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Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#11

Post by mardurhack »

dsiegel2275 wrote: post #10

Learning their stack is good advice. You'll impress folks if you can hit the ground running. Another area that I'd recommend is start to learn the business domain. If your company builds accounting software - start to learn some basic accounting principles. If your company builds healthcare insurance software, start to learn about the relationships between healthcare providers, insurance providers, health plans, etc.…

Thank you for the advice. The company doesn't focus on any particular domain but handles many different projects.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#12

Post by FLUX-YOU »

It couldn't hurt to go back and review but I'd ask them for what tools they use and what they think you should study.

You will also want to be familiar with some tools to debug code for their stack. They'll likely give you some bugs to track down to start off with. Definitely install and play with whatever database they are using.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#13

Post by mardurhack »

arenaninja wrote: post #9

It would've been useful if you'd at least posted the language. My recommendation is this: be pragmatic. I've been asked plenty of times to forgo software development principles to get a product out the door ("hardcode this", "copy/paste that"). I never copy/paste, but I have hardcoded things to get a product shipped on time. You may have a better idea of how to do a lot of things, but only bring it up when you unders…

Thank you. The language will be mostly Python. Being pragmatic is a good thing but I guess that comes after I start working.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#14

Post by jeletonskelly »

Not really to prepare, but during your first weeks identify the best programmers there and look through their commits. Books, tutorials, etc are good, but nothing like seeing how a good programmer writes code and solves problems on a day to day basis.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#15

Post by mardurhack »

djmckee wrote: post #2

Learn the stack they use, play with it, make sure you understand it. Also, find out what version control system they use and get comfortable using it - source control's vital stuff when working in a team and something that you may well have not really used so far in CS.

Thanks, sound advice! I have already some experience with most of the tools they use but I was wondering if I should focus more on doing, e.g., programming challenges on sites like Top Coder or complete tutorial after tutorial about the stack. They use git by the way and I have been using it for a while now.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#16

Post by vkjv »

dsiegel2275 wrote: post #10

Learning their stack is good advice. You'll impress folks if you can hit the ground running. Another area that I'd recommend is start to learn the business domain. If your company builds accounting software - start to learn some basic accounting principles. If your company builds healthcare insurance software, start to learn about the relationships between healthcare providers, insurance providers, health plans, etc.…

+1 to learning the business domain and the jargon associated. In my experience, domain specific code tends to be littered with jargon that makes it difficult to understand if you do not understand the vocabulary.

Unfortunately, much of this can even be business specific. It would be helpful to find out if they have any of this documented. It probably isn't documented within the software team, but, it most likely is for other business units!

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#17

Post by gorbachev »

Make sure you keep your ears open for advice from more senior folks in the company, and ask questions when you don't understand something or get stuck. You'll be fine.

Don't be the guy that spends two weeks on a problem that could've been solved in 15 minutes by asking someone for help.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#19

Post by rue »

euroclydon wrote: post #7

If you already got hired, I would just relax. Get some exercise, find a couple good books [1] you can read later when you want to take your mind off work. Then, when you start work, pour over the source code. Understand it. Ask or research anything you don't understand. Make a list of things that suck about it -- there likely will be a lot of technical debt, but who knows... If you want to get ahead, combine working…

Gonna second this. Do something fun, whatever it is. You don’t need to be a hero the first day. Go in well-rested, motivated, and open-minded.

The company pays you to learn their stuff.

Re: Ask HN: How can I prepare for my new job as a software developer?

#20

Post by teh_klev »

gorbachev wrote: post #17

Make sure you keep your ears open for advice from more senior folks in the company, and ask questions when you don't understand something or get stuck. You'll be fine. Don't be the guy that spends two weeks on a problem that could've been solved in 15 minutes by asking someone for help.

> Don't be the guy that spends two weeks on a problem that could've been solved in 15 minutes by asking someone for help.

This! I am eternally repeating this to our first line support people where we need to resolve things with 8-16 working hours. If they're still scratching heads after 4-5 hours then they should be hitting up the back room team for advice and guidance.

In addition, we then make sure that the "how the issue was resolved" is written up so, stuck into our internal KB wiki for future reference.

But yes, bottom line don't be afraid to ask, and don't be afraid to ask more if you still don't quite understand the solution/reasoning. I'd rather you kept asking until you "totally get it" rather than you wandering off with a vague understanding and breaking a production environment.

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