junior-developer.txt

I was written by someone who's about to embark on an internship that may turn into a full time junior developer role.
They wrote to ask me what advice I could offer. This is my reply:

I can only speak for myself as to what someone might want to see from a junior developer but here's my take on things.

When entering a new context I like to ask myself how I can most be of service. What would be a valuable contribution in this new arena.

What I think we need more than anything else in the developer community is compassion and the ability for developers of all levels
to understand at a deep level, how to support one another and how to be authentically kind.

Now let me clarify a few terms here because they're so general that we often overlook the obvious.

Being compassionate, understanding, supporting; these are subjective and open to interpretation.
The real skill to be developed is in finding out what these things mean to the people around us.

It's not enough to be "kind" if our kindness is based on our own definition. When you try to offer to other people
based only on your own definition of that thing, we call that an imposition.

What we need is for people to be awake, aware, mindful. We need people who can see past another person's ego and constructed-self 
and to see the part of everyone that is the same as we are.

We need to see that no body thinks of themselves as the bad guys, and that everyone is doing what they're doing because in their 
reality-tunnel, they're doing the very best they can with good intentions.

It's possible to live this way and be a powerful force in the world. We're not talking about the sort of kindness that is weak
and helpless. We're talking about a way of existing that opens all doors with focus and precision.

I say all of this as though I'm talking about how to interact with other people, but really this is a way of interacting with 
your own self. Be firm and guided by what feels right to you in the moment. Adapt and let your opinions of what is "right" evolve with time and learning.
Be kind and compassionate to yourself with an understanding that you're doing the best you can do with the resources you have in this moment.

Be your own judge of how well you're doing and let other people's opinions be useful markers to help guide you.
People are wrong about things all the time, especially when they're trying to measure other people.
You'll be judged by people who don't know themselves and couldn't possibly begin to know you.
Make room for those people to do their thing while you do yours, and just know that every message you get is intended to guide you and help you, even when it seems plain mean.

The gulf between what any of this means, and what anyone can express means that all of this is lies. 🙂🙃

I wish you all the best in your adventure and feel free to contact me when I can be useful to you.