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I am sorry if this is not the right place to ask this, but I would really like to know.

I have finished a computer programming bootcamp and found I took to programming deeply. Some of my course mates have found jobs which are not 'junior developer' jobs (i.e. jobs which focus heavily on feature building, rather than on QA, etc...).

I would like to take the course of maximum learning, so is doing a typical junior developer job an important stepping stone on the way to being a great developer? The bootcamp did not teach TDD, so perhaps a 'junior' pathway is a sensible one.

Thank you for any thoughts.

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  • $\begingroup$ I did not grok what you said your class mates new jobs were. $\endgroup$
    – ctrl-alt-delor
    Feb 15, 2020 at 11:41
  • $\begingroup$ While this question is not about teaching, it is about learning. I think it therefore should be left open. $\endgroup$
    – ctrl-alt-delor
    Feb 15, 2020 at 11:49
  • $\begingroup$ Actually it is about taking a certain kind of job. There are other sites here focused on that. $\endgroup$
    – Buffy
    Feb 15, 2020 at 12:56
  • $\begingroup$ I agree with @Buffy that this seems like career advice more than education advice, but I won't close it unilaterally without more input. $\endgroup$
    – Ben I. ♦
    Feb 15, 2020 at 15:01

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Feature building is a junior developer job. It's also a senior developer job. Feature building is part of any developers job.

QA is testing of those features. If you become a QA specialist you won't be developing features at all. You also won't be using TDD. TDD comes before the code under test. Not after.

QA testers come in two types: manual testers and automation testers. Automation testers are often feature developers as well.

If someones convinced you that newbies must start in QA they've feeding you crap and I wouldn't want to work there.

Some shops don't even have QA roles because the developers test the crap out of their own stuff and then hand it to a peer to test it again with fresh eyes. Some do all that and then still hand it to a QA group who spend all day doing nothing but gleefully breaking software.

QA is a speciality in and of itself. It's a mindset as much as it's ever a job title.

But QA is not where newbies need to start and it's not a dumping ground for sub par developers. QA is where you put your best or it's not QA.

At the end of the day, a junior developer is just someone who might learn a thing or two from a senior developer.

As for the career advice find people doing these jobs and ask them what their day is like. That will tell you what you're likely to learn in those roles.

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Yes you need to start at the bottom. Find somewhere where you will get good experience. Also practice at home. Do coding katas, use revision control, practice test-driven-development, use transformation priority, study functional programming, learn the history of programming (much of the best stuff was invented in the 1960s), study user interaction design. (just don't do it all at the same time, you have a life-time to do it in.)

However note that most developers have less that 5 years experience, because of exponential (this word is being used correctly here) growth in number of developers, with a doubling rate of 5 years. Therefore you should expect to change to a more senior role soon.

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