Catchy Advice, Boring Advice
On the other day, I was reading a post on a social network where a person who went to an interview for the position of (junior) developer asked a question at the end of it: how one can become a senior developer. He was very impressed by the answer of the interviewer. The answer was,
Being a senior developer is about how to handle people, how to teach them, how to guide and mentor them. You’ll have a group of juniors under you with different mindsets. You need to know their mindset and behave accordingly…
…blah blah blah. This answer may look good. You may be impressed by the answer. But wait! Does that mean if you are good at people management and can mentor them, then you’re a senior developer? I mean, where is the point of being very good or an expert at development to become a senior developer? Where is the point where you need to be good at estimation, implementation planning, knowing risks in the technical decisions, business values, etc.? Aren’t those needed to become a senior developer, or is just people management and mentoring enough?
On the pretense of saying something that looks catchy, they’re ignoring the base. Or are they assuming the base when giving a shining opinion to impress people? Like, being good at development is the base to become a senior developer, isn’t it?
I remember watching an interview where the interviewer mentioned that focus was the reason for Bill Gate’s success. Then someone suggested that curiosity was the reason why he was successful. These are absolutely correct reasons to be successful. But, does that means if I sharpen my focus on something for half an hour every day, that I’ll become successful? No. One must need to work hard as the base. Focusing on one thing is very important, but hard work is essential. Why are people not talking about hard work nowadays? Is it because talking about hard work is boring? I don’t know.