Hey lovely readers,
My 3-year anniversary of graduating from university with my bachelor's in Applied Computer Science is coming up. It feels like 5 centuries and 5 minutes ago at the same time.
I started working right after graduation, and let me tell you, I learned a lot about the working field, and even more about myself. I quit a company that offered me a contract barely above minimum wage. I experienced a company not liking me, and me not liking them back. I even got fired from a job before my trial period had properly started.
None of that felt great at the time. But looking back, it all led me to where I am now. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about why it is completely okay to still be figuring yourself out, and what you actually want, as a junior developer.
Before I go on, I do want to be honest about one thing. I started looking for my first dev job in 2023, and the junior job market looked very different back then compared to now. Getting a first developer job in 2026 is a lot harder. Entry-level job postings have dropped a lot over the past few years, and companies now ask junior candidates for more experience and a stronger portfolio than they used to. On top of that, I already had my Microsoft MVP title back then and was speaking at events, so companies already knew who I was before I even applied. That gave me an advantage that most junior developers simply do not have, and I do not want to pretend otherwise. So please read the rest of this post with that in mind. The lessons still hold, but walking away from a bad offer, or leaving a mismatch, was easier for me in a market, and with an advantage most people do not get. If you are job hunting right now, it makes complete sense if some of this advice is harder to apply, and that is not a reflection of you doing anything wrong.
Underpaid does not mean grateful
When you are fresh out of university, it is easy to feel like you should be grateful for any offer at all. You do not have much experience yet, the job market can feel scary, and a company offering you a contract feels like a win, even if the salary for it is not great.
I want to gently disagree with that feeling.
Being a junior developer does not mean your work has no value. It means you are early in your career, not that you should accept barely above minimum wage for a full-time developer role. When I quit that company, it did not feel like a great moment. It felt scary. But it was also the first time I really understood that walking away from something that undervalues you is not bad.
If you are in a similar position right now, please know this: it is okay to say no. It is okay to negotiate. And it is okay to leave, even as a junior, even if it feels early to make that kind of decision.
Sometimes it just does not click, and that is fine
Not every company and developer are a good match, and that is nobody's fault.
I have been in a situation where a company simply did not like me, and if I am honest, I did not really like them either. That is an sad thing to accept, especially early in your career when you assume that if something is not working, it must be you.
But work relationships are a two-way fit, just like any other relationship. Communication style, expectations, pace of work, sense of humour, all of it plays a role. A mismatch does not mean you are difficult to work with, and it does not mean the company is bad either. It just means that particular combination was not right.
Recognising this early saved me a lot of unnecessary guilt later on. If a place does not feel right, it is worth asking why, without immediately assuming the answer is something wrong with you.
Getting let go before you even started
This one is a strange story, but I will tell it simply: I got fired from a job before my trial period had even started, just a short time before I was supposed to begin. The reason was not about me at all. The company made a business decision that had nothing to do with me, my skills, or my fit for the role, and that decision meant my contract could not go ahead.
It still stings, even when you know exactly why it happened. There is something oddly personal about being let go before you even get the chance to prove yourself, even when the reason has nothing to do with you as a person or as a developer. In my case, it genuinely had nothing to do with my skills or fit. Sometimes it really is that simple: a company makes a decision for its own business reasons, and it happens to affect you directly, even though it is not about you at all.
But not every story like this comes with such a clear reason. Sometimes it is about fit or timing on the company's side, and you never get a clean explanation. Either way, the lesson stays the same: one mismatch, or one company's decision, does not decide your whole career.
Learning what you actually need from a work environment
One of the biggest things I have figured out over these 3 years is how much my environment affects how well I can do my job.
I have learned that I struggle with things like busy social events and open offices, and that this is not something that gets easier just because I push through it a few more times. It is a pattern, not a bad day here and there. For a long time I assumed I should just be able to handle it, the way it seemed like everyone else could. It took a while to understand that some environments just don't work for me, no matter how much I want them to.
Once I understood that about myself, it changed the way I looked at job offers and company cultures completely. I started paying attention to things like: is there a quiet space to work if I need one? Are social events something I am expected to attend, or something I can choose to join when I have the energy for it? Is the office open-plan, and if so, is there a way to get a break of it?
None of this means those environments are bad, or that people who thrive in them are doing something wrong. It just means I learned that my own needs are specific, and that ignoring them does not make them go away. It only makes work harder than it needs to be.
If there is one thing I would want every junior developer to take from this, it is that learning how you work best is just as important as learning how to code. That kind of self-knowledge is not something you are handed on day one. It is something you build, often through experiences that are uncomfortable at the time.
You do not need to be everyone's friend
This is one of the harder lessons, but also one that calms me down: you cannot be friends with every single colleague, and some people will simply dislike you without there being a clear reason why.
That used to bother me a lot. I would try to figure out what I did wrong, replay conversations, wonder if I said something strange or looked at somebody wrong. Sometimes there really is no answer. Personalities just clash sometimes, and it does not always come with a clear explanation.
What helped me was realising that being liked by absolutely everyone was never actually the goal. What matters is being respectful, doing good work, and being someone people can rely on. That is a very different thing from being everyone's favourite person in the office, and it is a much more reasonable standard to hold yourself to.
So if there is a colleague who just does not seem to like you, and you cannot figure out exactly why, it is okay to let that be. Not every relationship needs to be solved. Some things simply are what they are.
What I know now that I wish I knew as a fresh graduate
Looking back at all of this from where I am now, a few things stand out that I wish someone had told me sooner:
- Pay attention to how a company communicates with you during the interview process. It tells you a lot about what working there will actually be like.
- Trust how you feel in the first few weeks of a new job. If something feels off, it is worth paying attention to that feeling instead of ignoring it.
- Leaving a job, or having a job not work out, is not failing. It is part of figuring out what you actually want, even if the timing or the market makes that decision harder than it sounds.
- Your first job does not have to be your dream job. It is allowed to just be a step that teaches you something about yourself.
- Learning how you work best, like what kind of environment helps you and what kind of environment drains you, is just as valuable as learning a new framework or language.
- Not everyone has to like you, and you do not have to like everyone either. That is not a failure on your part or theirs.
- If the market right now means you have less room to walk away than I did, that is not a personal failure either. It is a reflection of a genuinely tougher market, not a lack of drive or talent on your part.
That is a wrap
3 years in, I do not have it all figured out, and I do not think that is the goal anymore. What I do know is that every one of these experiences, the good ones and the uncomfortable ones, taught me something about what I want and what I do not want in my career.
If you are a junior developer still finding your way, please be patient with yourself. It is a marathon, not a race.
Thanks for reading! If you have thoughts, questions, or your own stories from early in your career, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me on my socials.
Top comments (1)
I appreciated the author's candor about their experience with being underpaid and undervalued as a junior developer, particularly the point that "being a junior developer does not mean your work has no value." This resonates with me, as I've seen many juniors feel pressured to accept low offers due to a fear of being without a job. The author's advice to negotiate and be willing to walk away from undervalued opportunities is crucial, especially in today's market where entry-level job postings have decreased and companies are asking for more experience from junior candidates. I've found that having a strong support network and being clear about one's own worth can make a big difference in navigating these situations. What strategies have others found helpful in determining their own worth and advocating for themselves in the job market?