The statement that experience in software development depends on how many years you’ve been in the job is only partially true. Even those with years of experience can take the wrong approach and miss out on opportunities to build a successful career.
Identifying an incompetent employee can be helped by these seven signs. They’re worth everyone knowing so they don’t make the same mistakes.
Creates large pool-requests
Inexperienced developers often combine a huge number of changes into one pool-request. Besides, they usually expect that a reviewer pays special attention to analysis of their code.
This mistake is often made by experienced programmers too. They write code without feedback for several days, and by the time it gets to the reviewer, any comment will require significant changes.
How to fix it
- Make small changes and submit the work for review every day.
- Make sure the code compiles and doesn’t break the build before you create a pool-request.
Writing spaghetti code
Inexperienced developers often write confusing code that is impossible to read. Not only is it hard to find the beginning and the end, but it’s not clear what functions it performs.
To write good code, plan a sequence of actions. Perform a dry run to visualize it from beginning to end. Move on to implementation only when the full picture of changes is crystal clear. Otherwise, it will be hard to read the code, not only for you, but for the entire team.
How to fix
- Before you implement a function, understand all of its nuances.
- Keep it simple and clearly structured so that other team members can read your code and understand its purpose.
Taking on too many tasks
Inexperienced developers don’t know where to start with the task, how to proceed and when it will be completed. They try to solve several problems at once and don’t divide them into several small parts to make implementation easier.
As a rule, they get down to implementation as soon as they are assigned a task. They don’t ask questions or check in as they progress. Therefore, the result is that the implementation is not at all what it was originally intended to be.
Another sign of inexperience manifests itself when a developer takes on everything at once: performing tasks from unrelated functions, offering to help fix production problems, and promising to help other team members.
As a result, he doesn’t complete any of the tasks. Although he is likely acting in good faith, the result can be disastrous. Eventually, the team loses time and the tasks will need to be passed on to other developers.
How to fix it
- Break tasks into several small logical parts. Send every working block of code for review.
- Only take one task at a time. Proceed to another only after completing the previous one as required.
Highly arrogant
This quality gives away any inexperienced developer. He is so self-confident that he does not even understand what he is doing wrong, and any feedback is taken as a personal insult.
Arrogance is found among many newcomers who have just finished training and do not yet understand that in the professional world they have much to learn. The smartest among them, on the contrary, show tolerance and interest in the corporate culture.
However, this quality is also shown by experienced developers. Perhaps this is due to their professional achievements or to the fact that they have never worked with smarter and more talented professionals.
In either case, arrogance clearly indicates a lack of proper experience and hinders career advancement. In addition, no one would enjoy working with such a person on the same team. Hardly faced with failure, he will blame others for it.
How to fix it
- Be humble and polite – it will help build a successful career in software development.
- Treat everyone with respect, regardless of position. Don’t get into arguments over disagreements.
Don’t learn from your mistakes
Feedback helps a developer grow, identify gaps in knowledge, and correct mistakes. A smart professional knows how to improve productivity with feedback.
A developer’s inexperience manifests itself in his reaction to constructive feedback. Not only does he not accept comments to improve his work, he may even take them as a personal insult.
This indicates that the developer has not learned any lessons from his experience. Year after year, he continues to take an incompetent approach and is surprised that no one appreciates his input.
How to fix it
- Treat every feedback positively. You can choose for yourself which one is worth accepting and which one is worth rejecting. But before you do, analyze it carefully.
- Be prepared to learn from your mistakes. You cannot do without them, but they will help you improve the quality of your future work.
Wasting work time on personal matters
Almost every team member encounters someone who browses social networks, plays games or engages in any other personal activity during the workday. Such behavior reduces not only the productivity of the employee himself, but also his colleagues, who are forced to finish the work for him. Ultimately, this can lead to dismissal.
Such behavior shows clear incompetence. A good developer should take his job seriously.
How to fix it
- Try not to do personal tasks during work hours. In an emergency, you can go to your supervisor and ask for a couple of free hours.
- Use your breaks to sit on social networks and browse online stores.
Unable to put knowledge into practice
An inexperienced developer is passionate about popular technology, even if he or she will never use it. And as soon as a new product appears on the market, he will forget about the one that has already gone out of fashion.
In addition, novice professionals often abuse online courses and tutorials. Although they are undoubtedly a useful tool for learning, simply following the indicated steps will be a waste of time if the knowledge gained is not applied in practice. Step-by-step instructions give a false sense of achievement. Most likely, the developer won’t be able to apply this knowledge to create something new.
How to fix it
- Devote time and effort to only those technologies that are useful to you in your work and for personal projects.
- Put the knowledge from the manuals into practice. Self-implementation will allow you to learn much more than simply following the manual.