Contributing Value as a Junior Developer

When I was still a junior software developer in the enterprise, I often felt like my opinion did not count. I had the typical shyness many junior developers have at their first job out of college. Whenever I was in the presence of senior developers, I worried about whether what I said would sound dumb and attempted as much as possible to be right to avoid embarrassing myself.

What was the net result of that?

I shared my opinion less and less, holding back on any ideas I had, and feeling frustrated with myself being junior. I had the illusion that if I gain enough experience and knowledge, I would finally speak intelligently and assert myself.

Also, whenever I was sure of something I said to someone more senior, and he was not convinced of it, I would get really angry.

That attitude finally changed after I learned two things:

1. Even the most senior and experienced of developers are sometimes wrong and they often humbly admit it because to them, finding the truth and serving the customer is much more important than others' perception of them.
2. When working with other people, our brains are not directly connected to theirs, so communication is not instantanious or perfect, often requiring a lot of patience and many attempts from both the speaker and listener before the message is communicated successfully.

Once my attitude changed, my behavior changed too as a consequence.

For example, now whenever I have an idea I would like to share, I speak up about it despite knowing that the team may resist it or the idea may simply be bad. Why? Because that's why we work as a team; to get different ideas, different perspectives, and different thoughts. Every opinion matters whether it's from a senior developer or a junior developer. Having a different mind thinking about the problem is very valuable. And, if the idea is not good for some reason, so what? I learn something new and I feel good about stimulating others' thoughts with my suggestion, possibly helping them come up with a different more effective idea.

Also, whenever someone would not see my point of view or not be convinced of something I said, I would take a deep breath and try to communicate it a different way by drawing on the whiteboard, telling a story or scenario, giving a concrete example, or asking the person questions that point him to the message I was trying to communicate. At least, when communication fails, I don't take it personally and appreciate the fact that other people have different points of view and paradigms of thinking, which could make it challenging to communicate a point sometimes. But, if the point does get communicated, the synergistic value of co-operation is priceless!