How important is it for a beginner asp.net developer to have a senior by his side?

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Hi, i am a BCA graduate, i have recently got a job as a asp.net web developer, the thing is there are no senior to guide me in the company. I am totally dependent on internet to find solution to the problems i face while developing web application. I have been working for just 2 months, i believe you must be having an idea about how much an average college graduate with no significant work experience knows. My question is.. to what extent is it going to hinder my learning curve? How important is it to have a senior by the side?

Posted 10-Mar-13 8:08am

arbaaz jalil

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Richard MacCutchan 10-Mar-13 14:14pm

An impossible question to answer. For some people it will be very important and for others totally unnecessary. It all depends on your own knowledge and abilities.

arbaaz jalil 10-Mar-13 14:15pm

Put yourself in my shoes and then answer.

[no name] 10-Mar-13 14:17pm

Put yourself in our shoes and try and see how this is completely impossible for us to answer. We would have no idea what your capabilities are and if you would need a senior dev to look over your shoulder. Some people might and some people might not. How do you think we are supposed to know which you are?

arbaaz jalil 10-Mar-13 14:20pm

By "Put yourself in my shoes and then answer." i meant if you were in same situation how much do you think it could have hindered your learning curve? you dont know about me but you know about yourself right?

[no name] 10-Mar-13 14:29pm

How do you suppose my situation would be in anyway relevant to you? We are not talking about me or Richard. We are talking about you. *I* would not need a senior dev looking over my shoulder because I know how to read and do my own research. Do you? How would complete strangers on the internet suppose to know if you can read and understand simple directions? Can you do your own research? Only you can answer your own question. How I, Richard or anyone else in same situation would react is completely irrelevant to you and your situation.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 10-Mar-13 23:49pm

You mistake is the idea that other should have been in your situation. I personally observed something similar in very rare cases; I usually met more independent people...
By the way, your idea that this situation is familiar has the same root as your problem itself...
Please see my answer.
—SA

Richard MacCutchan 10-Mar-13 14:28pm

How can I do that when I know nothing about you? You may be the best programmer this side of the Pecos, or you may be someone who has only the most basic understanding of web development, and not the capability to learn it, or just somewhere in between.

There have been times in my career when I learned a lot from having a mentor to help me, and there have been times when I just had to get on and learn something new for myself. Somehow, I managed to fool my employers that I could handle the job and produce the correct results.

[no name] 10-Mar-13 14:31pm

Ah Richard, somehow I doubt that you would really have to "fool" anyone.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 10-Mar-13 20:47pm

The "question"... how typical and at the same time outrageous. Somehow I answered, anyway.
Please see.
—SA

Richard MacCutchan 11-Mar-13 6:18am

Maybe "blag my way" would be closer to the truth. :)

CHill60 10-Mar-13 16:33pm

Richard and Phantom are spot on .. it really does depend on how you do your own research, own study, own practice, own work etc etc. However I will take on board your "put yourself in my shoes" and give you an honest answer how it has worked for me ...
There have been times when I've had a "senior" work alongside and it has been the biggest hindrance to my learning curve and career progression that you can imagine.
There have also been times when having a peer alongside have been the most productive days/weeks/years of my career.
My advice would be ... keep studying (graduating from college is the beginning of learning!). Learn from your mistakes but experiment too.
Use the internet ... when I was in your position it wasn't available but other learning routes were ... so I used and abused them.
Consider building a network ... forums like this, technical symposiums ... even linked-in.
Your supporters, peers and helpers do not have to work alongside you.
Good luck on this journey!

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-10T14:46:00

Nobody is going to answer this question for you. I mean, none of the strangers. It depends on your skills and personality.

But the mere fact that you are already hired by the company makes your question ridiculous. If you are hired, you are supposed to do all the works related to your position. Now you feel that you are rather not. Be careful: it's a good precursor for be fired, for a good reason. At the same time, you should not hesitate to ask for some help, but not in doing your work, but in getting comfortable with all company settings: instrumentation, working procedures, formalities, etc. Before you got it all, you can even demand it. And, if you are in a good teem, nearly everyone around you will help (or bring you to the person who can immediately help), not only the person supervising your work.

As to your work, of course, you will need to learn a lot, but people should be able to get you involved starting from the works you should be able to do immediately. You should not expect any spoon-feeding you might have experienced at school. Your learning should happen via self-learning, reading documentation, and importantly, from code reviews (and other kinds of reviews) and criticism you should always get from your colleagues.

No one is supposed to spend a considerable part of one's working day on giving you systematic lessons.

I personally cannot understand what I see. When I was at the university, many, or maybe be most of my fellow students quickly took leading positions in their own work in research laboratories. This is what we were excepted to do. Most of us never asked "please tell me what to do" as they made their own research plans and good ideas on what to do. When they get hired, no one even had the idea that someone should lead them. And I met many people like that, from many different countries. I know many people who self-taught whole big fields of knowledge fully independently, to the level higher then "professional". This is what I call real education.

What I can see here often resembles kindergarten. Are you going to realize you are an independent creative and knowledgeable engineer?

—SA