Dev Sessions: How Candid Chats Shape Our Development Team
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If you were to waltz into our office around half-ten on a typical workday, you’d likely stumble upon our daily developer rendezvous—imagine a small, caffeine-dependent conclave of coders hunched around a table. There’s me, with a rather too-long history of wrangling code (15 years, if we’re counting), a few seasoned pros, and a handful of juniors fresh out of the coding nursery. These sessions last about half an hour and aren’t just about “status updates” (how corporate-sounding). No, this is where we sculpt our day’s direction, fix our little miseries, and sharpen our skills—all while trying not to spill any coffee.
Just recently, I was nudging a junior developer through the jaws of a design pattern debate. We had a layout that looked like a Jenga tower of complexity, and his first instinct was to douse it in Tailwind classes as if that would magically tidy everything up. Now, Tailwind can be handy, sure. But I gently reminded him: “Before you plaster the place in utility classes, maybe learn how the foundations work?” Another colleague chimed in, pointing out that sometimes a simple CSS setup is sturdier than a wardrobe full of fancy frameworks. Before we knew it, our conversation shifted from “Which classes do we dump in here?” to “Why are we even using these tools?” And that’s when something clicked in the junior’s mind. Suddenly, he was thinking beyond the quick fix—like a child realizing sweets aren’t an entire food group.
These meetups also highlight a crucial difference: handing out solutions versus guiding through logic. A junior hits a JavaScript snag, and it would be oh-so-easy to flick them the answer. But no, I’m that stubborn teacher who responds with a question: “What input are you expecting? What output do you want? How will you get there?” It’s mildly infuriating for them at first, but after a few rounds of this mental gymnastics, they start to appreciate it. Eventually, they stop treating code problems like locked doors requiring keys from their seniors, and start picking the locks themselves.
Of course, HTML and CSS remain our bread and butter. Juniors usually grasp these fine, until a flex container throws a tantrum or a media query sulks in the corner. Then their brows furrow and their tea grows cold. Add Tailwind to the stew and suddenly they’re knee-deep in utility classes, unsure which magic word will tame the beast. Instead of spoon-feeding them a solution, I show them how to inspect the code, check the cascade, and tinker with breakpoints. After a while, they begin to solve problems on their own—like a toddler finally learning that crayons aren’t meant to be eaten.
We’ve also tackled bigger debates over more colossal projects—ones involving complex functionalities, often for international clients who’d be thrilled if their homepage didn’t load like a snail wading through custard. Maybe we flirt with React and a custom plugin. Maybe we pick something more conventional. The juniors, anxious about uncharted territory, look to us for a map. Instead of handing them a pre-printed one, we talk them through the trade-offs, the reasoning, and the why behind the what. After all, just following directions doesn’t teach you to navigate—it just teaches you to follow.
Quality assurance and bug-hunting also come up frequently. Some juniors think automated tests will handle everything, like a magic fairy with a laptop. But no automated suite can anticipate every weird user scenario or bizarre configuration. We urge them to think like actual users—what if the client’s on a flaky connection in the French countryside, or using a half-baked browser in the backstreets of Brazil? By broadening their perspective, they come to deliver work that stands up to reality, not just the ideal conditions they typed out in code.
Sometimes these chats veer off the professional path—talks about side projects, experimental coding adventures, and dabbling with new frameworks just for kicks. We actually encourage that. There’s something to be said for playing around outside the safety net of your daily workload. It widens their horizons, and when they hit a snag back at work, they can draw on that extra experience to solve it without flailing helplessly.
Yes, this all means I have to spend a bit more time walking them through logic rather than speedily dropping solutions. But the payoff is substantial. Over time, these juniors transform from code-dependents into code-conquerors, capable of handling challenges with greater independence. They build confidence, resilience, and the practical know-how that no bootcamp brochure can guarantee.
That’s what these daily sessions are really all about. Not just scraping by or ticking a box, but forging a team of developers who think clearly, adapt, and grow. And if that takes a few extra minutes of coffee and conversation each morning, so be it. I’d say it’s time well spent.