Junior involuntarily: how to find and convince a Jedi developer to become a mentor for you?

Question

Distant work

The question was inspired by the post " What does it mean to be a junior developer ".

I am 29 years old. Now I'm trying to go through the painful issue of reprofiling from a C ++ developer under Windows to a web developer. And I understand that without real practice on real tasks under the supervision of an experienced and qualified mentor, this comes out, to put it mildly, slowly and inefficiently.

I’m not a fool, I have considerable experience in programming and I know how to learn, but even the words of the author of the post mentioned above give up: he has already tried so many technologies in his 20s that I can hardly imagine how long it can take to master them on their own. But this is only a junior developer. What can we say about the level and experience of seniors…

Accordingly, I appeal to those who could call themselves a Jedi developer with mentoring inclinations: what professional knowledge and personal qualities should an applicant for the position of Padawan under your supervision have?
It can be difficult to give a specific answer to such a question; it is easier to set a kind of fork between “necessary” and “enough”. Therefore, I will reformulate the original question in the form of two:

1) Without what knowledge and personal qualities would you not want to mess with a junior padawan even for free?
2) What knowledge and skills should a junior learn after six months of work under your supervision, so that you do not want to part with him and are ready to offer him a job as a full-fledged developer?

To make it clear what kind of web development I’m interested in, I’ll say that I’m more inclined towards server-side programming, but at the same time I want to know and be able to use all relevant client technologies at least at a basic level, so that I can easily understand client-side developers and the need to work with them on the same task.

PS: The rules prohibit asking multiple questions in one topic, but this is more of a continuation of the questions asked above. I hope the UFO understands me.
So, a bonus question for those who answered the previous two:

3) Do you think this kind of mentoring can be effective with remote collaboration? Would you hire a junior remotely?

Thank you!

Answer 1

I would take a junior if he took over the routine operations and did them with high quality (that is, you need attentiveness and perseverance). In return, I would teach him what I know, answer questions and give tasks for development.
That is, we practice together for 2 hours, and then the junior hooves on his own for another 4 hours (or 24, until he does). As a result, I save time, junior exp.
But this is if the junior will do everything as expected. If they start “I don’t want / I won’t / oh well, and so it will do”, if you have to redo it after it - into the garden.

Answer 2

Not everything is as scary as it seems. It is enough to spend 2-3 days on some of the trendy “technologies” in order to use them confidently (git, grunt, yeoman), most of the time is spent on improving the code and writing skills, and not on learning new technologies. For example, reading Knuth and Robert Martin will take more time than installing git, IDE and learning how to deploy (even with CI). And put their advice into practice... ;)
www.coursera.org/course/startup# ! I recommend you listen and pass. There are quite real tasks here, professional teachers from Stanford, a very good combination.
Don't let the name scare you - it's about web development from scratch to a finished project.

Answer 3

1) Without what knowledge and personal qualities would you not want to mess with a junior Padawan even for free?

Without the desire to constantly and continuously analyze their weaknesses and improve.

2) What knowledge and skills should a junior learn after six months of work under your supervision, so that you do not want to part with him and are ready to offer him a job as a full-fledged developer?

In half a year, he should understand that he does not need me, he can study on his own and can go to the project that he likes, and not where they will take it.

Answer 4

@Semisonic @leetmacs reply to 1791039 if it's still relevant. In my free time, I will be happy to help in your endeavors. Experience with frontend/backend. Free of charge. Just because people need help :)

If you have a desire, it will be possible to work remotely on combat missions already for a fee.

PS - sorry, I did not find how to unsubscribe in a personal.

Answer 5

>1) Without what knowledge and personal qualities would you not want to mess with a junior Padawan even for free?

The style of the code, in my opinion, is the main thing, if a person cannot write in such a way that his code is readable from one view, we are not even talking about commenting, but even banal indents and Sish 80 characters (if there is no way without it), then I would I took it without hesitation, another question is that if a person, although he writes well, but constantly delays the deadlines, this is also not an option, you also need to be able to do this.

> 2) What knowledge and skills should a junior learn after six months of work under your supervision, so that you do not want to part with him and are ready to offer him a job as a full-fledged developer?

Ability to search for relevant information. This is the only thing he needs to work well, and what is higher, of course. Everything else will come with time

> 3) In your opinion, can mentoring of this kind be effective in remote collaboration? Would you hire a junior remotely?

For me, this is the most successful option for work, but only so that he is not afraid to communicate in voice on Skype and not get lost for weeks ...

Answer 6

a similar question, only I would like to specialize in backends and high-performance stuff.
now unixoid networker. Really?

Answer 7

In my opinion, you need to look not for a mentor, but for a job in the field that interests you. Working on a real project will give you both real tasks and advice from more experienced programmers.
Jedi usually have Padawans at their jobs, it's unclear why they would need someone outside.

Answer 8

What language do you want to write in?
It's just that for repurposing to Java/PHP, you need one thing, and Ruby/Python is completely different.

Answer 9

Yes, and I can also teach anyone who wants.

By profession a teacher, though in choreography :)

PHP, js.

If everything goes well, it will be possible to talk about real work, since I have a lot of tasks, sometimes I don’t have time myself.

Answer 10

If you are interested in web development on Ruby on Rails, then I can help. Right now I am recruiting a small group of smart guys for training in order to bring them to a normal level in a couple of months and so that they can already get a job. Distance learning, group + individual lessons. Explanation of concepts, tools, approaches, etc. A lot of practical work, with code review.
I just need people who already have programming experience, so as not to start from the basics, but, for example, as in your case, there is a desire to switch to another technology.
If interested - write to [email protected]

Answer 11

I will ask a question that I personally would ask among the very first at the interview. What is the reason for such a sharp change of specialization? As I understand it, in the context of past experience, is it an interesting server side of a certain format (do not sites do it in PHP)?

Answer 12

Semisonic wrote in PM

Answer 13

I'll take a chance, I'll also join the topicstarter.

18 years old, studying in college to be a programmer. I work on ArchLinux. I dug a little bit into C ++ (on pairs of databases, instead of the standard Embarcadero bundle, I do it on Qt https://github.com/Cybran111/DBManager, since the teacher is adequate and we discuss what exactly needs to be done instead of slipping labs and phrases "dig yourself", which I hear from everyone), quite a bit in JavaScript (on Backbone.js I did a test task for an interview, which I went to to get assignments). I read GOF, but you need practice to consolidate.

So far, I am not indifferent to all areas (except for C # and mobile applications, due to the absence of the smartphone itself), but I don’t know what exactly to choose. Therefore, I am ready to study what the Jedi will offer.

Answer 14

I appeal to those who could call themselves a Jedi developer with mentoring inclinations: what professional knowledge and personal qualities should an applicant for a Padawan position under you have?

Enthusiasm and an ardent desire to create, perseverance, the ability to independently master a large number of relatively boring educational materials, the willingness to sculpt any bicycles and shit code. Those who code 500 lines of shit a day are much more effective learners than those who reflect on quality and look for ideal solutions a day by a teaspoon.
Basic knowledge of HTTP/HTML/CSS/Javascript required. In principle, it is possible without them, but then in half a year there will be not very noticeable progress (calc ... "landing pages" and "business cards", that is, we studied it on our own in practice.
In six months, we need to decide on inclinations. We need a logical and algorithmic mindset. I will not hide that I am not a psychologist or a teacher: if there is no inclination, then I am unlikely to succeed in it It
used to be that they came for knowledge of JS, but their heart was not in programming - now they work as web designers. Well, this is also web technology, isn't it? The main thing is to be interesting.
We can draw up a plan for acquiring knowledge and skills together, but we will have to follow the plan on our own.
Six months later, enthusiasm and a burning desire to create should remain . For the speed of learning, let him set requirements for himself.
Here is a counter question: do foreign language tutors employ their students?
If we are talking about a freelancer who will later transfer part of his work to the follower, this is a very, very, very high risk for the freelancer to waste time, which is a lost profit, because he could spend the same hours on orders, and not for education. Wasted - because it is impossible to predict in advance that a reliable and devoted companion will turn out from a follower. Large offices conduct internships for beginners, they put it on stream - but there is a dropout of 80% during the internship and 60% during the trial period. Of the 100 newcomers, 8 complete the probationary period.
I took several Padawans of different levels of knowledge with the expectation of attracting them to my projects and freelancing. Only one came, we didcopi.st is a pet project "link shortener" of an industrial level, where I worked out SemanticUI, LESS, AngularJS technologies, the Phalcon framework, REST architecture, server auto-update, job queues and other complex technologies. As a result, he is already a Middle Frontend Developer at full time, and we left the project.
Concerning "paid"/"free". I thought about this for a long time and now I don’t see any disagreement that mentoring is one of the types of tutoring work, that is, just a paid service with payment by the hour.
In general, I consider the provision of mentoring support on a paid basis reasonable.
And now a little advertising :)
I run support programs for web technologies webmentor.pro
* List of languages, technologies, skills
* Questions and answers about the learning process

Answer 15

The author is well done, almost word for word, what I am experiencing at the moment ..

Answer 16

@2k7demon overlooked your comment. If you need help - please write. I will help in any way I can in my spare time.

Answer 17

for example, I am junior) but I actively use backbone, require and phonegap. Can I be called junior ?

Answer 18

It's never too late to learn. If you answer the questions posed:
1. First of all, without desire. I had a couple of students who came just for a report and they had both tasks and knowledge in parallel, the main thing is that "the record book is not spoiled." Frames without "desire" are cut off immediately. Next comes a group of people who themselves do not know "what they want", but perhaps they can be added to the first category. At the level of knowledge, people are needed who are ready to make decisions by solving problems, who are happy to face difficulties and overcome them, and whether they know the language or not is not so important if there was at least some practice.
2. Solve problems. Compile technical specifications for the tasks to be solved. Know how to find solutions on your own. If a task is set, then be able to come up with several solutions to it and, when choosing the optimal one, be able to explain why you need to choose "this" and not another. I will help you learn to think and not doubt your decisions, as there will be a rationale for each question.

Answer 19

Oddly enough, I'm also 29 years old and I also read that same post
:) I myself am more of a Junior Front-End Dev.
I want to support a little TS and others who doubt their own abilities. I started working in the field of web development a year ago, almost from scratch. Now I have reviewed the post of the Kazakh junior and do not see anything outstanding. Those. for a person who is professionally and actively involved in development, this is normal knowledge.
Today I know, use or at least sniff HTML (+ Jade), CSS (+ SASS/Compass), MySQL, PHP, JavaScript (+ jQuery), Git, Liquid, PhoneGap, several third party APIs. Behind a dozen small projects. If you enumerate for the sake of enumeration, then the list can be continued and outshine the Kazakh. :) But I try to be objective and understand that I need to know even more in order to solve problems faster and better.
For self-study, you need strong willpower, so I highly recommend knocking on any web studios - they will provide tasks there, and there will be someone to suggest, and you will be "in the stream". I think this is the best option for gaining experience. Good luck to everyone!

Answer 20

I once wrote in this thread at the end of last year that I am recruiting a group of junior developers on Ruby on Rails. The group was assembled and the guys showed a very good result. Now I am collecting the second group, so if someone is interested in pumping into RoR, then sign up for the course here: ror.thinknetica.com/?utm_source=toster&utm_medium=...

Answer 21

Good day. Please take me to your place for routine tasks and operations. I really like Python. Completed an honors course on Coursera. There is a certificate. Well, there is simply no physical work in this area in my region, but the desire to develop is huge. Despite the fact that I gave up and did not study for about 7 months, I really want to find a mentor or mentor and still grow in this direction.

Answer 22

Hey! I need help with my training (paid) to create a portal in yii2 with a frontend in Angular (the person is already sharing). Wellcom on Skype)