Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 225. Getting Through Hard Times and Failures in Software Development

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225. Getting Through Hard Times and Failures in Software Development · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone goes through hard times, especially in software development.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to face difficult decisions and failures.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: The key to success is learning how to get through these times well.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think there are some key steps that will help you get through difficult times well.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about it in today's episode of DevQuestions.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Software development is more than just writing code.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about the rest of it.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically, let's talk about how to get through hard times, including failure.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, number one, I would encourage you to make friends with people who can relate.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Just talking it through with someone who understands can take a lot of the weight off.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I've had a number of conversations with my friends where I'm like, I did this and this is what happened, and it's really bothering me.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: And just having the ability to talk it through and have that conversation and have someone who understands somewhat about what the situation is and how it works is really helpful.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you may find that you aren't alone as well.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that can be really helpful.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've told people before that if you don't really fit into the development community, I'm sorry, the uh database community, you're not really one of them until you've made a pretty big mistake.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the rite of passage for being a DBA.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so when a person comes in and says, Oh man, I forgot the where clause and the delete statement and I wiped out this whole table.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: It took us three hours to restore.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: You'd think that everybody's like, oh, you're an idiot.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you should never be employed.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, what you're going to hear is a whole bunch of database administrators who go, Welcome to the club.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Been there, done that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: We've all done that because it happens.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're isolated and alone, you may think that you're just not good enough because you made this mistake or that mistake.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have friends, peers who understand the situation, you may find out that you're not quite as alone as you thought you are in that mistake.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean that mistakes shouldn't be avoided.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: It just means that it's not uncommon.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: It happens.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And at some point you'll look back and laugh.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, maybe not for a long time.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe there'll be some repercussions because of it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: But for the most part, you're going to look back and laugh at these situations.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And having friends that understand can really help get you through.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, this is critical and it's it's something that people struggle with.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, be honest with yourself and others, but be honest with yourself.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Take responsibility for what's your responsibility.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you've ever seen a situation where something bad happened and the person that everybody knows was kind of the reason for that says, well, it wasn't me, and kind of points to somebody else, that's frustrating.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so when that happens, it makes you feel worse about that situation, makes you feel more resentful towards that person.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: But if on the other hand, that person says, I'm really sorry, I should have known better, I did that, and I didn't check, and now that's happened.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that takes a lot of the resentment away.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And instead, you're like, you're right.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't have done that, but I appreciate you acknowledging it and we can get through this together.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Be honest with yourself and others.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And again, yourself first.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes people say, Well, it wasn't my fault, and they kind of convince themselves of that, and then they they fight with others to prove that it wasn't their fault, only then to be proven that it was their fault, and that makes it worse.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Also, you can't fix what you don't acknowledge to be a problem.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've got a flaw in how you do things, or if you've got an issue in your process and you don't acknowledge it, then you can't fix it.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: But if you if you take an honest look at what you've done and say, I should have done something different here, well, then you can do something different next time.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: But if you didn't do anything wrong, what can you fix?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: So be honest with yourself.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Developers that get stuck are often stuck because they cannot be honest about their situation.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So be honest, like, you're not as skilled as you think you are.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a bad attitude, you're arrogant.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: These things are important to be self-reflective on and think about because if you can't acknowledge these things, but everyone else sees these things, you may get stuck in your career.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: You may find that you're passed over for position for promotions.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: You may find that you're lower on the list than you thought you should be.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: You may find that people aren't really happy to work with you.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: So be honest with yourself, and that will help you not get stuck.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, put this in perspective.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: This hard time, this failure probably isn't career ending.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: It may be job ending.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: It may be that bad.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: You may have messed up so spectacular to get fired.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not career ending.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's just job ending.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's a larger perspective.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So think about how you will feel in a year.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: How do you gonna feel about a situation?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Take a step back and say, a year from now, will I care?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Think about what happened a year ago.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And do you care about those failures as much?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do they hurt as much?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe they're not as big a deal as you thought they were at the time.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other part of that is what will people even remember in a year?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I've gone through some really tough times, some big mistakes, and I feel a whole lot differently now than I did back then.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't feel that same, that same embarrassment, that same shame, that same frustration.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that the people I worked with don't even remember mostly that situation or those situations.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: So if you put it in perspective, you may realize, okay, I have to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be, but this isn't the end of the world.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And by putting it in perspective, you can have a better outlook on this and say, yes, I need to get through this.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's tough, yes, it's frustrating, but there's gonna be an end.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna be better at some point.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I can get through this.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Number four, identify how not to fail again in the same way.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is important.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it comes back to being self-reflective and making sure that you're honest with yourself.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: But if you identify how not to fail again in the same way, you've learned.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: You've grown.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what all of us do.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Really, you know, software development is about making mistakes.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about how debugging is a massive part of being a software developer.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, who created those bugs?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: We did.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: What are bugs?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're mistakes.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're things that we did wrong.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: We do things wrong in every application.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Every developer makes mistakes.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not about whether you make mistakes, it's about how you learn from them.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: One of the key aspects of being a senior developer is not about how much code you know.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, you learn most of the code you need as a junior developer.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Being a senior developer is about having being able to identify situations you've done before and say, hey, I made this mistake before, I'm not going to do it the same way next time.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: I know how to make this work right because I've seen the ways to do it wrong, because I've done the ways to do it wrong.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: That knowledge, which is really experience.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why so many employers ask for work experience.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're not asking, have you just spent a lot of time as a developer?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: What they're asking for is have you learned and grown as a developer?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Have you learned from your mistakes and have you changed for the future?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you're the type of person who does not learn from mistakes or acknowledge their mistakes, well, guess what?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: You're not going to become a senior developer.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because senior developers bring that knowledge, bring the knowledge of their mistakes and how to avoid them for the future.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's number four.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Failure is a part of life.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hard times are going to happen.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: The key is to do what you can to reduce those occurrences.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then when they happen, move through them in a healthy way.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you're struggling with a specific situation, such as stress at work, getting fired, or even feeling like an imposter, check out the episodes of the Dev Questions Podcast that specifically address those issues.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamTimCorey.com and enroll in a course.