[insanepenguin]

I'm starting my second year at University in October (BSc Applied Computing) and after graduating I'm hoping to be a C# Developer (Junior level obviously). I was wondering what the day to day tasks of a Junior Developer usually are? And what I could be doing to improve my chances at getting hired and being reasonably useful at the job!

We have a project to do for the final year, any advice from graduates welcome too!

Many thanks

Mike

[bonyjoe]

I'm currently a junior software developer at a company that uses mainly uses C# with WPF. I have been at the job for 7 weeks now, it is only a undergraduate 12 month placement but from what I can gather from talking to my co-workers I am doing the same as any normal junior developer would be, however they will be more lenient with me if I'm a tool.

I started out on a product that has been in development for around 18 months, so basically everything was done already, starting out I had to learn the current code base and techniques before moving onto basic bug fixes, such as fixing exceptions, editing the UI etc. I then moved onto unit testing which helped me get a better grasp of how all the data abstraction fit in with the rest of the application.

After that I moved on to have a bit more responsibility by moving onto a new product with a much smaller team, coding the initial UI to the specification laid out in design documents. I'm now on the creation of data abstraction layer objects and model objects to link the UI to MSSQL or VistaDB databases.

It may sound kind of daunting at first, but there's existing code to draw inspiration/help from and plenty of people around to help you if you get stuck. One thing I've noticed is that everyone is learning, everyone is popping back and forth helping each other and learning more in the process, not just the new starters but the people that have been there years and years.

So basically your day to day activities will depend on what project you are working on, if its a new project expect to be doing a lot of new code, if its a project that's been in development for a while then expect to be fixing bugs, optimising code and adding the odd new feature.

I may not be the best person to listen to but if you have any questions feel free to ask me.

[insanepenguin]

Hi Joe,

So you are still at Uni and got a placement as a Junior Developer? if so which year of University?

Quote

I had to learn the current code base and techniques before moving onto basic bug fixes

By code base do you mean the style of code the company uses and commenting style etc? Also could you give me an example of a basic bug fix

Sorry for all the questions mate!

Thanks

[DivideByZero]

Bonyjoe just saved me a lot of typing as that's exactly how it is for me at my workplace (except we use win forms instead of wpf, but they're going to switch to wpf next year).

You mostly get to add minor stuff to already existing programs and do the documentation for the changes made

This post has been edited by DivideByZero: 19 July 2011 - 04:49 AM

[Nightfish]

One thing you might want to do, if you haven't done so already, is to check out Visual Studio in depth. Especially all the bits that you can do with the various designers without actually typing the code out by hand. That was actually one of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome, because while I was still learning, profs avoided graphical editors like the pox. I was used to programming in Emacs, for pete's sake... (hardcore?)

If you want to go one step beyond, take a brief glance at the DevExpress equivalanets to what VS offers out of the box. I can't really comment on how pervasive this is in the industry, but my company does a lot with it and damn those are some powerful tools for creating GUIs.

[insanepenguin]

In my first year University module (Java) I did everything with console too but the current book I'm using has used VS and forms from the start so I am getting acquainted with text boxes, labels, buttons etc!

[bonyjoe]

insanepenguin, on 19 July 2011 - 12:07 AM, said:

Hi Joe,

So you are still at Uni and got a placement as a Junior Developer? if so which year of University?

Quote

I had to learn the current code base and techniques before moving onto basic bug fixes

By code base do you mean the style of code the company uses and commenting style etc? Also could you give me an example of a basic bug fix

Sorry for all the questions mate!

Thanks

I have just finished my second year of university and this counts as part of my degree.

By codebase I mean the current code in the companies framework as well as the code for the project you will be working on, because rather than the 50 or so files you may be used to the projects you will be working on will contain thousands, as well as possibly many 3rd party or in house developed dlls. There is also the code style but where I work it was more just naming protocol, like name it well and when to use camel case or pascal case.

A basic bug fix could just be a button doesn't do anything when clicked because the binding isn't set properly, or there is a typo somewhere in the UI etc, but you will only be doing stuff that easily for a day or two at most. The rest of the time you can be doing anything, it depends what needs done and what priority tasks are.

What I would suggest is you move onto WPF as quickly as possible as it is immensely better than winforms and probably much different to anything you have done before. Also don't get stuck just using design view edit because relying on it to do the work isn't the best thing as the WPF design view in visual studio will stop working once your application becomes slightly complex. The last thing you want is to be a master of design view and then be put into a job where you have to write pure xaml and you haven't got a clue.

[DivideByZero]

I would recommend learning Win forms first as it's easier and most companies still use that.
But yeah, after you've gotten a good feel for Win Forms, try out WPF and see if you like it (I'm not a fan at the moment personally).

*Edit* In case OP was wondering, I just finished my second year at uni and this is just for the summer

This post has been edited by DivideByZero: 20 July 2011 - 01:08 AM

[insanepenguin]

I'm currently using a Wrox book from 2008/9 that uses winforms, I also have Visual C# 2010 step by step which uses WPF so I'll move on to that next.

Joe, When you say the placement counts to your degree do you have to do your own project or does the placement itself get you credits?

Zero, was your summer placement arranged by Uni or something you did yourself?

Finally do I need to learn XAML yet?

Thanks guys

[DivideByZero]

No it has nothing to do with my degree, the uni didn't help at all.
I'm just doing it to give myself even more of an advantage for after my degree

If you're going to learn WPF, you kinda have no choice but to learn XAML for the reason BonyJoe said in his last post.

This post has been edited by DivideByZero: 20 July 2011 - 01:44 AM

[insanepenguin]

I see, hopefully I can do something similar after year two with a year of C# under my belt!

[bonyjoe]

insanepenguin, on 20 July 2011 - 01:27 AM, said:

Joe, When you say the placement counts to your degree do you have to do your own project or does the placement itself get you credits?

Finally do I need to learn XAML yet?

Thanks guys

I have to do a report in the final year of University that counts as one module. The university never really helped with getting the placement though, they more just said "YOU HAVE TO GET ONE" and changed 2 words on my CV.

XAML is essential if you want to use WPF or Silverlight and may become even more essential with the release of Windows8. It is also vital for Phone7 development as that uses a mobile version of Silverlight.

[insanepenguin]

Hopefully the next book I've lined up will teach some as it uses WPF http://www.amazon.co...69897559&sr=1-1

bonyjoe, on 20 July 2011 - 04:59 AM, said:

insanepenguin, on 20 July 2011 - 01:27 AM, said:

Joe, When you say the placement counts to your degree do you have to do your own project or does the placement itself get you credits?

Finally do I need to learn XAML yet?

Thanks guys

I have to do a report in the final year of University that counts as one module. The university never really helped with getting the placement though, they more just said "YOU HAVE TO GET ONE" and changed 2 words on my CV.

XAML is essential if you want to use WPF or Silverlight and may become even more essential with the release of Windows8. It is also vital for Phone7 development as that uses a mobile version of Silverlight.