Unveiling the Secrets to Acing Your First Job

1. Get familiar with the tech stack your company uses.

First and foremost, you need to get familiar with the tech stack your company uses. A tech stack is an industry term that denotes any and all technologies such as databases, programming languages, frameworks, testing libraries, etc. that your company uses. Having knowledge about the tech stack allows you to understand the technology that your company prefers, and it speeds up your onboarding process.

2. Find out the primary communication tool for your company.

Next, find out what is the primary communication tool for your company. Most companies use Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts. You should also find out what the primary video/audio conferencing tool is for your company. Most companies use Zoom, Hangouts, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, etc. This ensures that you can connect with your team and join any scheduled meetings without any glitches. Now, this might seem trivial but trust me, sometimes not knowing how to communicate or join a meeting wastes more valuable time than we would prefer.

3. Schedule 1:1 with your teammates.

Consider, scheduling 1:1 with your teammates. This not only allows you to introduce yourself to your colleagues but also helps you get to know them better. Zoom calls or general meetings might allow you to meet people, but they don't allow for enough time to get to know them. Knowing the people you will work with is essential to improving interpersonal communication at work. Remember, that you should always aspire to become better both personally and professionally, and this is a great way to work on your communication skills.

4. Find a good mentor.

Next, find a good mentor. A good mentor is someone who supports you, understands you, and shows you often by example how to be a better version of yourself. Most engineering teams are divided into backend engineers, front-end engineering, quality engineers, scrum master, product manager, and managers. Depending on your domain, finding someone who is knowledgeable, and who you can trust to guide you in the right direction is always a good way to start or continue your learning process. I was lucky enough to find a few amazing mentors at my job.

5. Always try to understand the architecture of the project if it’s an existing one.

Another tip is that when you are assigned a project or if you volunteer to be part of one, always try to understand the architecture of the project if it’s an existing one. Understand how it is constructed, what it connects to, and what input or output is it expecting. Also, look at test cases because these better prepare you for all eventualities and help you understand the problem and use cases that your project is trying to solve or implement.

You should also always look at documentation related to the project to see what it entails. If you do not know where to look, don't hesitate to reach out to your team members and ask them. Remember that there is no shame in asking your team about something you don't know. You are here to learn and grow. Everything else is irrelevant.

One caveat, though, is that nobody likes people who do not do their background research before asking the questions. Asking your colleagues about what is the primary documentation tool that your team or organization uses, is a good way to know where to look for information before approaching others. Try to use those tools such as Slack channels, wikis, google documentation, internal stack overflow etc, before you approach others. Though there might be times when you wouldn't be able to find your answer on Google or internal platforms, but, not even trying to find the answers before asking others is not cool. Respect the time of others as you would guard yours.

6. Understand that documentation might not always be updated

Last, but not the least, understand that documentation might not always be updated. Creating documentation is easy but maintaining it is almost always challenging. So, code truly is the best source of documentation. Always confirm your understanding by looking at the code.