I was overwhelmed just 5 days into my first job as a junior frontend developer.
I was helplessly staring at the screen and getting lost in between the multi-coloured lines of code, the notes that I was trying to make and the self-doubts floating in my mind...
I graduated in December of 2020 with a Business Marketing degree and soon went on to become a digital marketer the next year. I eventually decided to pursue a career in software engineering.
After 6 months in a part-time bootcamp (I was still working full time as a marketer), I finally graduated and found a frontend developer role (lucky me!).
However once I started, I faced a number of challenges including trying to learn a new language, getting used to production-level code and also the biggest of them all - overcoming my anxiety and self-doubt as a new developer.
Things got better overtime as I tried to reorganise my mentality as well as my workflow.
What helped me tremendously are summarised in the 3 categories below:
Ending Rumination
I found myself thinking about work A LOT after work hours has ended. These thoughts permeated my personal life and made me distracted when I was around with my loved ones.
It has also deprived me of sleep as I was kept awake with work thoughts.
Rumination is unproductive and does not solve any of my problems. Despite being unproductive and stress-inducing, rumination can be quite hard to shake off.
I then started a routine which has helped me in my quest to end rumination. I started taking evening strolls after work hours at a park. Being outside and doing something mildly active has a meditative effect. During the walk, I then look at the trees, listen to the sound of birds chirping and pay attention to my surroundings. I was being hyper-aware of my surroundings.
Whenever my thoughts start drifting away from the present moment, I gently bring back my attention to my surroundings.
The key here is to be patient and kind with oneself.
By doing so, I was exercising both physically and mentally.
I try to bring this state of mindfulness to other things that I do, when I have conversations with my friends and when I realise that work thoughts has creeped in, I gently ignored them and shift my attention to the present moment. After all, my friends deserve my fullest attention.
These evening walks of mindfulness may only take 10 minutes but they work wonders.
Have a clear progression plan
With a clearer mind and better separation of personal and work life, having a clear progression plan for my learning is the natural next step.
After a month into the job, I was aware what my weaknesses are. For example, it could be that I was unfamiliar with a particular library that my team was using. Or perhaps it's the workflow that I still have doubts about. I wrote all these areas of possible improvement down on my Notion workspace.
Writing them down is an essential step as I could visualise my thoughts. Swimming in my thoughts and trying to make sense of things simultaneously take up too much mental capacity and often make things harder than they already are.
Now that I know which area I should focus my attention and effort into improving, I simply have to allocate time for them. My plan was to spend at least 1 hour a day tackling these points of weaknesses until I completely understand them. It could be reading the documentation, watching Youtube tutorial, playing with CodeSandbox or straight up checking with my senior developers.
The key here is to be discipline and consistent. Just 1 hour a day will be enough.
Enjoy your personal time
With a meditative routine and a clear progression plan, I know I was on the right track to improving as a junior developer.
The fun part about having a clear plan is that once it's done, you just have to follow it and not overthink things. Trust the process and you will be alright!
I then proceeded to fill my schedule with fun things that I know I will look forward to that is not coding or work related - catching up with old friends, drink nights or pursuing my other hobbies.
Doing so helps relax my mind and I believe this is essential for sustainability as a full time developer.
After spending 8-9 hours problem solving, your brain deserves some downtime to rest and recharge. Overworking can lead to endless rumination and insomnia which may lead to burnout.
That's all! I hope that these tips can help my fellow junior developers in the same ways that they have benefitted me.
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