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Discussion on: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before My First Day of Being A Junior Software Engineer

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Dave

As a Senior dev, I feel the need to point out that only your last point actually matters for juniors.

If you took less than a working week to setup your new machine, awesome, you've beaten EVERY single junior I've ever worked with. Hell, I'm still changing things up on my office laptop!

Git/SCM... don't beat yourself up. I know Seniors that don't understand how a "pull --rebase" works. Find someone on your team that's comfy with the SCM, and pick their brains whenever you're stuck. Also, there's no shame in Googling.

Re the IDE, some firms mandate it, some don't. Generally the better employers realise that all that matters, is that the code is readable. If your IDE & plugins is mandated, as a junior, unfortunately you have to just suck up the learning curve. But communicate with the team as you go. If a junior came to me with a "how do I do X?" - I'd not only help them, but I'd also feed back to management that you're putting your best foot forwards, and I'd help you keep the project management team off your back.

Back to your last point: chill. You're new, you're a junior. Deep breaths, and use the Seniors & Leads - they get paid to help you out.

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iamtravisw profile image
Travis Woodward

Hey Dave!

I really appreciate the feedback and I hope that some of the people this article was written for find it! You're right, the only point that really matters is the last point, technically everything else rolls into that point.

Cheers!