Importance of mentoring in Android development
Importance of mentoring in Android Development
Someone to learn from
There are many Android devs with little experience who don’t have senior developers to learn from. It usually happens in smaller companies and small freelance gigs. Sometimes not having one brings feelings of pride and independence but it’s a package deal. It also brings a slower learning process and more project fuck-ups.
Many junior developers think that they know enough. I thought so too. I knew everything until a more experienced developer didn’t review my code. Fortunately, from that time on I have someone to learn from and I will write about it later. But for now…
Foreseeing potential issues
In Android development usually, there are many ways to achieve the same thing. An inexperienced developer can’t foresee potential issues for each of them and pick the best one.
He may even use outdated solutions from StackOverflow (SO is great if you know what you are copying) because it’s hard to keep up with Android news, especially as a junior dev. It’s easy to get confused and implement an outdated solution.
You implement a bad solution and leave it because ‘it works’ or delete your code and go for a better solution. The later prolongs the development time, the former one slowly kills your app. And a 3-minute consultation with senior dev would prevent it.
Fixing fundamental mistakes
Back to project fuckups, a Junior dev who starts a new project can create a poor foundation and build a project with fundamental mistakes. It’s harder to fix a bad architecture with every new feature. The app may work so and so but wouldn’t be maintainable. It means that adding new features would be impossible or take too much time.
Me neither. So Android mentor is important but what are his roles?
The best type of mentoring
Alternatives
For sure there are people who don’t have a full-time Android mentor. In a situation like that, I advise to at least have somebody to discuss solutions with and code review. Even equally or less experienced dev may specialize in something you don’t. And Code Reviews should work in every direction because everybody does stupid mistakes and nobody knows everything.
Summary
I have seen and read about junior Android devs who want to freelance remotely/become digital nomads and so on. I understand motives and I’m concerned with working on your own especially in early stages. That’s when problem-solving skills are not developed yet and developers tend to be stuck really often.
I advise having an Android mentor or at least coworkers to cooperate with. It may differ outside of Android development but dealing with breaking changes and confusing framework on your own is not the best choice.
But let’s wrap it up with a nice TL;DR:
So how big is the ‘Importance of mentoring in Android development’?
– It’s HUGE.
Also, drop your email below to get info about new weekly articles.
Sir
I am a beginner in android development
Could u plz suggest
As a beginner in Android where should i start with ,
1) the path i should choose
2) either by JAVA OR KOTLIN (acc to job trend)
3) people say start with CROSS apps rather than NATIVE
4) from where should i learn…ANY COURSE OR NOT ..
5) the path for game development in android
thanks in advance
Some genuinely tremendous work on behalf of the owner of this site, dead outstanding content.