Thanks, it’s interesting to read your thoughts on this.

If you were a Jr entering the job market now, and have management encouraging vibe coding because they want quick results, how would you go about getting the experience and building the right skillset?

why would I hire someone at all?

AI doesn’t get everything right, and you need someone capable of validating that and pivoting it in the right direction. But also AI cannot currently do everything, so you need someone to fill those areas. Where I work there is a push to engage with AI more, probably to train it.

So why would I hire you over anyone else?

This is like any other job really, people aren’t hired based purely on their skillset, but other factors too such as their capability to learn, their personality, will they mesh well with the existing team, have they got drive to make things better, do they have soft skills to position themselves to become better, is the person adaptable - are they able to use new technology to their advantage or are they stubborn and stuck in their old ways?

I want to be in a position to know and understand all the fundamentals, but is the bar for what is considered fundamental shifting? Once upon a time those who were writing low level code would have said what they do are the fundamentals, but as time went on we got new levels of coding and so knowing how to write low level code is no longer a required skill.

Apologies if I’ve misunderstood what you’re trying to say. But thanks for responding, these kinds of discussions are helpful.

I’ve been a Jr coming up to two years. When working on tasks I have a rough idea of what I want to achieve and some steps on the way there, but don’t know how to actually implement it. I’ve found using copilot useful to fill in some of the gaps and give me ideas and direction.

I’m concerned that there are skills I am missing out on developing, but at the same time if AI is being pushed so heavily is it not something I should lean into to be better equipped in working with it?

In the worst case scenario where you ask it a coding problem for which there is no solution—it’s just not possible to do what you’re asking—it may nevertheless engage you indefinitely until you eventually realize it’s running you around in circles.

Exactly this, and it’s frustrating as a Jr dev to be fed this bs when you’re learning. I’ve had multiple scenarios where it blatantly told me wrong things. Like using string interpolation in a terraform file to try and set a dynamic source - what it was giving me looked totally viable. It wasn’t until I dug around some more that I found out that terraform init can’t use variables in the source field.

On the positive side it helps give me some direction when I don’t know where to start. I use it with a highly pessimistic and cautious approach. I understand that today is the worst it’s going to be, and that I will be required to use it as a tool in my job going forward, so I’m making an effort to get to grips when working with it.

Don’t associate microwaves with AI… The microwave has very viable uses!

I usually chuck a potato in the microwave for like a few minutes before finishing it off in the air fryer. Get that fluffy inside and crispy outside in less than 30 mins, whereas oven cooking it in foil would take an hour plus. Same results but quicker.

If I’m hyper critical of anything the AI puts out, not accepting it as gospel and turn whatever crap it gives me into a working solution, is that vibe coding as well?

Yes

I didn’t, but should I ever feel the need to try it I have already watched the tutorial video.

My school did something similar. It recommended I become a fish monger.

At this point I would think most people know, but for those who don’t:

https://xkcd.com/327

I’m in my late 30’s and I’m a junior dev, having been in the role for just over a year. If you are persistent you can do it. From my experience it has been a hard and at times frustrating job simply because there is so much I don’t know, but that comes with the reward of the eureka moment, where when something works it is one of the best feelings.

Now in terms of doing a school, if it’s a scheme where you pay for the training and they say they’ll get you a job at the end, please be cautious. I have a few friends that went down this route and they say they were the lucky ones to land jobs, but in their groups everyone else was left out in the cold at the end.

This was just my process but I did the Java MOOC course that taught me enough to get going, I was doing this at the same time as working in IT. It’s completely free. For frontend learning I’ve been using Scrimba which has free content but also a paid for subscription, it has been alright and the way they merge the recordings with the IDE is good and the free content feels more substantial than what you’d get with Codecademy.

I’m still just a noob at all of this, and there is so much I don’t know but I’m happy to try and answer any questions you have.

Thanks for this, almost every day can be a challenge but that’s what I signed up for when I switched to software development! I’ll keep what you’ve said in mind and try to put it to practice 🙂

Over a year in as a junior dev and I’m still in the second stage. I did 6 months backend and now I’m now entering my 6th month as frontend. I still know so little, but I know more than I did yesterday.

My biggest challenges:

• I don’t know what questions to ask when it’s about something I don’t know.
• Having a rough idea as to how I want to try and solve a problem, but not knowing how to code it
• Trying to retain so much new information on a daily basis and then remember everything from the days before
• (What I hope is) Imposter Syndrome on a weekly basis

I just keep on trying, try to understand what I can and ask for help when I feel I’m at a blocker.

I too can vouch for one of these. Great for removing a lot of fur. Anything left over I have to use a lint roller.

Kill the ads for sure, but go ahead and give me movie trailers before the start, but with some limitations in place:

1. None of this “THE. TRAILER. STARTS. NOW” before the trailer starts
2. The trailer must have a maximum length so it doesn’t go on too long
3. The trailer shouldn’t give the entire plot away

I’m still in those early cautiously optimistic stage where I hope I can make a positive change that will help those who come after me. How long does it take for the pessimism to set in? 😂

Thanks for this. As part of onboarding I have been trying to update where I can. There are times I wonder if I am adding to docs what others may perceive as fluff as it may be something obvious to them. I like to work with a “If we’re all on a bus that goes over a cliff, does someone new have everything they need?” mentality.

At present the team is using GitHub Pages, which almost feels like a hurdle itself in updating the documentation quickly and keeping it organised and consistent. Being a junior I personally prefer a WYSIWYG. From your experience is there any pros/cons in using a WYSIWYG vs Markdown?

Thank you for those links, it has given me a great place to get stuck into!

Scary Movie 2…