Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job
A few things off the top of my head, no particular order:<p>* Read the documentation. I can&#x27;t stress enough on that.<p>* Don&#x27;t over-engineer stuff. Keep it plain and simple. Remember - most of your co-workers will have a lot of experience and you won&#x27;t be able to impress them with something revolutionary. Chances are, they&#x27;ve seen it and had it for breakfast a million times.<p>* Don&#x27;t be afraid to ask, even if it seems like a stupid question. Especially if you get wrapped up in a big and complex project. Most people are aware that during the first 5-6 months, new developers are often a net loss to the company, regardless of their skills and knowledge - there is always and adaptation period. Use that to your advantage.<p>* Be __brutally__ strict about the working processes and don&#x27;t try to re-invent the wheel. Application structure, naming conventions, pull requests, code review - stick to it no matter what(unless there is a very specific situation and you are instructed to do otherwise). I.e. if everyone on the team makes short commit messages, that explain the change and link it to the relevant jira, github, gitlab(or whatever tracking system they use) ticket, do the same. No need to write a 50 line commit message describing the change in all files. And vice-versa - if they do write 50 line commit messages, explaining every line of code they&#x27;ve changed, do the same.<p>* Pay close attention to the most experienced people and try to understand their thought process and mentally train yourself to be able to think like them. Their thought process might not be the most efficient in general and it might be something completely different in your next job some day, but if it&#x27;s proven to work for that team&#x2F;company, stick to it.<p>* When you are given a task, check or ask if something similar exists. If it does, go over it, see if there is something you can re-use or at least understand it&#x27;s mechanics and keep it close to that.<p>* You won&#x27;t be in a position to say no, but everyone is in a position to require further details if needed. Which is not to say you should freely jump over to a senior developer every 3 minutes. Rather spend several hours trying to clearly understand what needs to be achieved, organize your questions in relevant clusters. That may help you answer many of them yourself. Whatever is remaining, ask someone if they have 10 minutes, go have a coffee with them if needed. If your questions&#x2F;concerns are valid and relevant and what you are expected to do makes no sense, they can step up for you or tell you who you should talk to.<p>Good luck!