything is around the guru, but no one understands anything from what you say. Congratulations, you are a beginner.

    To begin, I advise you to find a Learning Based company (or just a small company where you will be taught), where you could learn from the experience of employees and learn how to work. So far, just stupid. Read literature (everything from programming to fiction), this will develop your memory. Personally, I reread the entire library that I have. These are children's fairy tales, and science fiction, and fantasy, and non-fiction, programming, teaching aids on management and communication, etc. Believe me, no matter how skeptical you are, this will help you. Of course, it’s not at all necessary to be that same bookworm and a fan of computers, it’s quite simple to read it. Over time, you will have a library about IT + your favorite genre.

    In the beginning it’s worth learning how to learn (tautology, but it’s better to say so). Those. you need to learn how to look for information and learn it. If you have questions that you cannot solve yourself, then try to find at least something to come to a leader or colleague and ask a question correctly. I will give you a guarantee that the prepared question will cause more respect than stupidly say "I can’t, I can’t find, tell me how." Over time, you will learn to look for information where it did not exist before. And you yourself will be able to help your novice colleagues. Also, do not be afraid to try to write your product on the basis of the ready-made, which you write in the company. Do not be afraid to spy. This will help you navigate the code already written by another person. But try to come up with your own options for pieces of code. Do not be afraid to completely rewrite everything let no one see this, but you will gain experience. And in principle, do not be afraid of anything - you are a beginner and you get away with a lot.

    In my opinion, you should not linger in the company where you studied, especially if you feel that we have reached the ceiling established by this company or you become bored from the lack of growth and further development. A year (maximum two) is quite normal to learn at least something. It's time to move to the next company. To another job, to another direction.

    Do not be afraid to dramatically change the technology and direction of programming in the next company - this will help in the future quickly navigate in other people's code and completely new technologies.

    So, we were writing some sites, we started writing others :). Not scary. The main thing is that the type of products has changed. Personally, I did this, wrote a resume, inserted everything I could, even basic (of course I signed that knowledge was superficial) and sent a resume. During the interview, deliberately went to the interns. Why? Yes, because when training in the previous company, someone must have missed something and it would be necessary to study everything again. Well, + each company has nuances in the requirements and a new company will help you quickly adapt to any conditions in the future. If it turned out that you already learned and understood everything, then this is not scary either. If you immediately correctly advertised yourself, then you have a chance after the trial to go out on your grade (even if the boss is "bad", you can still achieve what you need). Just remember that the company has its own rules and laws. It’s a big mistake for many to try to adjust the system for themselves. If this is the case, then either look for a company for you, or try to find more points of contact with the current one (especially if you value work).

    And by the way, no matter what profession you have, you are one way or another seller. You are a seller of a service - writing / maintaining a code. It’s a pity, I personally realized this quite late. But during the interview it is necessary, following the interlocutors, to offer their price for their work, i.e. for how much you agree to sell your labor. It’s not worth it to go too far, one way or another, the company has a budget for the hired employee and if you say: “I want a summer house, a car and a hundred thousand mulenas,” they will laugh, of course, but they will also forget about you.

    When I started, it was not money that was important to me, but knowledge. By the way, I still hate this question: “how much would you like to receive?”. I want a lot, but what to say is a problem. But it is - thinking in the ear.

    In general, they took you, let the Department be 10 people. A lot, but enough. If more, good too. But remember, the more people in your department, the more difficult it will be to develop, unless of course you have your own microcommand in 3-5 people. In any case, if you can swim, then put yourself a plus.

    You must immediately tune in not to stupidity, but to work. You came to receive invaluable knowledge and experience. Entertainment should be left for later, the main thing is to enter the team and become your own “board”. And try to become indispensable.
    Immediately caution. Some novice employees mistakenly think that becoming indispensable is when you are not at work (you drink tea) and they will look for you. Irreplaceable - this is when the boss will clutch his head if you decide to fall ill or go on vacation.

    In one of the companies we had such problems. There were really irreplaceable people, when they went on vacation, the project was stopped, because there was nobody to do it - there was not enough experience.

    In general, from a year to two it’s worthwhile to work out and achieve the maximum. The main idea is that you go up the career path not for the sake of a career, but for the experience and the business that you really want to do. Therefore, it’s sometimes worthwhile to say your phi if you are scornfully told in the back: “Careerist”. But sometimes it’s worth thinking about words, maybe you don’t notice that you really turned into a person working for the sake of a career.

    Also at this stage, I advise you to start slowly acquiring novice acquaintances. It will be extremely helpful to try to help someone with a difficult programming dilemma.

    At one time, at this stage, I started making my projects aimed at understanding and administering Linux. Helped admin sites, servers. There is always something to learn (see above).

    One way or another, you have achieved something and feel that you already know everything and everyday tasks have turned into a routine that you solve quickly, confidently and in a short time. Level complete. Of course, if everything suits you, then you can stay.

    In general, if everything is so sad, then it's time, friend, to look for a new job. Even if you worked in an offshore, all the same you should have managed to solve a rather wide range of tasks in two years. And, I'm afraid, the company will not offer you anything new. There are of course exceptions, but they are rare.

    At this stage, it’s worth considering what you want to do if you haven’t lost the goal for which you went into fire and water for 3 years (approximately). We begin to look for work with a bias in your interest.

    I once had a dream. Work at CryTech. I have a good amount of knowledge. I somehow found their specialty in vacancies. He wrote, phoned, talked, wrote to them, they announced Frankfurt for an interview. He sat and thought. I realized that it was a "childhood dream", and a childhood dream should remain a dream (maybe I’m a fool that I did not agree, but I do not regret) ...

    So what am I talking about. Going to the dream right away is not worth it - you risk being disappointed. And so - it's worth a casual try. If you like it, then you can continue to move in the selected direction. We go for interviews, we offer ourselves for money :) We settle down. We “feel” the work by touch - we rejoice or are disappointed.

    Well now you are already a specialist, you are not called an encoder. Communicate respectfully and listen to what you say. Few people doubt those ideas for technology and solutions. Congratulations, you are a developer.

    What is the difference between the developer and what you were like at the beginning? A developer is a developer, i.e. You can already develop systems, platforms, features. You can find, albeit with little effort, solutions to complex problems. Well, you just have to develop what you came up with, accompany, work on it. Well? Bullshit turned out? Not scary - you're a developer. Look for ways to solve your problems and decide, now you can.

    I myself had experience, wrote a good server application, designed for terrible loads. When changing iron, to a more powerful one, it turned out that the speed did not increase. So I caught jambs, wrote crutches. As a result, he spat and, taking into account, already all crutches and plans for future loads and future changes, wrote a new application. And not on what I knew, but on what was better suited to solve the problem. At the moment I am doing experiments in the symbiosis of my code and C ++ or Java.

    And at this moment, I finally parted with the illness of many - PC games. I want to say that they do not interfere with the programmer, on the contrary, you start to think that I would do some parts differently. They did it crookedly, they didn’t finish it here. Useful, especially when compared with their schools (where without them). In general, for myself, I found a new kind of game. It turned out to be much more useful to play in solving unsolvable problems and issues. In general, the meaning of this. I am writing a product, I see that the framework does not have something that was in another (more imperfect) framework. Or you need to solve a non-trivial issue of replication, such as how to make all the databases the main ones and make them correctly, and how you want to synchronize, and also quickly :). In general, somewhere it turns out, somewhere not (experience again - not enough).

    In general, at this stage you should try to learn how to find solutions to problems WITHOUT visible efforts. Well and the most important thing is to learn to justify and explain these decisions. Be sure, it is difficult for everyone to understand you, even not understanding anything in your technologies.

    At first I try to explain to my wife that she is far from IT, if she understood, then they will understand everything.

    In general, almost everything that can be written in Kratz. If you write in detail, then not everyone will write. But the scheme is suitable for any initial step, because there is always something to learn and there is no limit to growth, because you can be the boss in a team, or you can be the boss of teams.

    I want to say one thing. Whatever company is, in this company there is a certain set of rules and laws. For example, you can get the next level after N months. It’s not worth breaking the laws, especially if you don’t have an argument for it (In this case, the argument is provable, painless for the company, reinforced by your actions or thoughts). It was not by chance that I hinted at an exception. It’s not worth breaking, but if you have a Wishlist, then it’s worth saying about it, while your Wishlist should be confirmed by arguments. They won't give you a wish for a head, and if there is an opportunity to carry out your Wishlist, then you have every chance.

    For managers already and not only: this scheme is partially suitable for choosing the direction of personnel training, and not only in IT.

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