Almost five months into my first developer job after graduating this May, I present you my five nuggets of wisdom.
1. It’s okay to NOT know everything
As a new developer, the impostor syndrome is at an all time high and so is the pressure to perform, to contribute in a tangible way, quickly.
It is okay to take time to learn things including getting used to codebase, tools or even general office environment. Take some time out to get to know your co-workers and managers and they’ll be more than glad to help you with the nuances like filling up the timesheet!
2. Understand the business
At the end of the day, programming is but a tool. It is the means to accomplish a business problem, a sophisticated one nevertheless.
As a newbie, some of the important questions to ask might include why are we building this product, who are the customers and how can we improve their experience. Thinking from a holistic perspective rather than a pure development one is beneficial in the longer run.
3. Old is gold (mostly)
In school, I was more like The Chad Fullstack Engineer, running after the new and shiny things that were released last night. As I started working, maturity prevailed.
There’s a reason behind millions of websites running on .NET framework even though it is almost two decades old. The .NET framework is stable, robust and easy to develop with. The new releases of JavaScript frameworks may sound fancy but they have a long way to go before being battle-tested and adopted on a wider scale.
4. Get a book
If you have spent countless hours on YouTube/Lynda/Udemy/Udacity searching for that perfect tutorial that will cover everything in an hour, I feel your pain.
The online tutorials are great for a quick intro but if you’re looking for a deeper understanding, get a book. Books are a reliable source of comprehensive knowledge that are far effective in covering all major topics so need to jump from one tutorial to another. Some of my favorite technical publishers are Apress, Manning and the Head-First series by O’Reilly.
5. Wear many hats
Being a developer does not necessarily translates to writing non-stop code for 8 hours. Interestingly, the greater part of time is spent on reading code rather than writing.
Indulging in the whole software development process, from creating wireframes to writing docs and everything in between, helps achieve a broader view of the product. It breaks the monotone and enables participation in the decision making process regarding the business goals (see #2).
Thank you for reading this far. Let me know what you think in the comments below!