As a junior developer, I am not invited to most of the discussion. Lead comes to us with requirements and we need to build it. My lead is really helpful so no people issues.

I am not sure if it's good for my growth/career. I have recently ( 6 months) joined here. Do you folks have any experience like this? What did you do? Do discussions/meeting help to grow?

Something to bring up in your one-to-one meetings with your manager, you do have one-to-one meetings don't you?

It's not a big deal imo.

We were left out from plannings for a long time and just eventually enough people complained, that we should do this properly that we started doing it. But we don't have any Juniors right now, it was just a bad habbit the company had from before I started here.

You could just ask to be invited and if its possible and not a waste of time for you I think your lead will get you in. Something that leads often do is also shield the rest of the team from pointless meetings, so maybe that's your case

@Hazarth
As a lead of 3 scrum teams, I agree. Nowadays I spend 6-8 hours everyday in meetings, if I include everyone in each meeting then no one would be able to do their work.
To junior dev: feel free to challenge solutions and ask questions. Remember, only you can decide when you’re ready to take on more responsibilities.

Meetings aren't as fun as they sound.

I worked for 10 hours today.

9.5 of those hours was in calls / meetings

4 of those hours was spent getting project work done while in meetings.

I managed to get away from my screen for about 30 min and grab something to eat around 2pm😑

You can come do my meetings for me if you want, would be appreciated.

Oh, and my maths is right here, I worked for 10 hours today.

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As a junior, you don't want to be in meeting hell, or musical -chairs- calls (hang up and click join on the next a moment later), mature your coding skills before trying to deal with the business shit your senior is likely protecting you from. The day will come when your direct input will be valued but that comes from knowing what you're talking about and a decent level of knowledge of the system(s) at hand.

@C0D4 oh god this. I had 16 hours yesterday (damn kiwis), all but 15 minutes chained to zoom.

Be careful what you wish for on “being included”; seat at the table - yes, but what they don’t tell you is “now you can never get up”

@atrabilious the downside to being the "goto" dev for everything, there's not a single project I'm not involved in, which has its its pros and cons for sure.

As much as i enjoy... hmm maybe the wrong word some days... being highly involved, it certainly gets in the way at times when there's several concurrent pieces of work in the pipeline, and timelines don't have a lot of wiggle room despite regularly swallowing your day in calls.

Kiwis? 👀
I sense you're close to home somehow.

Half of your growth will need to be from the willingness to lead. What I mean by that is I don't know everything and yet I am a lead. No one knows everything but the leads voice their opinions and learn from others. And are willing to make mistakes and are willing to admit mistakes for the better of the team. So if you're wanting to lead, voice your opinions and learn from others.

@demortes to continue that thought I've only been with my company for 2 years and I've led multiple projects. I've voiced my opinions from day one as a way of learning the way others think and to establish where I'm comfortable and create that feedback between leadership and myself

Well, my advice is...
Ask enough questions. Don't take things like a black box.

That being said, if you're like really junior, its totally fine.
Focus on writing good quality code.
Then move on to understanding low level designs, like interfaces and the application flow.

I think once you've grown this much, you will automatically be involved in design discussions.

Meetings probably dumb you down.

@demortes i agree with all of this. Leadership comes from actions not titles. I also think knowing when not to speak up counts as well. There is a difference between speaking up and being contrary. If you point out a blocker, have a solution ready. This is what makes you stand out in any org. Dumb enough to die on the hill of justice, but smart enough to know you’re on the right hill.

@C0D4 we bought some tv channels in NZ so we’re in m&a hell. My mom lives in Australia and formerly in NZ, and I have visited both often, so I’m a dumb American that can tell the difference in the accents. Time zones suck on the meetings thing. Y’all are already in the next day…future people.