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Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

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Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#41

Post by melvinroest »

petargyurov wrote: post #2

Congrats on starting! One bit of advice I would personally give is to remember that work is just work. You will have responsibilities, deadlines, arguments, critisms and one day you might find yourself anxious and stressed out. When that happens, it's nice to remind yourself that the critical bug or whatever you're working on is meanigless in the grand scheme of things. No matter how passionate you are about your com…

This is an amazing back to basic tip that I actually fully implement. My variation is: work is just work, and when working make the most of it during the time that you work.

Without that addition, one could interpret the "work is just work" too negatively.

The discussion that this advice has created is something that I'll reread a few times as I have experienced similar experiences while I was studying at university.

Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#42

Post by melvinroest »

tfandango wrote: post #36
masukomi wrote: post #31

Don't be afraid to admit ignorance. "I don't know what that means." and "Can you explain that to me?" are two of the most wonderful phrases. I use them regularly and have been programming for over 30yrs. Every time I do, I learn something new. My coworkers know that I'll speak up if I don't understand something, and when you're finally experienced, it helps the new kids to not feel like such imposters to see that an…

Upvote! New people or people interviewing are always afraid to ask questions. I find they think people expect them to always know the answer. I'd much rather hire someone who will find the right people and ask questions when they don't know how to do something. Communication skills.

I always say what I don't know during interviews. Based on my experience here is what I've learned:

- Most companies will believe you're inexperienced

- It act as a filter to those type of companies

So one should inhibit themselves if they want more volume / don't care if they end up at a place where this is an issue during the interview process.

I have to say, Triply's interview process was quite unique in this: saying what you don't know was kind of the nature of the game. They were simply interested in how you thought based on what you do know and how quick you get to understand certain topics. I'll admit, I'm probably biased, honeymoon period, etc. but I've had a lot of interviews and I found only a few sane things in the whole process. The only other sane thing that I remember is that Brilliant.org had a sane online coding challenge, just enough related to data structures and algorithms to test your mettle, but also practical enough that you could see yourself using that during actual web development.

Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#43

Post by watertom »

I've managed a number of interns and new hires over the years. Here is what I tell my newbies.

Keep a small notebook, or use a to-do app and track everything that gets assigned to you. If something is assigned to you make sure that you get a clear deliverable time or date and time. If you have any questions about what's been assigned to you ask the person who assigned the task, even it your question doesn't pop up until later.

If you take notes in meeting etc. use a separate notebook or app for the notes. You want to be sure that you don't clutter up your to do list with notes.

First thing in the morning: - Review your to-do list. - Check your calendar for the day - Check your inbox

Before you leave at the end of the day: - Create a bullet list of everything you did for the day. - Check your calendar for the next day - Check your inbox one last time. - Check to make sure that you don't have any unfinished emails.

Learn how to use all the office tools, even if you think they are stupid, lame, outdated. It's what you'll be using, complaining won't change the fact that you'll need to conform. First impressions.

There will be a lot of things that won't make sense, roll with it. Intra and inter system dependencies drive most things that don't make sense when you walk into a new place. Telling people how to do it better won't win you any points.

Take a few months of your first job and be humble. Listen more than you talk. I like to tell new hires to be like a human Golden Retriever. Positive attitude, want to help always, look like you are smiling all the time. Don't bark unless it's absolutely necessary. Look good at all times.

I'm not suggesting that you completely alter your personality, just ease into things. You'll be working for the next 40-50 years of your life so you have plenty of time to be yourself.

Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#44

Post by melvinroest »

Catsandkites wrote: post #38
gabrielsroka wrote: post #37

Take care of your health. Eat well and exercise. Sleep is important. Learn about personal finance and the power of compound interest. Create a budget and start saving for retirement. Contribute to a 401k/IRA/etc. Your goal should be to save 12-15%. If you can't save that much today, start lower, but increase it every 6-12 months and every time you get a pay raise. Save 6 months of expenses for a rainy day fund -- thi…

What would some recommended reading about saving for retirement? For example, I have a healthy amount of savings but none is invested and it sits in an account doing nothing (@ 0.1%). I read the obvious subreddits, have a basic working knowledge of financial concepts, understand that I should just invest in the broad market / ETFs and not touch it for decades. But when I go to invest, I feel I have no idea what I'm a…

I know this one!

Disclaimer: not a financial advisor, I do trade stocks as a hobby and am interested in personal finance.

Invest in an index fund. I am a fan of Vanguard based on that one good friend of mine is a fan of it (and he studied finance) and that one acquaintance who has this as a very big hobby is a fan of it. (early bitcoin investor, read way more personal finance books than me, etc.).

I only know specific vendors in The Netherlands. If I were you, make an ask HN about it. I'm sure that enough people on HN can give you some directions as even high frequency trading people frequent this site. My point is that people who work in the field of finance are probably happy to help and guide you with this question, but it's better to create an Ask HN than to dump all your lifesavings into Vanguard just because I say so :P

Disclaimer: I only have a portion of my lifesavings in Vanguard. I actually trade stocks more often, but that is a hobby, not a saving mechanism.

Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#46

Post by melvinroest »

explorigin wrote: post #29

There have been some comments about staying off HN (or any news site). But some tech news can further your knowledge and skills...so instead of foregoing news altogether, just don't make it the first thing you do in the morning. Instead, get some nugget of productivity done first. Productivity, for me, has a strong "momentum" component to it. Once you get going, it's easy to keep going as long as you can keep distrac…

Thanks for the momentum tips. I actually visit HN after I'm done with work (it's 17:30 here in Amsterdam).

The unfinished work thingy is a handy one, I'm testing it now. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#47

Post by melvinroest »

ipiz0618 wrote: post #35

Try to understand what your colleagues have done. This will help you get to really know the team culture. If you're a programmer, read through some parts of the codebase, if possible, to get a sense of how your colleagues are doing their work.

As in just open random files and read? Or open up a UI and see what it does under a debugger? Or open up the test files first to see how things are supposed to be called/used?

I wonder what your structure is.

Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#48

Post by melvinroest »

rebelrexx858 wrote: post #21
dsm4ck wrote: post #19

Make sure your desk is set up correctly ergonomically speaking. Start early and your back and neck will thank you later. Don't hesitate to request a different keyboard and mouse if what you are provided isn't comfortable.

And if they won't provide, look to bring your own. This is a big part of your day, being comfortable is huge.

I remember a friend who did that, he bought his own monitor and brought it to work.

Re: Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips?

#50

Post by melvinroest »

Thanks for the amazing response so far. I just closed off the second day and just read all your responses.

Day 3 will see a lot of incoming change :D

It's a lot of info, but here is what I digested and what I'll experiment with:

- 25 min. of skill building time

- Work is work, I have a life outside of that. In fact, one of my own tips is to be playful at certain times to lighten the mood. Living a life outside of work really helps with that to stay playful and keep team spirits up.

- "Take care of your health. Eat well and exercise. Sleep is important."

- Admitting ignorance

- Feel responsible for the company (I read the discussion, I figured I might try the other side if feeling responsible has mixed results)

- Keep separate apps and notebooks

----- Working at Triply in Amsterdam:

If you're interested in working with Triply -- and me ;-) -- and can work in Amsterdam, medior/senior software engineers are still looked for [1].

We're focusing on improving the developer experience for using linked data and creating linked data (sets). As I understood it, the whole topic is too academic, Triply is changing that by making it more UX friendly for developers and data analysts.

[1] https://triply.cc/career (I'm not sure if they do remote)

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