How Long Should It Take Junior Devs To Ramp Up?
Dev Leader Weekly 73
TL; DR:
The week has been a BLUR!
2 topics are submissions to Code Commute!
Join me on Monday, December 9th at 7:00 PM Pacific for a live stream!
How Long Should It Take Junior Devs To Ramp Up?
But First... A Slightly Chaotic Week
This week was a bit more chaotic than usual for me, so this newsletter issue will be more succinct.
The bad news is: it's going to be shorter.
The good news is: it's going to be shorter!
I'll try to collapse down some of the key takeaways and pieces of actionable advice from this week on my software engineering vlog, Code Commute. These are topics that were submitted by viewers -- but I also think they're really important ones to discuss.
If you want to watch the Code Commute episodes, check them out at the end of the newsletter issue. And, with that said, I'll let you enjoy a less wordy update from me this week on these two topics!
How Long Does It Take Junior Developers To Ramp Up?
This is a great question that really only has one right answer:
"It depends" - In typical software engineering fashion, of course!
But in all seriousness, there isn't going to be a one-size fits all universally true answer for this. Instead of focusing attention on a specific time frame, I wanted to share things that I think affect the ramp up time for juniors.
Keep in mind, these are generalizations--It's nearly impossible to answer these types of questions without generalizing, so I'd like to call that out. If you're a junior joining a new team or you're going to be getting more junior developers brought onto your team, I hope you find this helpful to think through!
Positive Factors:
Having an onboarding buddy for direct contact, guidance, and mentorship can be a huge benefit.
Structured onboarding such as documented onboarding steps--especially if there's opportunity to interact with team members
Face time with the team. Especially if people are remote, it can have a dramatic positive impact on interactions by getting to meet face to face.
Setting clear expectations--work with your manager on this!
Timeboxing efforts. It will take some time to figure out a groove for getting work delivered.
Ask. Questions. Encourage people to ask questions. The team should openly encourage it, but the person being onboarded REALLY needs to lean into this.
Negative Factors:
Isolated remote workers seem to have a bit more of a challenge with this, anecdotally, especially if their personality type is much more reserved/passive. This can result in being blocked for longer periods of time.
Disorganized onboarding materials (especially when they're almost all out of date)
No dedicated team members support. How should this person expect to get unblocked?
Set-and-forget attitude with new hires. Managers should work on establishing clear expectations and especially in the beginning stay very closely in touch.
But What About...
Two other considerations that I'd like to touch on more specifically:
Startups vs Large Companies
Remote vs In Person
In my experience, startups generally have an expectation that their new hires will be ramped up super quick. This is because startups need developers to be effective as soon as possible so that they can stay alive. If you consider that startups are often fighting to stay alive in the early stages, it's a big cost to the small development team to onboard someone--especially if they aren't performing right away. Now, that's not to say that it's not worth it for them to onboard folks -- but it's difficult because resources (people, time, and money) are often very limited. If we consider large companies, they generally have more flexibility here.
I've also noticed that there is a difference in effectiveness between remote and in-person employees. Again, this is a generalization and not a rule--just what I have observed in my career as a manager. It seems that many junior developers who are hired as purely remote struggle to get themselves unblocked. Fundamentally, this comes down to not asking questions to get unstuck--but the reasons for this may of course vary. I've observed that new junior hires (including interns!) who ask questions regularly to get unblocked tend to ramp up much quicker and more effectively. Otherwise, folks seem to not want to "bother" other developers on the team--even when they are explicitly told that everyone wants to help!
Remember: Try not to focus attention on specifically how much time it should take to ramp up. Because it depends.
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Remember to check out my courses, including this awesome discounted bundle for C# developers:
Weekly Recap
Ship Your Product! Let's Build An Installer In Visual Studio
This might not be as glamorous as building a fancy new web application...
But if you're still shipping downloadable software, odds are you've probably found yourself needing an installer!
Don't worry -- it's a super easy process and I'll guide you through it from within Visual Studio!
Help! I'm A Junior Dev... How Can I Transition To FAANG?
Someone reached out to ask as a junior dev at a small/mid-size company how they can work towards getting into FAANG.
FAANG shouldn't always be an end goal for people, but here are some of my thoughts on what to lean into.
THEY'RE TOO SLOW! - How Long Should It Take Junior Devs?
So just how long should it take a junior dev to ramp up?
You guessed it -- it depends.
Here are my thoughts on things that affect ramp-up time for juniors.
Which Projects Should Junior Devs Build? - Principal Software Engineering Manager AMA
I'm a junior developer -- Should I focus on TODO apps or try to build a business?
... Yeah, that about sums up the two major categories that I have coming in when this question is asked.
Many people have different opinions about this -- So of course, I have my own.
There are two major categories of things to build that I suggest, and each of them has different goals.
As with all livestreams, I'm looking forward to answering YOUR questions! So join me live and ask in the chat, or you can comment now and I can try to get it answered while I stream.
The FASTEST Way To Become A Manager As A Developer
As a junior through mid-level engineer, what's the fastest way to become an engineering manager?
First off: Do you actually know if that's what you want?
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Someone was curious why it appears that so many developers who leave tech to become some kind of tech influencer.
What's with the buy-my-course spam and why is it that they didn't just stick with working in tech?
Risk It All Or Go The Safe Route? Are Startups Good For Junior Devs?
If you're young and diving into your tech career, should you go the safe route and work for a mid-large size company? Or do you take big risks and go to a startup?
As with all things in software engineering:
It depends.
I'm DROWNING In Legacy Code! AND There's No Documentation!
A shocker for many new developers: most of your career will be maintaining what we call legacy code.
Sound fun?
Don't worry. It's kickass.
AI Is Coming For Your Software Engineering Job (Or Is It?)
We all know that software engineering is going to be destroyed by the AI wave.
Orrrr is there a different way that this story goes?
As always, thanks so much for your support! I hope you enjoyed this issue, and I'll see you next week.
Nick “Dev Leader” Cosentino
social@devleader.ca
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