As an instructor of front-end software engineering, I’ve seen first-hand how difficult it is for new developers to navigate call stacks and decrypt error messages. We have built a culture that considers effective error handling a secondary priority, which has a significant impact on those who are just learning to code. Debugging is a huge part of the development process, and the less time we have to spend spinning our wheels, fighting an error message, the more time we have to get back to the fun stuff. The more experience we have in engineering, the better we get at debugging broken code. We learn how to isolate the problem, decode cryptic error messages, and figure out the most effective terms to research. The faster we develop these skills, the faster we lose our perspective on what it’s like to be a beginner. It’s only when we watch others struggle through these experiences that it becomes obvious just how ineffective our error handling is. Let’s explore the shortcomings of the current state of error handling and how we can improve upon this to make engineering friendlier for newcomers. This talk is applicable to developers of all skill-levels working with JavaScript. I hope to enlighten engineers on how to create more effective error handling for juniors, and also demonstrate how new developers are currently navigating the choppy waters we’ve presented them with when things go wrong.