Are you a Code Monkey? If yes, Please stop!

If you're working in the Software Industry for a while, You must've heard the term 'Code Monkey', most probably from the senior engineers at your organization. There are many definitions for this term out there but this definition by Urban Dictionary is pretty accurate.

"A programmer who isn't actually involved in any aspect of conceptual or design work, but simply writes code to specifications given."

It is often considered as a derogatory term that is used to mock or undervalue these programmers by senior engineers. But I believe "Code Monkey" is not a person, It is a role and sometimes that person has no choice or control over stepping out of that role. Most of the new engineers enter into this field without the knowledge of what else is out there, so they accept whatever team, project, or role they get assigned to. But again, It's not somebody else's job to get them out of this situation.

Here's how you can see for yourself if your current role at your organization qualifies you to be considered as "Code Monkey" :

You're only being asked to fix Bugs or Test Failures

More often than not, A new engineer when he/she joins the team, they get assigned the existing bugs from the backlog which can help them to understand the codebase of the team, version control practices, code review process, etc. I believe there's no harm with this as it could be a great way to onboard a new member, but the new engineer has to proceed with caution from here. He/She should not just only fix the bug, They should deep dive into why this bug exists in the first place, How did it bypass the unit and integration tests, etc. If you don't foster this habit from the start, You'll slowly become a code monkey if you're just being assigned Bugs.

You jump straight into coding without thinking about design

Good or Experienced Programmers create extensive designs (including tests) before writing any code. They are fairly certain that the design is good (fast, efficient, etc.) before they start writing it. Code monkeys jump straight in. They don't know if the design is good until they run it. And If the code review process in your team is not great, chances are they might never know that the code they shipped is of poor design and then a lot of bugs will come and they'll be again asked to fix them, hence not learning anything new, except where they fucked up.

You work on tasks with no creativity

Good Programmers are valued as an individual for their creativity and skills, and they can apply their skills to numerous areas, languages, etc. Code monkeys are seen as interchangeable black boxes that output code, they just do what their manager tells them, and when they're told to. Such coders would do repetitive, boring, often tedious tasks, like clone form and change one file, etc.

Now, It's understandable that you might think you have no choice, but to work on what your manager or leads ask you to do. But I believe you always have a choice as this is your career and you should be in the driving seat.

• Be active in planning meetings, try to anticipate what kind of work is coming in for the team, ask your manager to assign those tasks to you and make sure you deliver them with quality, don't rush into just completion, take help from senior engineers to estimate the time it'll take, add some buffer and report the same to manager so that you don't delay it. It's really important you gain trust with your first big task to keep them coming in.
• Understand your codebase at a high level, How does it work end to end, from importing libraries to deploying into production environments. Learn how the testing frameworks work for your team. So that the next time, you get a work with full ownership, you can create and visualize your design (including tests) and deliver it with quality.
• If you think you have maxed out your plausible learning opportunities, Don't be afraid to ask your manager to change the team you want to be in, and if that's not working for you, Change the company. It's the best time for you to change the company when you're young and still new to most of the technologies.

There's nothing wrong with being a code monkey (I call myself one sometimes), but chances are that if all you are doing is coding, you'll never be able to reap the monetary benefits as well as quality challenges that comes with being able to see and understand the entire software development cycle.