8 tips for your first 8 weeks as a software engineering student at Holberton school.
By Arthur Letrun and Idrissisarah. February 5, 2024
Arthur is a C20 student, specializing in Cybersecurity and would like to become a pen tester || Sarah is a C22 student. She would like to specialize in Machine Learning, with a focus in NLP.
Hi we’re Arthur and Sarah, students at Holberton School Lille, in the north of France.
We both started Holberton at different times and for different reasons, but we share a passion for software engineering and a love of our school.
On February 5, the new cohort, C23, will be starting their Holberton journey, and we wanted to greet them with some tips and good practices, with a focus on how we would have done things differently during our first weeks learning to code and getting familiar with computer science.
So, here we go: ✨8 tips for your first 8 weeks at Holberton School ✨
1. Introduce yourself. Get to know your peers and start asking questions from day 1
We are your peers and we all are members of our cohorts. There may not be traditional teachers at Holberton, but teaching and learning is happening all the time. Getting to know your peers means you will be able to offer your help and ask for help with greater ease.
💡 Don’t be scared to say out loud what you understand or what concept is still difficult to grasp. Don’t be shy, we all did it.
2. Listen to your seniors (C22, C21, and specialization students)
We have gone through the same experience as you. We have had a first day, a first week, a first month, too. We’ve felt tired, overwhelmed, overworked, and as excited as you will be. And our seniors have helped us through it. Reach out. We won’t give you the answers, but we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.
💡 The framework works, know it, use it.
3. Structure your work & Go beyond the tasks
Look at the project page on the intranet, and get familiarized with the subjects you will be studying over the first trimester.
During the first term, you will be learning a lot of new concepts and a lot of new techniques. Each week builds on what you have learned during the previous one. We think it’s a good practice to have a clear overview of what you will be learning.
💡 Whiteboard before coding + Learn about algorithms. Refactor your code after finishing a project. Do the advanced tasks
4. Take notes
Whether you use a notebook, note-taking apps (notion, obsidian, Google docs, etc.), make sure to take notes. It’s a great way to retain what you learn, to review your material and to see your progress. It will also be helpful for Peer Learning Days, and for the rest of your career.
💡 Don’t be scared to say what you understand or don’t.
5. Optimize your work environment
This is a big one. Let’s break it down.
Text Editors
The first week, you will learn about IDEs (VI, Vim Emacs/ Terminal), that you have had the pleasure (lol) to try out during your admission test. They can actually be fun and great-looking if you take some time personalizing it.
To this day, Arthur is still not using Visual Studio Code, he has tailored his Neovim to his taste, personalized his theme with cool colors, the plugins he needs, a layout he likes etc. You can do almost the same with vi. And later on, chose your favorite Text Editor.
(And please don’t use Emacs when you have the choice, we will *judge* you.)
🤡 Joking. But, yeah, we are both team vi.
The sandbox vs. your own environment.
It is recommended by the international staff to use the Holberton sandbox to push projects because they are standardized to work with the checker and compile with the right version of Ubuntu (you will learn about that later).
However, we see a great learning opportunity in mastering your own environment from day one. Being proficient in different IDEs and environments (MACOS, Unix, Windows), knowing how to set up an SSH key will make a difference on your CV.
💡 In a nutshell, being flexible, adaptable and curious when it comes to the tools you use, will always be an asset in your professional life/development and will set you apart.
6. Good practice + different methodologies
You are at Holberton because in a couple of years you will be looking for your first job after graduating, or in a few months you will be applying for internships or work-study positions.
Time flies. Start working on your professional image and network early on.
This means: know what jobs exist and find out the one you may be interested in. Research the stacks (languages, frameworks, technologies…) that are used. Connect with and follow people and companies that inspire you. Go to events (meetups, job fairs, conventions, etc.).
💡 Learn about the different tech jobs + the stacks that use+ take care of your LinkedIn.
💡 Start researching the existing methodologies [UML, Flowchart, Kanban, Solide, Agile, TDD, etc..]
7. ✨Pretty Github + Pretty README✨
Your GitHub is great for visibility. Companies will check your GitHub and thus learn a lot about how you work and your practice. Learn about git flow early on. Adopt the good commit practices. Manipulate branches and make beautiful README.md files. Don’t hesitate to use templates.
8. GPT, Bard, Copilot & co.
It may seem a great idea and a way to gain time to use autocomplete features, or GPT chatbot to do your task. We assure you it is not.
It goes against best practice, it will impair your learning and understanding of programing languages. You will miss a great opportunity to learn by doing, and grow from your mistakes, which is at the heart of the Holberton pedagogy.
We recommend that you do the work. Do your best, even if you think your work is bad. It’s OK. You’re learning. Everybody is bad when they start. It’s the only way to become great :)
Discussing the advantages of GPT and LLM models would need another article of its own, and we don’t have quite the time now. We are not saying it is a bad tool. It can be a powerful asset, indeed, when used smartly. Tread carefully.
💡 So, in a nutshell: don’t use ChatGPT or Copilot to produce code during your first semester.
Following the same argument, don’t copy other GitHub’s codes without understanding.
Code literacy is very important. Reading a lot of code helps you become a better developer … However, we believe that’s true only if you make the effort to understand what you read, to the point that you are able to explain it to someone else.
We recommend you only start reading code examples after working on your project’s tasks, and figuring out the algorithm on the whiteboard.
💡 Don’t copy anything without understanding first.
Bonus tips:
💡 The campuses are thought for productivity and comfort, but don’t hesitate to bring in everything you need to get in the flow. Snacks, good music, noise-canceling headphones, a water bottle, an ergonomic mouse, an HDMI cord for a double screen … list or copy your peers.
💡 After a few weeks, one way to organize your work, is to prep everything on Monday. Open your projects. Prepare your Repository README (you can use a template) and your directories/projects READMEs. Prepare your files, your makefiles (in C, you’ll see that later), your headers, your scripts, etc. It will give you a good idea of the number of tasks you’ll have to do over the week, the time you’ll need, etc. Thank you @PhillipeWanquetin for the great tip! 👋
💡If you are not comfortable with English yet … don’t worry. Use tools, Chrome extensions, DeepL, and ask your peers for help. You will be OK !
💡Go to all the tech events brought to you by students or the Holberton staff to grow your network ! (Thanks Annaïk for the tip )