Advice for Junior and New Software Developers

The first couple of years are the steepest. These episodes cover landing and surviving a first job, coming in from a bootcamp or another career, asking for help without feeling like a burden, finding a mentor, and the imposter syndrome that shows up for nearly everyone.

44 episodes of Soft Skills Engineering, the weekly advice podcast where Dave Smith and Jamison Dance answer software engineers' questions. Every episode is free, and each page below has the listener's question in full.

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Every episode about new developers

  1. Episode 522: I stayed too long at my first job and should I get a masters degree
  2. Episode 515: My junior team member won't listen to me and will I be the dumbest employee at a quantum computer company?
  3. Episode 496: Passing non-technical interviews and my internship with only other interns
  4. Episode 482: I got a promotion, but a tiny raise and an imposter interviewed for my team
  5. Episode 472: Should my junior dev use AI and thrown in to ETL
  6. Episode 471: Why does my junior engineer do so little and I fell asleep in a Zoom meeting
  7. Episode 455: UX designer without a mentor and I get bored too easily and stressed too easily
  8. Episode 453: Why did my company build an internal LinkedIn and how do I not get stagnant in my skills?
  9. Episode 445: Staying at my first job and my coworker is insulting other departments
  10. Episode 420: New grad getting boring work and busy manager
  11. Episode 406: Acquired taste and limited mentorship
  12. Episode 400: Underperforming intern and upskilling
  13. Episode 393: Soft skills for interns and intern to QA
  14. Episode 387: No juniors and manager forced to return to office
  15. Episode 386: Stuck with toil and how to get a dev job as a self-taught career-switcher in 2023
  16. Episode 382: Mentors for managers and mob programming
  17. Episode 370: Fake imposter syndrome and opposite ends
  18. Episode 294: Unqualified internal applicant and speculative specs
  19. Episode 282: Setting boundaries late and junior joy
  20. Episode 270 (rerun of 227): Junior expectations and manager flakiness
  21. Episode 261: Anxious about work and senior imposter
  22. Episode 245: Sweating the small stuff and quit my first job?
  23. Episode 232: "Junior" developer and NDA'd
  24. Episode 227: Junior expectations and manager flakiness
  25. Episode 217: Quitting words and double COVID internship
  26. Episode 215: Many jobs in one and junior git stickler
  27. Episode 186: First job negotiation and am I a senior engineer?
  28. Episode 183: Terrible boss code and peer-to-peer mentorship
  29. Episode 171: Unwilling mentorship and tortoise vs hare DevOps
  30. Episode 166: Not the intern and fighting at work
  31. Episode 162 (rerun of episode 113): Quitting Your First Job and Too Many Responsibilities
  32. Episode 150: How to fight imposter syndrome as a technical lead and Getting in to meetups
  33. Episode 113: Quitting Your First Job and Too Many Responsibilities
  34. Episode 109: Critical Junior Dev and Introducing New Tools
  35. Episode 97: A Quiet Intern and Hearts and Guts
  36. Episode 66: Nepotism and Minimum Junior Requirements
  37. Episode 65: Left In The Dust and Imposter Syndrome
  38. Episode 51: Junior Scrum Master In Trouble And Jamison Has No Degree
  39. Episode 43: Internship Costs and CS Interview Questions
  40. Episode 42: Bootcamp Job Hopping and Cultural Reliability
  41. Episode 37: VC Funding and Internal Presentations
  42. Episode 28: How Long Should I Stay At My Job and How Do I Help Junior Developers Improve
  43. Episode 21: Giving work to interns and dealing with "dead weight" developers
  44. Episode 10: Mentors and Stock Options

Other topics

Browse all 527 episodes or ask Dave and Jamison your own question.