Your first dev job will teach you more in three months than two years of tutorials ever could.
Most juniors don’t believe that (I certainly did not). They’re stuck in the “just one more course” loop — convinced the next certification or project will finally make them ready.
But real growth doesn’t happen before the job. It happens because of it.
The Myth of “Ready”
I applied to my first dev job feeling completely unprepared. Spent the first week thinking someone in HR had made a terrible mistake.
And yet — within a month, I’d learned more about version control, debugging, and reading other people’s code than six months of online courses ever taught me.
Because tutorials can’t simulate what it’s like to fix production bugs at 9PM or explain your logic during a code review.
Why the Job Changes Everything
Once you’re in a real environment, everything shifts.
You learn how to:
- Read messy legacy code and make sense of it.
- Ask better, sharper questions.
- Navigate feedback without taking it personally.
- Handle ambiguity when specs aren’t crystal clear.
That’s the real developer education — and it starts on day one.
What to Look For in Your First Job
Don’t just apply anywhere. Look for teams that actually invest in juniors.
Green flags:
- Structured onboarding
- Pair programming
- Regular code reviews
- Patient seniors who want to mentor
Red flags:
- No documentation
- Everyone’s too busy to help
- They expect you to “hit the ground running” on day one
You’re Ready Enough
That feeling of not being ready? It never fully goes away. Even senior devs feel it.
So apply anyway. Because the fastest way to grow is to start — not to prepare forever.
You’ll learn by doing, failing, and improving.
That’s how every great developer started.
Top comments (28)
Depends very much on the kind of job and workplace culture. I learned a lot on the job, but, however, deadlines, requirements, and irrevocable software architecture tech stack decisions often make employees produce features in a tunnel of productivity without any chance to explore and develop their skill, unless they have the capacity to do it in their spare time. It depends.
You're absolutely right @ingosteinke ! As with everything in life: it depends. My first job was a nightmare: I learned a ton, but wow the pressure was insane. Sounds like we were in the same company actually, haha. These are all definitely red flags and something to look out for when searching for a developer job.
This is why mentorship is key, nobody wants to give a newbie a chance but with the right guidiance you can learn on the job and move at a light speed pace
Thanks for sharing @miracool ! Indeed, mentorship is super important. Newbies can get a chance in the right environment, but with a good mentor at your side it makes all the difference. I had one at a project and he guided me so well towards more and more responsibility and I learned a ton.
Yes yes, expecially during pair programming. You will also learn how to approach problems.
If there's one thing I learned from my past work experience, it's that going along with the right people will eventually lead you to the right path in your career. This includes adapting to a good work practice and improving your technical skills substantially. On the other hand, working with the wrong people will eventually get you demoralized and disencouraged, and slowly realizing what a toxic work environment you've been working in. Eventually, you'll find that those who are really good and capable of their work eventually leave the company in search of a better one.
True story: I've worked in a multinational company before with an ineffective working environment. Constant meetings, deadlines, heavy reliance on tons of documentations, and other bad practices, you name it. I had to deliver a working prototype within 10 months to ensure the product was able to deliver before the launch deadline. Eventually, there was a management shift within the project stakeholders and the project was cancelled by the end of year just before Christmas, resulting in a huge demoralizing blow to the team. Had there been transparency between the upper management and the working team, things would have been a good turn.
I totally agree with the article. Before going for perfecting our working practice, learning the human aspect would be more detrimental.
Thanks for sharing @kc900201 , great that you're adding to the knowledge and experience sharing here! The right people are indeed essential, I learned that the hard way at the start of my career.
Sad to hear about the cancelled project! I had that as well, when working for a big telecommunications company. Worked on the project for 4 months, then they wanted a different direction and told us to throw it all in the trash and start over. Did that, worked for another 4 months and then the whole thing got cancelled. Ah well, learned a lot!
if you want the hand holding, go corporate, but don't expect to learn a lot.
hit the ground running at an agency, push through the initial learning curve and you will learn ten times as much in the same period.
in tech you are always learning, if you're not, you've already fallen behind, you just don't know it yet.
Thanks for sharing @ravavyr ! It depends on the environment though. I started at an agency and it was a terrible environment. Went corporate a few years after and my career skyrocketed.
But agree on the need to always learn!
to be honest, a career can skyrocket if you rub the right elbows, i know plenty of damn good developers who will never make 6 figures because they're just not interested in climbing ladders.
And i fully agree it depends on the environment, marketing agencies tend to stick to simpler tools, technical agencies will let you deep dive into a lot more tech and gain a lot more experience.
Who you work with of course is what counts at the end of the day, whether you want to stay or not.
@ravavyr I recognize that, some are completely content with staying where they are. I've definitely been in environments where stagnation is not seen as a problem but rather as comfort. Knowing what you know and making money with that is for some people enough, but I choose this field because I need to keep up and learn new things. That's what makes it exciting for me to be a developer!
Honestly learning on the job is the best form of learning. You will see the practical application of what you have been learning from tutorial. No feeling can be compared seeing your code in production (no matter how tiny the code is in the codebase).
I have learnt a whole lot of WordPress on the job than I have learned while watching tutorials. I make mistakes, research and resolve them.
Absolutely! Real learning happens when you have to deliver actual user and business value and you solve real problems for real people. Tutorials and courses feel safe and you feel like you're on top of the world, but it's not like working at a company. Thanks for sharing your experience and insights!
Yeah, pretty much totally agree. Nothing beats the hands-on experience that you get when working through real code and trying to fix real issues; that is how you will grow. Tutorials can only take you so far; it’s the production bugs, feedback and team dynamics which really push forward your developer skill set. Great tips!
For sure @andrewbaisden ! Breaking production is one of the best learning moments there is, haha.
Every dev I know says the real growth happens once you’re actually in the job.
My only struggle is getting to that starting line... ┗( T﹏T )┛
I’m stuck in that weird phase where I know I’d learn 10× faster on the job… I just haven’t been able to land a promising role yet.
Still trying to balance “keep applying” with “keep building skills,” because it’s hard not to feel like you’re just looping tutorials hoping something eventually clicks.
But I guess that’s part of the journey too, applying even when you don’t feel ready.
It's a tough market out there at the moment, sorry to hear about your struggles @itsugo . Is there any particular industry or company you're interested in? And yes, keeping that balance is really hard because it takes up so much time to do both. Projects like frontendmentor.io/challenges might help, to make it really tangible and visible what you're building while you're applying. Also, I saw this LinkedIn post from a senior developer who talked about how he's hiring and it was mostly about the fundamentals and looking for future teammates, rather than someone who can code everything (basic technical skills are getting more and more replaced by AI so there's a different need for entry-level and junior roles).
Feel free to DM me on LinkedIn if you're looking for advice!
Thanks so much, Tim... I really appreciate you taking the time to write this.
I’ll check out Frontend Mentor and keep building publicly. I’m especially interested in roles around AI-assisted productivity and mental-health tools. Web3 is interesting too, I’ve explored it a bit, though I wouldn’t call myself fully confident yet.
And thank you for the DM offer, I’d love to stay in touch and really appreciate the opportunity!
I was working with a startup and it was a terrific experience for me. Honestly, they just plan everything so much but there is very less execution and they just pass on the work to one another and I realised I am not learning anything actually and just attending 3 meetings a day in which they discuss the goal of a day and never completed that in a deadline. So, I quit it.
I am looking for a job or internship where I can learn and grow myself if you have that position please refer me
Absolutely true ...nothing accelerates learning like shipping real code under real pressure.
100% agree. I believe this stays true to functional people too. Theoretical or text book knowledge is good to understand the concepts but only when you actually apply them in real life when your projects/deliverables are at stake, the learning curve begins.
Absolutely @stigadikar ! I recognize this from my days at university. I knew a lot of theory, but we never got to put it into practice or anything. Meanwhile, students from more practical schools were getting hands-on experience left and right. So university gave me a shiny paper, but zero practical experience...
Some comments may only be visible to logged-in visitors. Sign in to view all comments.