So you’re new to coding? Tips on how to maximize your first month on the job.
You’re the new kid on the block. You’ve got a sweet new backpack and the perfect first-day outfit all picked out. Congrats!
But all the preparedness in the world can’t mask the fact that you don’t know where or who to eat lunch with nor can it distract you from the small but persistent and haunting feeling that you may not actually survive day one. 😳
I’m referring, of course, to the first day of a new job. (And while these feelings of anxiety may ring true across a variety of vocations, in this article, I’m referring to one in particular: Software Engineering.👩🏼💻)
Not very long ago, I too was facing first day jitters of my own. And while I am by no means an expert and am in fact still quite a noob, I thought I’d write down a few notes before I become a big wig baller/coder extraordinaire who can no longer relate to feelings of inadequacy. 😂 I kid, I kid. No but seriously, while it’s fresh in my mind, I thought I’d put together some ideas on how to maximize and make the most of your time as a newbie.
Maybe it will be helpful for you? TBD, lemme know.
How to ROCK the First Month of your Coding Job:
- Remember that the first day, or week, or month, or whatever for that matter, fears are NORMAL.
It, of course, will feel as though everyone else has their shit together and that you’re the only one who has ever felt this way. But you’ll be wrong. And to prove it, I’ll share a few of the anxieties & questions I asked myself throughout my first day (that were only recorded because I insisted on writing literally everything down out of fear that I was going to miss a learning opportunity and thus some frantic emotions were recorded as opposed to legitimate notes on internal deployment systems or something like that — lol whoops — okay here I go):
OMG am I the only woman on my team?
Shoot, do they ALL have Computer Science degrees?
Will they judge me for being a “bootcamp” grad? Oh god, what am I doing here? Do I deserve to be here? Definitely not. How did I con my way into this position?
Wait, where on earth is the women’s bathroom??
What is Kanban? Actually, what do any of those words that he just said mean? Maybe he’s speaking a different language?
Okay wait, that seriously feels like the 30th acronym he’s used in less than 5-minute time.
Oh no… does he think I am a college student??
No, but seriously, you guys, where is the women’s restroom?
As you can tell, fear and panic were dear friends of mine that day. And I document all of these questions & fears not to pitifully expose my insecurities but to be honest that we all face self-deprecation and doubt sometimes.
Listen, it would have been VERY easy for me to succumb to that plaguing feeling of imposter syndrome and allow those negative thoughts to define me. I haven’t even been coding for a full year yet! And while some of those feelings may have been inevitable, I’m not going to apologize or feel embarrassed for having them or sharing them with you. This whole piece is an attempt to help those who are facing similar fears.
So if you’re feeling unsure, or overwhelmed or terrified, you are not alone. And I don’t know if that helps to know that. But I think it would’ve helped me. So here on the list as #1 it stays.
Let’s circle back to the part about me writing every little thing that happened down. No seriously, on page 3 of my notebook, just after I documented all of my first day questions, I drew a map of my team’s desk configuration and floor layout (yes, including where the bathroom is) including icons for each teammate based on the stickers on their computers. And while, okay, maybe that zoomed in version of ethnographic observation hasn’t turned out to be all that handy or helpful in the subsequent months, a lot of the note taking has in fact proven to be incredibly helpful! So that’s next on the list:
2. Be diligent in your note taking.
I’ve heard peers say that they were nervous to take too many notes during meetings out of fear of coming off as a noob. Buuuuuut let us not forget, we ARE noobs. And that’s nothing to be embarrassed about. There are too many unknowns to remember at the beginning. You need a place to keep track of it all- so I say don’t go anywhere without your damn notebook.
And as standups continue to be peppered with unknown acronyms and words to this day, you better believe the moment I hear a new one I. write. it. the. eff. down. Who cares about looking dorky? It’s super helpful. Plus, I now have a beautifully scattered yet convenient glossary of words I used to not know!
3. Which actually brings me to, Lean into being the new person.
Embrace it because before you know it, someone else will be joining your team and your excuse for not knowing how to do something because you’re the new guy will be long gone! Being new makes for a killer excuse to get to know people. Under the guise of being new, I scheduled one-on-one coffee dates with all the devs on my team during my first week. Each meeting turned out to be not only a great way to get to know them as individuals, but offered me time to learn more about their technical skills, passions, and expertise. To no one’s surprise, this was really helpful later down the road when I was blocked or confused & needed help solving a very particular problem.
4. So, wait actually, maybe that’s one on its own: Ask everyone and anyone to coffee. It is so rare that people actually say no when you ask for 30 minutes of their time to chat. I started with my developer teammates, then expanded to the non-technical folks on my floor, and eventually I got brave enough to ask my boss’s boss for coffee. And when that went well, I went to their boss’s boss!
☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️ 🤓🤓☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️
I mean why not? I say, get a little ballsy because the worst anyone can do is no. Anyhow, this idea has really helped me build my network and learn about the company from a broader perspective.
Tip: I usually have a set of questions ready to go if the conversation ever lulls. I’ve found that asking about a person’s path to tech is always a good bet. Not into coffee? We have frozen yogurt at my company, and there’s really no better way to bond, in my opinion, than over the mutual love of sprinkles AND code — Hello lifelong friendship! 🍦&💻
5. On a more strategic note, Clump your questions by category
Let’s face it, you are going to have a LOT of questions. It’s inevitable. You’re new! Write them ALL down and rather than shooting them off at your teammates in a sporadic rapid fire, be methodical about how and who you ask for help. Since you’ve just gone out to coffee with your teammates, you now probably have a pretty good idea of the work that they do and who is expert of what and thus you can direct your Java questions to one person and your deployment questions to another. That way, you aren’t constantly bombarding just one person with your confusions! Plus, you’re maximizing your time with each of them and demonstrating a respect for their interests and expertise! A win-win. 👍🏽👍🏽
6. Beyond the average note taking, Keep a daily log of your achievements.
I know I’ve harped on the importance of writing shiz down, but this is different. It is important to celebrate and document every achievement you have. We’re talking, even the teeny-tiny successes. It’ll come in handy when it comes time for evaluations with your manager, but it also helps when you’re feeling downright stupid or incapable of writing good code. In my personal wiki that I created to document my project (🚨nerd alert), I break down my notes by week and go as far as categorizing them into sections:
Accomplishments
Blockers (and how I’ve solved them)
Key Concepts Learned
Areas of Progress
Areas for Improvement
Leadership Moments
Everything is purposefully framed from a positive perspective — it works in a Jedi mind trick sort of a way to help me maintain that positivity.
7. Relatedly, I was also given the advice to Set a daily reminder to record these notes and so I will echo that here. I use the Boomerang app, which sends a prewritten daily email at 4:00 pm with a link to my Google form where I track these notes along with a word of encouragement that I wrote myself 3 months ago at the beginning of all of this.
8. Find mentors & sponsors. And not just one. Definitely one for career and one for the more technical side of things. Consider someone, not on your team whom you can talk to about all things- both good and bad. There are a ton of articles that have been written more eloquently on this topic, so I will link to them at the end. But I don’t want to skip the importance of this. It’s quite literally imperative that you have someone in your life that can function as a sounding board during this time.
9. Lean in to your past experiences. What new lens can you bring to the table? Perhaps you have a new way of solving a problem your team is facing. Share that idea sister! Don’t hide that valuable life experience. Your perspective matters.
10. Don’t try to learn everything at once. Make a plan. Prioritize those milestones with your manager and taskify things so not to overwhelm or drown in the massive amounts of things you don’t know.
11. Remember, you just haven’t learned that yet! AKA, try with everything you have to keep the self-deprecation at bay.
It’s easy to feel like the dumbest person in the room. I get it. But I’ll call on my girl, Carol Dweck, right now and remind you of her whole Growth Mindset philosophy. Nothing good comes from beating yourself up for not knowing how to fetch data from the API. You do, however, have to believe that you have the tools to figure it out. You may not know how to do it right at this very moment, but you will eventually be able to get there. And that's what counts.
So let’s change from I CAN’T DO THIS to I just haven’t gotten this YET! Shifting our mindset can really save the day sometimes.
11. If you are a bootcamp grad or are coming to tech from a nontraditional background, DO NOT beat yourself up for being different. You are not doomed just because you don’t have a CS degree. You are a magical unicorn and you deserve to be here.🦄
12. Lastly, no matter who you are, you must believe that you can do this.
No seriously, you can.
Confession time: Just over a year ago, I was teaching my 7th year of English and was directing my kiddos in a teenager adapted rendition of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Coding was still a pipe dream of mine. I pulled a major 180 in the life/career department, à la Miranda Hobbes shifting gears and running for governor, and if I can do this, YOU CAN TOO.
We cannot allow the things that we don’t know how to do (or code) to dictate our narratives.
So one last time, let me remind you: You belong. You deserve to be here.
The opinions shared in this article are my own 💁🏼 — @LoLoCoding
NOTE: While I was in fact the only woman developer on my technical team that day, I’m happy to report that as of 2 weeks ago, that is no longer the case! And you better believe I showed her where the bathroom was on her first day.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 315,028+ people.
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