Tips for your first month as a Software Engineer

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Tips for your first month as a Software Engineer

8 Tips for your first month as a Software Engineer

Always ask the right questions

Meet your teammates and ask as many questions as you can. like

  • what is the purpose of the product?

  • who is its user?

  • What motivated the company to build this?

  • where can you find documentation related to this?

Integrate ( DO NOT DISSOLVE YOURSELF)

Note down the term programming language, dependency tools, build tools, work hours, test frameworks, deployment manuals, and rituals.

try to read up on any open source tech begin used.

Adjust more and suggest less

People are usually defensive about their work. It’s best to take a slow and measured approach when putting forth your ideas.

  • Don’t jump to conclusions on design decisions or code quality.

  • Don’t suggest improvements right off the bat (It’s better to write all these points in notes and suggest later after all iterations)

  • Pose your thoughts as questions instead of accusations.

  • Don’t try to prove your utility by hunting for improvements in the system.

Expect piecemeal tasks to begin with

There is no harm in starting off at the bottom of the ladder and slowly making your way to the top.

  • Your first task might be something very simple almost mundane ex Logging a metric and sending a message to an analytics engine

  • The team wants you to get familiar with the software engineering process They want to see your time estimation testing and communication skills

Write tests

The reputation of a software engineer is inversely proportional to the number and severity of the production bugs in their code.

  • Your reputation depends on your code correctness. Code quality is a close second.

  • The code reviews are smoother. Production issues are simpler.

Speaks in your team’s language

Make your team comfortable by following their protocols

  • Who merges the pull request?

  • Can anyone push a hotfix to the main branch without review?

  • What are the testing criteria?

  • How many reviewers are needed for a small/big change?

Keep your team updated

Communication builds trust in your team.

  • Use standups, meetings, or the office messenger when making critical changes.

  • More eyeballs and more documentation make the final product reliable.

Don’t be too harsh on yourself

You are probably doing great. It takes a month to get an idea of what's going on in your team, even for a senior engineer.

Give yourself 3 months to get a hang of things.

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Joke and laugh with your team at outings. Don't take comments on your work personally. The tougher you are, the fewer the jibes.

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