After so many years of developing code to mostly do Extract Transform and Load on different databases using Perl based SQL or PL/SQL, I’m finally working on an application that has an internal website and a standalone application. The move from the solely back-end focused workflow to a full stack development is very new for me. And I feel it very challenging for now. I hope this stays challenging because that should give me some motivation to get things done.
Microsoft technologies are very easy to use. What I’m struggling with is getting expert advice on which approach or design pattern is best for a problem or another. The person most experienced in my team works from home twice a week and is also a manager of four other programmers, who have been in the team for 1 year and longer. But because he is mostly in meetings I don’t get much of his time to ask questions. I use OneNote extensively to note down my questions to ask him when I get hold of him, but how long should I wait before I submit my it works but i don’t know if it is the best sort of code?
There are other experienced resources in the team, but the team fails to realize that getting a newer member up to speed is more important than releasing individual requirement in their modules/components. They are often so busy that even the smallest question I ask would need me to organize a meeting with them and I often get a reschedule request back to my meeting invites. I’m kind of used to being asked to reschedule meetings now.
In the team I used to work before I was one among three. One manager, one experienced programmer and me. And the experienced programmer gave me time when I wanted because he was wise and he knew that spending some time with me initially meant that in future I would be able to contribute effectively to the team without much help. And that was so true, I could easily replace him when he moved on to another team. And because I learned this from him, I trained my fellow new team members like that. It was hard, but it just had to be done. It doesn’t matter how much of your time it takes to clarify concepts to a new member, it always helps in the long run. It is something sort of a long term investment. And most often, unless your newbie is dumb, results in best results.
Always remember that when you are in a team, the speed of the team will only be as fast as the slowest team member. Here I am the slowest, not because I don’t know how to code. But because most often I don’t know which is the best approach to take as I am not familiar with the technologies. If you are experienced and have a newbie join you, I sincerely request you spend some time with them everyday asking them if they had questions and clarifying/discussing design decisions/questions with them. It will always give you great results.