Five things you need to do if you are starting out as a software engineer.
Hello, SE world! Start your career the right way.
Disclaimer: I’m not dull enough to suppose that the entirety of software engineering wisdom can be distilled down to five or even ten points. But one needs to start somewhere, right? These action items will help you stay afloat while you figure out your master plan.
So if you are a college graduate starting out soon, or someone making a career switch, this would be a good place to start. If you have been in this industry for a while, this might not be for you. But don’t leave the page just yet, why don’t you share some of your wisdom in the comments? ;)
Action Item #1: Be curious. 🧐
- Ask questions about the code, system architecture, team culture, team practices, the deployment pipeline, testing support, etc.
- Don’t know whom to ask? I suggest your buddy or mentor. If you don’t have one of those, ask your manager for one of those.
Action Item #2: Let the code talk. 👩💻
- Write thoroughly tested code. Everyone prefers a reliable change over a quick one.
- Take time to understand the code and try to reuse code whenever possible and keep it clean. As exciting/challenging writing code from scratch sounds it is not what you should do. If re-usability is possible — even if it requires some refactoring — REUSE it. You want to treat your code base like planet earth and we all know where single use objects (pun intended.) lead to.
Friendly Tip: Do not use this as an excuse and take a week to do something that requires a few hours. Not all tasks assigned to you will be grand enough to pull off this as an excuse.
Action Item #3: Do PR Reviews. 📋
- It is impossible to be involved in everything that is happening, it’s not a single person team for a reason. Coding isn’t the only way to contribute to a products’ development. One of the most valuable way is to review your peers’ PRs. Now this is quite overwhelming for a few of us, *heyyy imposter syndrome, I see you* and you’d be thinking I just got here, how can I tell someone how to something better, but chill out. Start small, it is ok to ask why they did something in a particular way.
- When it comes to your own PR, be as descriptive as possible. Set out the entire context in that description box.
Action Item #4: Use 1:1 to learn and grow. 📈
- Many people believe 1:1s are there for your manager’s benefit and they should run the meeting. But that is the opposite of how it should be. They are there for YOU! Think of them as a default mentoring sessions.
- Use them to make sure to set the expectations right. How do you do that? Well learn what they expect of you in the first place!
- Ask about gaps in your current skill set. Learn how you can increase your impact.
Action Item #5: Take ownership. 🏛️
- As mentioned numerous times before, joining a new team is overwhelming in its own ways and it is only natural to try to learn everything at once. Alas, it is not humanly possible for most of us to do so. A better way to strategize would be to pick a small area and building your expertise around that.
- Next time there is a discussion around any of those areas, make sure to participate and contribute in whatever way possible. Lo and behold, you are an owner of an area.
Bonus Tip: Know Git.
I have previously written about it, so I will keep it short and link it here.
Now What? 🤔
Okay, you have been around for a while and already doing all the aforementioned things, what else can you do? What’s next?
One would think the internet is the go-to place for people like us to share their knowledge but surprisingly so much of it is buried in good old fashioned books.
Here are a few I recommend:
- You Had Me at “Hello, World”: Mentoring Sessions with Industry Leaders at Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Zynga and more! by Dona Sarkar
- Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler — if not the whole thing, read chapter 3. I might make a post about it, so watch out!
- Head First Design Patterns by Eric Freeman — I have read partially and it has been good so far. By partially I meant one chapter.
Few that are on my reading list:
