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Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

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Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#161

Post by ggm »

stblack wrote: post #52
ggm wrote: post #19

You have about six weeks where you can ask otherwise outrageous questions and actually effect change. After that they will just think you are an idiot.

I came here to say something like this, except for the last part. I would say, rather, there are no stupid questions. After awhile it will become increasingly clear who fields questions well, and who doesn’t. Cultivate the former, avoid the latter.

Yes. this is a better phrasing. The key point is that you can ask almost anything in the critical new window.

After that period the ability to make other people re-think things significantly is made harder by their preconceptions about you, from their shared experiences.

BTW I've been telling new hires this for years, decades even. Not the 'after that they'll think you're an idiot' bit.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#163

Post by rightbyte »

KineticLensman wrote: post #76
noir_lord wrote: post #56

> And whats your best tip for life in general? 1) Take copious notes (in whatever format works for you). 2) Confirm managers decisions with a recap email (especially when you disagree with them). 3) Understand that while you may not like politics (I don't) knowing how the game is played allows you to mostly stay out of it. 4) Work time is work time, learn to be productive and then go home and switch off . 5) Work fri…

> 5) Work friends are NOT friends. I have made some extremely good friends through work, including the individual who, outside my family, is the person who I still see that I have known the longest in my life (we started our new jobs at the same company on the same day, approx 35 years ago). The mistake is when your colleagues become your only friends. Changing jobs can see you lose your entire 'support network'. Alw…

Ye it is strange concept. You make friends among classmates and parents childrens when you are young etc and that is a predetermined selection of candidates, why not at work?

If I would make a friend among co-workers, surely it would not end if any of us switch jobs? As in ex-student friends. Put in another way if you lose your friends from changing jobs they were not your friends.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#164

Post by qorrect »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #131

A few useful phrases to memorize: When someone asks for information, rather than try to answer immediately, or rush to research, ask, "When do you need that by?" Even if they tell you it's urgent, it causes them to consider. "Sure, I'd be glad to. Just let my boss know you need me." If they hem and haw, be suspicious. "What budget is that coming out of?" Other useful tidbits: Politics is a euphemism for, someone's eg…

Dang you just knocked that out of the park.

For me lately the 'Just let my boss know' works really well, let them hammer out the details.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#165

Post by alexmingoia »

gfodor wrote: post #99
alexmingoia wrote: post #65

Start saving money now and planning for retirement now. The earlier you start the more of an advantage you have. Stick to the 50/30/20 rule: When paid, put 50% into an account for bills, 30% into a savings account, and 20% into an account for spending. Setup auto-billing and never touch bills and savings accounts. Live on less than 50% income and let the extra money in bills account roll over as additional savings. O…

For a completely different perspective on this advice (the advice given here is the consensus view on how to build wealth) read "Unscripted" or "The Millionaire Fastlane" by MJ Demarco.

Starting a business can be a great way to earn more income, and the income potential is unlimited.

My advice applies to whether one chooses to start a business or not.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#166

Post by gfodor »

alexmingoia wrote: post #165
gfodor wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a completely different perspective on this advice (the advice given here is the consensus view on how to build wealth) read "Unscripted" or "The Millionaire Fastlane" by MJ Demarco.

Starting a business can be a great way to earn more income, and the income potential is unlimited. My advice applies to whether one chooses to start a business or not.

Your advice is to use your savings to generate capital growth via the stock market via index funds. This isn't necessarily good advice. It may be, and it's common advice, but the books I mentioned explicitly advise against doing that.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#167

Post by text_exch »

https://getatechinternship.com/2020/04/27/how-to-succeed-at-...

Tl;dr -

1. Don’t go straight to Stack Overflow

2. Learn the standard libraries

3. Put away your phone

4. Figure out how to unblock yourself

5. Figure out when to ask for help

6. Keep track of what’s going on in the industry

7. Stop being insecure

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#168

Post by rflrob »

Benjammer wrote: post #149
DonHopkins wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point. Here's an important corollary: Don't shit where you eat. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/don%27t_shit_where_you_eat That is, avoid getting into romantic relationships with people at work. And for God's sake don't think of work as a cruising ground for members of the appropriate sex(es). Sure, there's a chance both of you might simultaneously be two of the lucky ones for whom everything always goes…

> two of the lucky ones I honestly think there's a huge amount of survivor bias in this mindset. I'm in my thirties and I know more married couples who met at work than those who didn't meet at work. And the ones who didn't meet at work met at school. Even had two senior managers at my first job break up their marriages (both with kids) to get together. As far as I know they got married and are still happily together…

The thing is, most romantic relationships fail. If it’s someone you met online or even a friend of a friend, you likely won’t see them that often after you break up, which is decidedly not the case for a colleague. So while it might work out with a colleague, and the odds aren’t even that bad, more caution is warranted.

Of course, it’s probably not terrible advice to tell everyone in a breakup to treat their soon-to-be ex as if they will one day be your manager. It’s just not likely that everyone will be able to follow through.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#169

Post by peelle »

There's a whole bunch of technical skills that Universities didn't teach when I was there. I would recommend reading The Pragmatic Programmers by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt to help with that.

Equally important are your soft skills. I would recommend reading The Hard Truth About Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They'd Learned Sooner by Peggy Klaus.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job

#170

Post by axegon_ »

_l8xu wrote: post #91
axegon_ wrote: post #10

A few things off the top of my head, no particular order: * Read the documentation. I can't stress enough on that. * Don't over-engineer stuff. Keep it plain and simple. Remember - most of your co-workers will have a lot of experience and you won't be able to impress them with something revolutionary. Chances are, they've seen it and had it for breakfast a million times. * Don't be afraid to ask, even if it seems lik…

> * Read the documentation. I cannot stress this enough. Always something to read. But also important to compare the different functions to get the best result for something. > * Don't overdevelop things. Keep it simple. Remember - most of your employees will have a lot of experience and you won't be able to impress them with anything revolutionary. Chances are that they saw it and ate it millions of times for breakf…

> Tips on not be annoying but still have a good amount of messages and discussion with them?

This point refers to being observant. I.E. open up a ticket about a feature that's already been implemented, and go through the implementation, how did the developer go about implementing everything. Preferably a more recent one, as old ones might be something that was rushed through at an earlier stage of the development or simply legacy code.

> Whats your opinions on prototypes? In terms of how functional they should be. Personally I build prototypes just to work and show the general concept, but could not be used by clients for "production".

Double edged sword. Prototypes are a great thing when you are 100% sure you have plenty of time ahead of you. Otherwise they just become a "working" solution that sneaks into the codebase and goes to production with a "TODO: refactor" somewhere. Sooner, rather than later that bites back.

> So better collect for a bulk of questions and try to solve them in the meantime.

Bingo. And by grouping them together, some questions will answer some of the others. My advice - open up a text editor and write them down.

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