When you start your first tech job, your goal is to become reliable and demonstrate that you are a growth oriented individual.
Here are our 4 top tips for your first year in the profession:
Have a plan to handle problems.
You’re going to be jumping into a new, existing tech stack and system of doing things. You’re going to need to get help from colleagues to understand that environment. As a rule of thumb, if you’ve been stuck on a problem for more than 30 minutes and you’re getting nowhere, it’s probably time to ask for help. Make sure you document what you are trying to achieve, keep exact logs or screenshots and details of where the program breaks down, and create a brief description of the troubleshooting you have already done. If you take these to your mentor, it will show her that you respect her time as well as her expertise.
Learning doesn’t stop at graduation
All tech skills have a half-life. The framework you use today will become a legacy problem soon enough. The regulations that work today could be changed overnight. You will be dedicating a large part of your time learning in those early career years. Spend 80% of your training time mastering the tools your company uses today, but reserve 20% of that time exploring the next version that is on the way, or adjacent technologies. Membership of a professional body can help you to identify what is coming and your next training needs. Bookmark articles, observe what senior architects do and why. Learn for the decisions ahead of you, not just behind you.
Plan your roadmap to promotion
Career growth in technology roles follows a fairly predictable pathway. In the first 3 months, you need to focus on your codebase, setting up your environment and understanding the business domain. During the first year, you should be growing in autonomy. In year 2, you should be focused on ownership. In each of these stages you need to improve your communication and professional skills, as well as your technical skills. Learn how to present your work, manage your time independently and effectively and put effort into the quality of your documentation.
Maintain a ‘brag’ document
Start preparing straight away for your first annual review. In 12 months’ time, you won’t remember what you did in those early months. Maintain a portfolio where you keep details of technical challenges or milestones that you have achieved (working with a data set > 4 million rows for the first time, reducing page load time, or documenting API integration). You’ll have a data-backed case of your professional growth and the value you have added. Keep records of development of soft skills, too. Armed with evidence, you can also benchmark your progress against industry standards and frameworks of professional development to make sure that you are not falling behind in any aspect of professional development. You will need it in 3 years’ time, too, if you decide to go for a new challenge in a different job.
Trust your foundations
As a new career hire, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the learning curve ahead. Remember that you were hired because the team believes your current technical skills are enough to solve today’s problems. You don’t need to be a lead architect in one day. You just need to be a reliable problem-solver who is easy to work with.
Focus on being a great team mate and a clear communicator and look for the gaps that others ignore. If you notice a README is out of date, update it. If a test is a bit flaky and has gaps, fix them. You belong in this role. Give yourself the grace to grow into it.
