Which advice did/would have helped you landing your first job after university? And whats your best tip for life in general?
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 ego will otherwise get hurt. Tangentially, your ego isn't you. Don't let it getting hurt affect your thinking.
Most people are naturally good; the one's who aren't work hard to position themselves in a position handling communications. So be careful to route communications as directly as allowed, and regularly check what's incoming.
Faith is blind, trust is earned.
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 friends are NOT friends.
6) Learn to say 'No' in a way that doesn't ruffle feathers but does result in the no case.
7) If something seems interesting, go for it - all the best experiences in my working life have resulted from stepping outside my comfort zone.
This will sound snarky given the context, but my best tip is to stop looking for personalized advice for common problems.
You haven’t given enough details to for anyone to seriously tailor their advice to you. So it’s just going to be generic. And if you’re willing to go with generic, you can do better than what fits into a comment on HN.
You could get the same advice much faster by googling the same question and looking at threads. You could find authors that seem respected and find out what they say about the matter.
If you’re going to go for personalized, share as much as you can. Fit as many details as you can while still keeping it organized. If your question is worth asking, ask it all the way.
And, this applies a ton in programming. You’ll be much faster if you learn to do as much as you can pulling from resources, and then pushing a great question when you need to.
- Be willing to move. During the great recession a lot of my buddies wanted to stay near home and it hurt them a lot. I moved across the country and have been the better for it.
- Be thoughtful about your partner/spouse choices. I married admittedly younger than most do now but your long term partners/spouse will have a huge impact on things like work and where you live. Make sure those are aligned well.
- Don't lie on your resume but don't be shy either.
- Work on your network as much as you can. Hiring is still a networking game no matter how much we wish it weren't. People like to hire people they know.
- Stay out of debt! I spent the first couple years paying off bad college credit card mistakes.
- Start an emergency fund. I would say at least $1000 but calibrate for where you live.
- You're probably living as cheap as you will ever live. Stay that way as long as you can. Don't be too eager to get rid of roommates or upgrade lifestyle any faster than absolutely necessary.
- Start a good routine of exercising and eating right. It only gets harder later and time is not forgiving for putting it off.
- Start being thoughtful about what you have on social media. This will depend on where you work, live, and want to do but give your last few years of online life a good pass and consider purging anything that doesn't represent who you are now.
- Takes courses on ethics, philosophy, speech, and other things that help you to think clearly and speak confidently.
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.
Once you’ve saved one year’s living expenses, invest new savings into an index fund. Saving one year’s living expenses should only take 1-2 years if you’re living on 50% or less of income and saving 30%.
If you stick to 50/30/20 and grow your income, by the time your 30 you’ll have at least $250k if you only earn $60k, but probably over $1,000,000 if you increase your earnings over that time.
If you start planning now you can retire by 35-40 just by working a job and being financially disciplined.
I could go into more detail with a financial plan, email me (in my profile) if you want more info.
So basically if you think your boss knows nothing, got there by luck and you are finding everything they do irritates you; it’s you not them.
We could also talk about not getting too involved in general, work is work and you should have important things you’re interested in outside of what you are doing in exchange for money.
It varies a bit by profession, but that sort of structure goes away very suddenly once your career starts. In some ways, that structure is already an illusion because many professions utterly ignore grades after only a few years of experience are added to a resume.
Initially, it is very liberating to not have another quiz, test, dissertation, or other deadline looming. Enjoy that reprieve.
People canny about doing excellent work and advancing their careers will soon notice that they have a relatively open feedback loop. They deliver work, someone accepts the work with little constructive criticism, and then they move on to the next bit of work. But was it 'A' work? We're there mistakes to be corrected? Was the work below average in quality? Was it overproduced?
Will your work get you the raises and promotions you want? The next job you want? Will it advance the goals of your team? Does it even give you decent job security? Typical companies will have annual or semiannual feedback processes, but that is like turning in all the homework, quizzes, tests, papers, etc., then only getting a semester report card for feedback. And only then finding out that your grader ignored homework and valued office hour participation highly this whole time.
What to do? Understand that it's your job to seek high quality feedback from whoever you can find. Peer reviews, mentors, your boss, your boss's boss, people who have the kinds of jobs you want, and so on. You might have to get out and network professionally to grow a set of people to help you in this way.
That means, to be excellent at your job and career, do not exclusively take direction from your immediate supervisor. Certainly be an excellent team member and keep your boss proud of you, but if you are only waiting around for the next assignment from the boss, you'll likely stunt your growth.
There is no set program for you to follow anymore. If you don't want to be wandering around blind, you need to do your own research and get your own feedback.
ADDENDUM: I guess I didn't say this explicitly. For the same reasons, it's also your job to make sure expectations are clear before starting an assignment, project, or other goal. Good bosses are good at this, but everyone has flaws and you want to thrive even under mediocre or poor management.
You'll be tempted your first week to "clean up" the code you find there. Don't.
Real jobs are just college group projects that never end.
Use percentages, such as saving 10% for long term wealth, and 5% for a fun account so you don't sabotage your financial plan.
Learn enough of the tax code in the country you live in so that when you make financial (and employment/business) decisions you are doing so while obtaining the best treatment in taxes, one of our biggest expenses.
Once this is all rote, you can focus on doing what you want, following dreams, exploring new realms, acquiring new valuable skills, etc. knowing that you have your financial base set up to grow solidly.
Regarding CS as a career: take classes in the humanities: art, history, political science, psychology, philosophy, etc. You’ll find you are better able to understand why you are doing what you are doing if your mindset for approaching problem solving is rooted in both technology and humanity.
I was told multiple times over the years that I was hired because of my attitude and work ethic, not my skills, which were comparable to every other candidate. Something to keep in mind.
Politics dictate promotions over merit, so don't burn yourself out trying to get promoted. They'll just expect the extra work as normal. They might not even have a place in the hierarchy to promote anybody. If you want a higher position, they are out there, but you'll have to interview for them. As geeks we don't want to deal with the business side of the equation, but that's what career advancement is.
For tech advice, always study the fundamentals. It will be your job to know and be proficient with the latest JS frameworks and backend stacks, but don't forget the core fundamentals like algorithms and data structures. You should know what a trie structure is. You should know the advantages of merge sort. You should know what Big O is. If you only stick with the js frameworks and such, you can end up as a programmer with 20 years experience and not really know anything. You have 20 years of 1 year experience, each in a different, now obsolete tech stack.
For life advice, your daily routine is everything. Your sleep schedule, diet, commute time, study time, entertainment, etc is key to advancing your life progress. Highly successful people have routines behind them where large swathes of events are managed in a clockwork fashion.
Edit to add: even if for some unaccountable reason you choose not to use Anki or one of its siblings, you must read and comprehend https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/20ru... .
Your job will most likely have nothing to do with what you were taught in school. It might have some superficial resemblance because you might use the same tools or in rare cases even apply something you learned but the the day to day work, the skills you need succeed and what you need to do to do something well are simply stuff you are never taught in school.
Higher education is used almost exclusively as a signal in hiring. Higher education teaches you how to be an academic (and if that's you career choice than forget what I said) it isn't a vocational school and neither the people who ran the institutions nor the people who will hire you expect Academia to actually teach you how to do the job.
This is true for almost all degrees to some extend, not just CS, but it is very evident in CS and many fresh graduates who land their first CS job have a hard time to adjust to the change in expectations.
For CS the shock usually revolves around understanding that most of what you are going to do is combining and interfacing with other people's code (whether colleagues, open source libraries or 3rd party services) and rarely if ever do algorithmic or data structure work.
Every job I've ever gotten was through friends. Including my first job.
I got my first job because one of my college friends got a job and recommended me. I got my second job because one of my college friends recommended me for it, after we worked together at the first job, which I helped him get. I got my fourth job because one of my friends from my second job worked there and vouched for me. (My third job was with a startup where I just approached the founders and told them I want to work there, and they said not right now, but we became friends and eventually they hired me when they had money).
Now most importantly, all of these college friends were made while working in technology positions in college.
My point is, it's never too early to start building your network. Make friends with people in the same career track now, show them how good you are at your job, return the favor when you're in a position to help them, and then reap the benefits throughout your life (not to mention the bonus of lifelong friendships).
You're 19 and in your second semster, concerned about a post-uni job. It's great that you've started thinking about what the future could look like but also pretty pointless. There are too many factors out of your control when you'll be a new grad is 3+ years. Focus on the now. Explore classes that you really enjoy, take your breadth courses outside of CS or what you think employers will want. Do some dumb, fun things with other people, both technical and non-technical. Consider an internship or student position that lasts more than a summer - a 12 or 16 month work term delays graduation a year but look FANTASTIC on your resume when you go for that first post-grad job interview. Develop some interesting personal aspects beyond your technical skills. I love to hear about someone's exchange in Japan, or the non-profit they've worked with out of love vs. resume padding (it's obvious), or a deep passion for vintange computers or Russian lit or anything genuine and unique.
After you graduate you'll probably have 2 or 3 careers and countless jobs. This is amazing! Live in the now of each job, not always looking for your next move. The progression and change will come naturally or suddenly. Mapping out a decades-long career may still happen, but I've rarely seen it outside of a few industries/companies/fields.
You're going to make mistakes, the goal is not to be error-free. Don't make the same mistakes repeatedly and try not to make any fatal mistakes. Younger people are generally pretty good at try & failing and not destroying everything with their screw ups, but it's the good ones who avoid repeating them. New hires don't know much but this also means the good ones are willing to try anything and jump in to new areas. Be Courageous, not Fearless.
There are lots of other tidbits but I'm saving them for my opportunity to deliver a commencement address some day. If I only had one thing to say it would be that there is a lot more uncertainty about the future of a recent comp sci grad these days vs. the past ~25 years or so, when it was unambiguously really good or really bad. Prepare for this by cultivating flexibility and adaptability now.
2.be willing to change jobs if you don't have a clear chance of promotion inside.
3.be a likable person. Have a coffee with your colleagues, make small chat with your boss, ask about their lives, remember their families' names... In office politics it doesn't matter how good you are as much as how much people like you.
4.be your own advertiser. Probably no other person will be. Make sure that when you have a success everybody knows it was yours and what you did.
5.be willing to do more than your job's description, but don't be a pushover. Ask for compensation or recognition every time you do something beyond your duties.
In the corporate world that one skill is what separates the adults from the children in the room.
Work hard. When you are young, this is the best time to go deep, and get good at something, since you are free from other responsibilities. Later, you will have many things you care as much or more about than work, and so the time in your life will have passed to be as deeply engaged with your work. A lot of the work you do will ultimately be lost, be failures, or end up in the trash bin for other reasons -- take comfort knowing that the work was done to mold you into the person you will become, not for the sake of the project itself.
Read Hamming's "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering." Have a plan, even though it will change with time, to move your career towards working on things you think are important. Even if you don't know what those are, make a point to "check in" with yourself every year or so to ask the question: "Am I working on the most important problems in my field? If not, why?" This doesn't mean you will always be working on these problems, and it doesn't mean that it's wrong to not be, it just means that you should always have a plan, a path, and a strategy towards getting there, and catching yourself if you are falling off-track.
Understand regret minimization as a framework for making good decisions.
Most of all, avoid listening too closely to advice :) Realize there are many paths through life, and yours is your own to write. Luck favors the prepared mind: prepare yourself, through work, and through reflection, to be able to recognize the doors that will appear that are uniquely suited for you to walk through. And, when they do, don't hesitate to go through them: the world, your peers, and 'common sense', will often try to pull you away from them.
Good luck!
McIntyre's Law: Anything I tell you could be wrong under the right circumstances.
Advice is more often than not, colored by the personal experiences of the person giving it.
I got no advice, I just tried to find something interesting (that I was not really competent enough to do). But it turned out well.
In the large scale life is ruled by statistics. In the small, personal scale by serendipity and chance. You live on the personal scale.
"And whats your best tip for life in general?"
Try to find a domain in which to work which is intrinsically interesting for you. You. Not the general public. Not interested in Try to be strategic with your career. Try to think time to time where you want to be in five years. You need a plan with alternative scenarios. They all probably go wrong - and that's fine. They are just a framework for your own reflection. But you need them. Read biographies of people who've worked in your or similar domain. Find out what the other guy is thinking. Not interested in management? Read a few books on management anyway. And don't use your knowledge in discussions. Because it will sound (no matter how you put it) like you read a few books on topic X and now think you are an expert. There is a good book on every subject. The most critical decision for your happiness will be who you will marry.
As for life in general: learn about personal finance. Once you’ve got a decent salary, you’ll need to know how to invest for retirement, save up for a house, pay down debt, etc.
1)
Depending on where you live, there will be hundreds/thousands of new CS graduates every year, but a smaller number of available jobs for juniors.
So, you need to differentiate yourself from the rest.
Starting from there, there are two paths you can follow to increase your chances of finding a good job (not mutually exclusive):
- Do what everyone does, but better.
- Do different things then everyone
2)
First principles thinking.
It has been an invaluable thinking method for me to improve myself, in all areas of life.
Some random links:
https://jamesclear.com/first-principles
https://www.theengineeringmanager.com/growth/first-principle...
Some examples on how you can apply it to software development:
- You will be using various languages/frameworks/libraries when creating software, with various level of abstractions. At the beginning, you won't have the necessary experience to understand how everything works underneath. Whenever you find time, try to dig through the abstractions to discover why they were built the way they built, how they work together. This understanding will make you a better engineer.
- When working with non-technical clients/project shareholders, what they say they want and what they really want will usually be different. Often, you will have to dig through their requests to find out how you should continue.
I always tell people two things when they start:
1) Impress everybody you meet. First impressions are very sticky. Impress people first, they will hold you to a higher standard, and then you aim to continue to impress. I’ve seen very few cases that people have shed their initial impressions.
2) Over-communicate. Make sure you ask questions, write thorough emails that explain rationale. It’s really important that you aggressively set and meet expectations. A major problem people have is expectation mismatch. Make sure both you and others are in sync and this usually happens via over-communication.
Take a few advanced, specialized CS classes by your 3rd year. These often have large end-of-semester projects that can be fairly open ended.
These final projects are a great way differentiate yourself from the thousands of other CS grads looking for jobs.
Sure, you could get an 'A' in class by doing the bare minimum for a project. Alternatively, you could go beyond course requirements and have something to show off for potential employers, even if just another resume item to use as a conversation-starter. If you're doing the project anyway, going an extra 10% over the top is relatively easy, especially compared to trying to land a meaningful contribution to an open-source project or building a separate portfolio project from scratch.
I recently met someone who started out as a dev in a bank, then took interest in the numbers part, and now he's a director in a mega-big bank in Internal Audit. Cool person.
In similar paths, I too studied CS, hated programming, started as help-desk, then moved to sys-admin, then to IT Audit and then IT Sec, GRC and now I am mixing and matching the above (Sec-Audit-GRC). I enjoy what I do and I never imagined that I would move from IT Ops if one would have asked me 20 years ago.
Ask people what parts of their career they enjoyed and why.. again this is about their life, but you can understand the CRITERIA more than the actual subject. Listen to their WHY and it may help you construct the rule-set that may lead you to your why/what/where/when.
1. I was learning much quicker and way more valuable content than my peers during university. I think it was mainly because I was getting curated content/tips from my mentor which saved me from learning things that I will probably never gonna need. 2. I got job offers even while not looking for jobs. Interesting enough, my mentor casually mentioned me within his network and those people ended up contacting me.
The best part of it is that you can get it 100% for free if you search carefully. The tech field is full of good people that are willing to give their time(usually very expensive) away to help newcomers. Specially those like me that got help from the start, paying it forward feels like a obligation.
But you might ask: “how can I connect with those experienced people?”. There are many ways to do it, but some very effective are:
- go to meetups and talk to people. Don't just sit there and watch the talks. Be part of it.
- use Twitter. You will be impressed by the amount ok knowledge that is being shared there.
- reach out To your local companies. Send them emails, knock at their doors. There is nothing cooler than seeing folks interested on your product/company.
Those are the kind of people who become indispensable for a company and it'll help you when you become an entrepreneur.
Silly example I agree (they won't ask you to clean the bathrooms... probably), but demonstrating a strong work ethic will get you noticed and earn you a good reputation that will pay back many times in the future.
I've had interns who get surly and moany when they don't get asked to work on machine learning to cure cancer and turn lead into gold, but got asked to fix some unit tests or something else unglamorous. They become a real pain to work with because you know they'll complain about whatever you give them so you end up just giving them scraps or at worst basically giving them nothong and letting them spend their time on tiktok or whatever because it's less hassle than trying to satisfy their ego. Don't be that person who makes a fuss for being asked to do real-world work and you'll go a long way.
Good luck
In practice: being research assistant is a good start. Do it as long as you can afford - I mean no family, no obligations whatsoever. (3-8 years)
Find a small company - this will teach you applying theory in practice. (3-8 years)
After that you will have the potential to start up your business. (3-8 years)
If you really enjoy, continue what you are doing. If not -but only if you have tried all above-, look for employment in a big company. No matter if it is tech, automotive, beverages or anything else. It will provide stable living for the remaining time.
If you've done everything fine up to this point you can't be sorry missing anything in your profession.
During the whole time listen to the sounds! :) Contemplate, analyze what fits you most? Which topics you are interested most? What you enjoy most? What are you the best in?
Share your thoughts with the younger.
The reason here is that all this low level stuff is the literal foundation of whatever abstraction (python, JVM, C#) your company uses. And while it is not directly applicable it will help you a great deal when things do not work. Be not the guy that says "I did everything like it is written in the manual and it it does not work". Be the guy that says, "looks like libfoo.so on my system here is ABI incompatible to the libbbar.so I downloaded. I think we need to recompile libbar.so to make it work, where is the source?"
When you get the answers make sure you learn from them.
Other than that - enjoy it! I much prefer my working life to my college life.
If you're more risk-prone, find a problem and start a company. Too many good developers are wasted at FANG companies instead of solving the world's biggest problems. When you graduate, you'll likely be around 22-23, if you spend 4 years working hard on something you truly care about you'll only be in your mid-twenties and haven't really lost all that much time.
Obviously, handle any financial obligations (Student Loans mainly) before jumping into the startup deep-end.
1) Properly understanding what motivates yourself. What were the key parts of past jobs and activities that made you forget the time of day, do it for free, enjoyable.
2) Seek jobs with lots of the parts identified in 1) that you are confident you can be _bloody_ good at and people will pay you enough for.
3) When you apply for those jobs; apply for the job - tell the recruiter that you have read their advert, what it is that motivates you and that you are worth them spending time on.
For life in general; keep learning.
You'll be fine, but good luck anyway
Also, no matter how hard things get, keep a positive attitude, or at least don’t become negative. People wanna work with people they’d like to spend time around.
http://www.paulgraham.com/boss.html
do what you can to not work for anyone but yourself. even if it means reducing the scope of what you can work on and earning less.
and the hardest thing of all: find people you like, respect and trust - and stick with them. loyalty and fidelity above all else.
yes this sounds weird, but to me sleepwalking through life, being constantly distracted and dealing with office politics is by far more weird. to each his own i guess.
* 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 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.
* Be __brutally__ strict about the working processes and don'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've changed, do the same.
* 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's proven to work for that team/company, stick to it.
* 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's mechanics and keep it close to that.
* You won'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/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.
Good luck!
CS pros have to be intelligent to get in the game. Once they are in, the primary success factors are a. Do you participate effectively in a team and b. do you work hard and pull your weight. Most universities today have coursework that includes extended, team projects. Do well in those programs, encourage your teammates to be competitive and committed and actually make something you can show off when you start interviewing. Be ready to go into detail, not just on the technical, but the team dynamics: What role you played, and here's a nugget: What were the different strengths of the team members and how did you deliberately take advantage of those strengths. A new grad who displays that type of insight will set themselves apart.
Many jobs are landed through networking. Establish relationships with upperclassmen and keep in touch after they graduate. When you're ready to start looking, some of them may be working at companies you target. When you do your summer internships, connect with everybody you can. You can reach out to them, and in many cases, they will have moved and seeded other companies that you could interview with.
Finally, just some out of the box thoughts for getting that first job: Cast a wide net. Submit a lot of resumes. Take a lot of interviews. Before each, research the company. Not just their technical products, but again, what market do they serve and do you believe you'd be challenged by that industry for the long term. Be good about following up. Don't be a pest, but don't let more than a week go by without checking in with your contacts on how it's going. Many companies are really bad at keeping candidates apprised of their status in the hiring, or where they are in the process. You don't want to just be left hanging when they've made a decision weeks ago.
Good Luck!
2. Work like there is no tomorrow and save like you will live forever. Max the fudge out 401k.
3. Learn about office politics and stay the fudge out of it. Co-workers are human and they will make human mistakes and might hurt you intentionally or otherwise. Grow a thick skin don’t take everything others say or do so personally.
I think your internships and being a research assistant should be your biggest assets. Try to remember some of your accomplishments and how you handled tough situations. Managers/recruiters love to ask you about past experiences. Try to get letters of recommendation from your bosses and from a professor too.
I have a CS degree. While young and unattached you can spent time on learning a lot and becoming a better sw developer. Do this now before wifey (assuming male gender) and children will take a considerable amount of your time.
This probably applies to any profession.
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.
Senior engineers and managers usually have lives outside of work. Don’t bother them off hours if it’s not an emergency.
The late night hacker archetype is usually immature and not a team player.
Careless mistakes are worse than calculated mistakes.
By all means, focus on your early growth. But try not to be blinded by loyalty.
I'm talking about goals and it doesn't matter if that is being an entrepreneur or the best ballerina in the world.
When you know what you want, as early as possible, you can work on a path to that goal. And if you have a path, you know what to do and how to do it.
In my opinion this will increase your happiness in life tremendously as you don't walk through life "unconsciously".
This question "What do you want" isn't so straight forward and easy to answer. It requires a lot of thought, but is very rewarding.
Don't show off.
Yes, the system is a mess and everyone knows that.
But we can't fix it.
I simply call mine "life.md" .
This will be invaluable because you won't have to ask twice about a piece of information that you've learned because you'll already have it written down.
- work on projects you actually care about. I can’t stress this enough. If you take a project or a role for the money, make sure 1) you’re honest with yourself about your reasoning, don’t lie to yourself to sugarcoat it 2) you have a plan for leaving (e.g. taking a role with a high signing bonus so you can pay the down payment on a house or buy land, and leaving after the 12 month probation period so you don’t have to pay it back), 3) consistently checking in with yourself about how things are going. Which leads me to...
- go to therapy regularly, even if you don’t think you need to. and journal regularly. like...on paper, in the morning, with a cup of tea, about your feelings. don’t let things fester, don’t live with regrets or sacrifices.
- have creative hobbies. don’t let your guitar gather dust, don’t let your paint dry up
- enjoy having a lucrative job, but don’t let it turn you into a yuppie. I’m a terrible person to take financial advice from, but I could never do the “high paying job, save 95%” thing - it’s soulless and you want to have fun whilst you’re young or you’ll just be old, financially independent, and bitter about all the things you missed out on. Have fun, eat at fancy restaurants, travel as much as you can. But don’t waste your wealth on expensive yuppie materialist goods either - especially if you end up in London, NYC or SF it seems hard to not blow your money on all of the trendy expensive things that everyone else in tech buys. Spend money on experiences.
- live in community as much as you can. live with lots and lots of roommates because you’re excited about living a life together, and then invest your time in them. Cook with them, hang out with them, do wacky art projects with them, put on events, raise kids with them, build something greater than yourself. Isolation is a disease. The Bay Area has an excellent co-op community - imo no one in the Bay should be paying $3500 to live by themselves in a nice-but-boring studio apartment. It’s SO nice to come home to a house full of people who care about how your day was.
- party more - your 20s will go extremely quickly and I promise you won’t look back wishing you spent more time in an office. seriously. go to that party.
A motto I picked up from a dear coworker at the one Big Corporate Job I had: “tell good stories”. Live a life where you amass interesting anecdotes to tell at dinner parties, or to your grandkids, or to your roommates when you’re stuck in isolation because of a pandemic. “And then I spent 5 years in an office” isn’t an interesting story.
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