How to approach a problem you don't know the answer to

Quite often as a developer, you are asked to do things you do not know the answer to. When approached with these problems, pay attention to following these guidelines.

Don't panic

You aren't the first developer who doesn't know everything, and you certainly aren't the last. Don't panic - you are paid to solve problems, including ones you don't immediately know the answer to. It's important to approach the problem calmly. It is easy to assume a self-defeating attitude and give up when someone is asking you to do something you do not know how to do. You may feel you are unqualified, but instead of becoming a victim, accept in humility you have room to grow and calmly approach the problem.

Don't ask for help

-right away. Don't immediately ask for help, it shows a good work ethic and helps you develop your problem solving skills. On the other end of the spectrum, barring your individual time constraints, I would not sit trying to solve a problem and not get anywhere for over 4 hours. There is a point where you should be asking for help if you aren't getting anywhere significant with the work you are currently working on.

Google it

A good portion of your development career involves learning from what others have done, and there is plenty of information out there when you look for it. Especially true for junior developers, a lot of information is found on Stack Overflow. Be warned! Stack Overflow can be a hit or miss as there is a lot of good content, but a lot of content with poor coding practices too. Take what you learn there with a grain of salt.

Searching the internet for answers

Once you have improved your programming and problem solving ability, you will tend to look for more information in blogs and official documentation websites (but Stack Overflow can sometimes turn up a gem in the dirt).

Make it an opportunity

Unless you have a lot of free time, the times you are told to solve a problem you do not know are the opportunities you have to learn new skills. Soak in all the knowledge you can, especially if you are doing web development, because there is a new javascript framework every week. If your work requires you to re-learn the fundamentals, take the opportunity to strengthen the foundations you may not practice otherwise.

Pay attention

As your work takes you to new problems and technologies, pay attention to what you are naturally more interested in. If you are like many other developers, you may find you like to manage more than develop, or perhaps you want to code a bit more low-level? Do you still want to work as a developer as your career?

Listen to your inner criticisms. Are you jealous of your senior developers you work with how they are able to rattle off knowledge off the tip of their tongues? Do you feel more passion about outlining the problem or getting the work done? These criticisms help point us to work that we actually want to be doing (if we can't put to words why we want to). Listen closely.

Go beyond

To get bonus points, go above and beyond. Do you have extra time? Add extra logging. Refactor  unused code. Add nice to haves that make other's lives a little bit easier. It doesn't matter where you are, this will be the hardest to do, because scope creep.