Starting in the Tech Industry — The View of a Recent Graduate

Starting in the tech industry can be a daunting prospect even for a recent computing graduate. After graduating from Leeds Beckett University I was starting at Sky Betting and Gaming the following week, very nervous.

The tech industry is forever changing, if you do not keep up, your skills will be outdated within five years. One assumption I had made at university was that people working as software engineers knew everything about the language they were programming in. Throughout university I worried that I would not be ready to start in the tech industry as I didn’t know enough or as much as other people. I now realise, even after just one week at my new job how wrong this assumption was, nobody can know everything.

Sitting here writing this article after my first week I feel much more relaxed than I did at the start of the week. Once you come to terms with the fact that within this industry everyone is always learning, you realise that no question is a stupid question as everybody was in your position at one point during their career. During the first week we have completed many activities related to business skills and time management, however one thing I found particularly useful was the task we did on our worries. Everyone had to write three worries down on Post-It Notes and stick them anonymously on the white board. The trainers then selected some to read out, this made me aware of the fact that most people on the course have the same worries and we are all in the same boat.

Something that I found that helped me come to terms with the fact I do not need to know everything is the Pareto principle. The Pareto principle relates to the theory that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. To relate to software engineering a study was undertaken at Microsoft.

“Microsoft noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most reported bugs, 80% of the errors and crashes would be eliminated” — Jeff Sauro

Looking at the Pareto principle from the view point of learning a new programming language, if you were to learn 20% of the core fundamentals of a programming language this would in theory give you 80% of the functionality of the language. Using this principle allows you to use your time much more efficiently, by learning the things that will give you the greatest results.

So, for anyone reading this in their final year at uni, or about to enter the tech industry, I can reassure you that no-one can possibly know everything. Also, from my experience in the first week, everyone is willing to help and to answer any questions that you may have.