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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?

#41
post #36

I think many other people have posted good advice on how to get ready. I just want to second the other post that recommends against preparing for it. When you interviewed and got hired they knew your qualifications and knew you might not know some things. You're about to get paid to learn what they need you to learn. I don't really see why you should your own personal time learning something for them. Instead, I'd re…

I would also avoid preparing for the role directly but prepare for software "in general".

You can learn a stack but still not have a great grasp of how MVC actually works and how the framework interacts with the database.

Instead of going over algorithms or frameworks, I would make sure you understand basic data structures and databases. You're going to be working with these no matter where you go.

For data structures, I would focus on hash maps and queues; you'll likely be using those much more than anything else. I would make sure to have a solid foundation in SQL queries because then you'll know what the framework's ORM is doing. Also you mentioned working on backend, so SQL should be your bread and butter (you need to know to avoid N+1 queries, etc).

I've gotten many interviews and at least one job based primarily (after being a nice person to work with, anyway) on having a good foundation in SQL; I wrote a toy ORM and put it on github.

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

#42
A previous thread on HN recommended Uncle Bob's Clean Code book. I found it super helpful as I started my first programming job. I followed it up by reading Clean Coder for some career advice.

I think the idea of "quick starting" a new job since you have no previous professional experience may set unrealistic expectations and pressure on yourself. They probably have budgeted on-boarding time for you to figure out some of their stack and lined up some "intro" level work to help you get acclimated.

My advice is be ready to introduce yourself and be honest with your familiarity with the tools they use. Your co-workers probably have awesome things to teach you if you just ask.

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

#45

My advice would be to work on debugging. It's where I struggled most early on in my first job, and where our current intern is weakest (despite being really good overall). If you're working on a large system and haven't worked with one, you're going to end up lost a lot. Debugging a complex web app is very different than debugging an algorithm. Here is a blog post that discusses the topic and links to four books on t…

Ack, I said I would attach a blog post, and then didn't: http://blog.regehr.org/archives/199
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