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Discussion on: What is your advice for a new intern?

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern
  • Ask lots of questions! It's better to be curious than to remain in the dark about something. It only shows well that you want to learn and get better.

  • Don't take anything the company does as programming gospel, but also don't come in questioning everything. Most dev teams best practices are a mishmash of the right thing for them, hacks, clever internal practices, etc. If something seems really wrong, ask about it. Chances are they know it's wrong and they just haven't gotten around to it, but you should address it.

  • Offer to pitch in on tasks you are interested in. You can't always wait to be given something.

  • If you are taking way too long on something, seek help before it drags on too much. This kind of thing can be measured in minutes or months, depending on the type of task.

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stefannibrasil profile image
Stefanni Brasil

Thank you for this, Ben! Part of me feeling nervous is that I don't know a lot yet, so I was getting worried about when should I ask for help, if they would think that I was asking too much, etc (but hey, I am still an intern, right? I just have to keep reminding myself this, I am working on my dev-confidence issue xD).

But I've learned that most times the errors are so silly, it's just that I don't have the experience yet and in fact spend an entire day only on this can be too much! It means a lot to get this advice, thanks!