Hey all,
I will switch into a new company next year. After signing contract I've noticed that one of my old training class is in that company. Now the dilemma: he's intermediate backend developer (more towards junior than senior) and I will start there as lead backend developer.
Any thoughts/recommendations how to handle this? 🤔
Be peers! Be mutually respectful! Unless there was conflict before, go into it with a positive attitude!
People learn and progress in their careers very differently and at different speeds, there's nothing wrong with that, if they bring it up with you, try and keep it positive by offering your advice and experiences that got you to where you are!
Thanks! For sure I will be respectful. We weren't buddies, just classmates. My fear is that he won't accept my role as the lead. I know that lead isn't about running forward, decide everything and hope that the team will follow. It's more about guiding the team and help them to find "the right way" by their own. But this makes it even more difficult because the others have to accept you as their guidance.
And so much I've seen already - I will change/refactor a lot in the code base. 🙈 To make it clear: until now there wasn't a lead or senior in the company. So everything is self-taught without feedback.
We've never had problems where I work with this, so it's probably a bit difficult for me to explain. There's a key difference between being lead/senior/junior and someone's manager.
Ultimately as lead/senior it's just the company saying you're probably more experienced & knowledgeable and therefore the other people in the company should be respect that.
If you come up against friction, just reach out to them & chat about it. :)
As a lead developer, your job is to motivate people toward greatness anyways. Since you already know this person, you know their weakness/strength, therefor you'll be able to put them in a situation where they'll show their best.
There is no rivalry in a team.
Just like @Michael said, it's basically about the mindset. As senior, some juniors may see you as the "knows all" kind of person which may fit and is pretty nice. But after all you're human and the guy from "the desk over there" who likes to help out if there are "unsolvable" problems for other devs.
It's all about good introduction, being kind, helping where help is needed and not focusing on status or acting like a manager from top down. 😊
I'm sure this will turn out great and I really hope that you'll like/love your new position. Fingers crossed!
