Andrew Pallant

This week I pushed out some old blogs outlining the relationships between senior and more junior developers. I did this because I thought it was very important to listen to each other. We can all learn from old and new experiences. I find it interesting how often we create a separation in our teams either by tasks, titles, office space or various others – just to create a distinction between the new and old guard of the development teams. I find this distinction to be counter productive. Yes a senior has real world experience, but the junior has a fresh set of eyes looking at the tasks. Yes the senior has a more disciplined approach, but the junior has a unadulterated outlook on things. If we open our eyes, relax our mind and open our worlds to each other, we can learn and gain more ground. It is good to share, debate and listen to each other. It is not good to have a senior dictate how something has to be done without listening. It is not good to have the junior too shy or afraid to give input.

The best college course I took was Critical Thinking. Critical Thinking taught us the art of listening, accumulating information and then making a decision. I believe this helped me to open up to new ideas. It also taught me that opinions of all people do matter. I hope this is still taught.

My greatest experience was when I was the Manager of Development at Buckland Customs. I had a small team of developers, but this one kid we hired was smart. He showed me new ways to look at things, process data and how to structure things. To this day I use some of the techniques that he showed me. If I had not listened to this kid (now much older), I may not have been as successful at some of my other jobs. Both in listening to others as well as my knowledge base is much larger.

It takes experience of all people to make up a good qualified team. It takes people of all experiences to make a project successful. Not one person can be successful long term without listening to new and old ideas.

Related Blogs:

• Can a Senior Learn from a Junior Developer?
• How can a Senior Help a Junior Developer
• Seniors Should be a Junior Developer for a Day

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