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My Scary First Day as a Developer.

Sumukhesh on July 11, 2020

It all started with a mail that read, "your onboarding process starts tomorrow. You will have an orientation and an introduction to the team." Read...
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Peter Ellis

Well done, mate. Welcome to the club.

I agree that it's okay to feel overwhelmed at first (and occasionally later on as well) and yes, looking up even basic stuff is pretty much what we all do from time to time.

What isn't okay is that you appear to have been thrown into this situation without someone specifically assigned to be watching over you and helping out. It's good that the team helped out anyway and it's probably harsh to expect a startup to pay attention to detail like this, but when one day you get into a situation where you're hiring newbies, try to remember what it was like for you and make sure you make it as smooth for them as possible.

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Sumukhesh

Thanks mate!!
Yeah even I felt it was unfair but the situation demanded it. Later that week our manager called and appreciated my effort on my first day, and quoted ''Only extreme pressures make Diamonds".
That will stick with me now forever. 😇
Cheers!!

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Norbert Sańpruch

When i was reading this,sometimes i was almost sure that the story is about my firsts day at work. I started work as developer two weeks ago and i felt the same when i saw a codebase for the first time.

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Sumukhesh

Exactly Right...I think the important thing to do when seeing the codebase for the first time is trying to break things down into fundamental concepts and try to relate it to what you already know. This kinda helped me alot.
Cheers!! 😇

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Peter Harrison

Developers who are fresh; aka first job, need a proper induction. Typically in my teams they are given small well defined tasks which are not on the critical path. You don't want to overload them, and especially with complex codebases you want to expose them to limited sections rather than everything all at once.
You need to give them a mentor, usually a senior developer, who will act both as a guide and reviewer of their work. After a few months of this they gain the trust of the team to be able to tackle more complex user stories independently.
I know someone fresh to the industry feels like they want to prove themselves, but software isn't about being a superhero. What matter at the end of the day is meeting the needs of users and delivering value to the business. The success factor here isn't in crazy hours or being a technical supergenius, but rather being able to work with users and clients to address their needs.
Welcome to the tar pit.

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Sumukhesh

Yes I agree. A proper induction might help alot especially to have a guide helping you out with new things and reviewing your work. But a start-up with fewer members can't afford to particularly assign a senior dev to guide/mentor newbies as they already have a lot on their plate.
I knew before joining that ill have to learn alot of new things, some with guidance and some without.

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Peter Harrison

Just be aware that often startups exploit the good will and enthusiasm of developers. Having the odd crunch day where you need to do long hours isn't nessasarily a bad thing, but when it becomes the norm it is most certainly not cool.
Throwing a fresh developer at a problem and expecting a solution in a single day is pathological. I've spent a career cleaning up the mess left behind from this kind of thing.
joeyoder.com/PDFs/mud.pdf

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mahammadmansur95

First of all.... Congratulations bro 🎊 🎉

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Sumukhesh

Thanks alot bro. 😇

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Josef Biehler

I am. Not sure if I misunderstood you. You were hired for a developer job although you never developed before? Or you have done something on your spare time and this was the first developer job? That was not clear to me :-)

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Sumukhesh

I have done development in my spare time, building small projects and yeah, This is my first development job.
I can see where your question is coming from. Usually in my projects I have little or no particular architecture of the code. The main goal while Iam working on a project is only to learn the concepts.
When coming to the company, they had a particular implementation of an architecture of the code, which I didn't pick up. Even though I knew what they were doing I had trouble locating it in the codebase.

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Srivatsa S Bharadwaj

Actually tomorrow is my first day of work(am a fresh graduate,not yet due to pandemic). And it'll be completely virtual.. this article is my life Savior and paced down my heart beat

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Sumukhesh

Thanks.
Even I am a unconfirmed graduate like you.
I hope you have a great first day 😇
Cheers !!

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SuperMario • Edited

Wait till you take down a production server and get called at 2am to fix it. That's when the real fun begins! 😏

Great read, thanks for sharing!

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Sumukhesh

That is one of the things I am most afraid of 😅.
So everytime I commit something I am putting it through a thorough code review.
Then and only then I commit.
Cheers!! 😇

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SuperMario • Edited

Awesome! Love your passion for quality!

Pro-Tip: Make sure your QA's drop screenshots and testing notes in your dev issues/tickets to leave a clean audit trail. Never MTP (Move to Production) code without that. If that process isn't in place at your enterprise, take steps to make it happen. Full disclosure, I'm a Software Test Engineer, and can personally speak to why this matters. 🤣

Cheers to you as well Sir!

💯

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someshvas

Great start bro😎
All the best

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Sumukhesh

Thanks a lot bro😁.

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rid1998 • Edited

it is an awsm experience of urs sumukhesh can't wait for my first day at job .... hope i will also overcome my fears as you did

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Sumukhesh

Thanks rid. Iam sure you will do great at your first day.😇

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Karthikayan

That was an amazing read 👍. I couldn't imagine how I could have thought of this situation in a positive manner😵. I appreciate your determination and taking things positively👏. But make sure that you can't be compromised on everything just because of these qualities. Handling pressure at times is ok though! But at times, it may be just redirected to you because of someone else's mistake! Be assertive!

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Sumukhesh

Thanks alot.
It was a unique and unprecedented situation for me. I saw no other option but to adapt to the scenario. I knew the risks of working in a start-up before joining, but I was not expecting to work so soon.
Just because I adapted to the changes doesn't mean everyone can and should. It important to know your limits of capabilities and not be afraid to tell your team members.
Great point. Cheers!! 😇

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Ben Halpern

🙌

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Sumukhesh

😇

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Fardeen Khan

Well my heart was pacing at a faster beat the more i read. I am about to enter the newbie phase later this month and I dont want to be in such distress on the first day. So thanks for the heads up.

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Sumukhesh

Dont worry. You most likely won't be facing any of the distress on your first day. Mine was just an exceptional case.
Hope you have a great first day 😇

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Muhimen

I'm waiting for the day...

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Sumukhesh

I hope you'll get there soon 😇

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Adit R

I was scared when I read this even though I haven't applied anywhere yet