How to succeed at your first job as a junior dev
- 1. How to succeed at your
first job as a Junior Dev
Andrei Gridnev, Up / Ferocia
- 2. Your first job as a Junior Dev
can be the start of a great journey.
- 3. What Makes the First Job Difficult:
● Unfamiliar environment
● Unclear expectations
● Lack of knowledge and experience
● Lots of difficult tasks
● Difficult colleagues
- 4. ● “Learn the ropes”
● Connect with your colleagues
● Absorb knowledge
● Understand your strengths and weaknesses
● Contribute
What You Can Do:
- 5. ● Setup your dev environment
● Get access to relevant systems
● Get familiar with the tools and processes
● Get familiar with the “Team Handbook” / “Working Agreements” (if they exist)
● Understand the daily routine of the team
Learn the Ropes
- 6. ● Find out what they specialise in
● Find an opportunity to collaborate with everyone
● Ask questions (but do your homework first)
● Learn more about your colleagues as humans
● Be a friendly and curious professional
Connect With Your Colleagues
- 7. ● How the application you are building works
● Why was it built this way
● Gradually learn the tech, tools and techniques your team is using
● Seek opportunities to work with different parts of the app
● Understand the bigger picture around your team
Absorb Knowledge
- 8. ● Find out what you do well
● Find out what you don’t do well
● Share this with your manager
● Regularly ask your manager for feedback
● Regularly ask your senior colleagues for feedback
Understand Your Strengths and Weaknesses
- 9. ● Work on simple to moderately difficult tasks from the backlog
● Build your credibility as a developer in your team
● Avoid working on tasks that are not part of the backlog
● Gradually move to more complex tasks with higher priority
Contribute
- 10. To Sum Up
● Setup development environment and get familiar with the team routine
● Establish professional relationships with your colleagues
● Learn the tools, tech and practices that your team uses
● Reinforce your strengths and eliminate/manage your weaknesses
● Deliver your best work