4 Lessons I Wish I Knew Sooner (as a new-grad in tech)

Okay, I have a confession: I didn't really like writing about the news. It didn't come naturally to me and doesn't feel sustainable, so this is going to be much more of blog than a newsletter moving forward(I think) (does anyone else find it extremely difficult to be multi-dimensional on the internet??)

Anyways, last September, I started my first post-grab job as a Software Engineer @ DoorDash. Earlier this month, I delivered my first 2 projects. I struggled to find the kind of effortless mentorship I had experienced in the past during my first 90-days as a new grad SWE, so I want to share some key lessons I wish I had known sooner so that others can have an easier time learning the ropes:

1/ Focus on your neighborhood.

The first time I visited NYC, I asked my friend how he could possibly understand the entire city. His response:

“I can’t. The city is bigger than me. The best I can do is master my neighborhood and explore the others when I have a good reason to”

I think this applies to learning any new domain.

After a few weeks of trying to learn everything at once, I realized it would be next to impossible to learn the intricate (but important) details of any one tool, skill, or domain if I kept trying to learn them all at the same time. As tempting as it was to take a full Udemy Course or read a full textbook about every tool and language I came across, it became clear that this habit throttled my growth more than it helped. Focusing on the one or two technologies that were most relevant to my project and learning the rest only as much as needed turned out to be the fastest path to value. 

Maybe this will work in other areas of my life too.

2/ Be curious about the people around you.

When you’re focused on delivering your first project, it’s easy to take for granted that the people on your team have spent years mastering the skills and tools that you’re struggling to learn in a matter of weeks. As much as I was learning about my own project, I didn’t really start growing into my role until I prioritized learning about others’ roles too. Asking my team what they were working on, how their work fit into the broader ecosystem, and how they developed competence in the first place led me to a lot of valuable conversations.

Eventually, I started going to conferences, taking advantage of formal mentorship programs, and being a more consistent presence in the office (WFH is overhyped imo). Apparently, I had something to learn from just about everyone around me.

Some key questions I like to ask people I work with:

• What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and how did you overcome them?

• What are some of the challenges (technical or otherwise) that you’re facing now

• What’s something you wish you knew during your first 90 days doing this?

These questions gave me insight into how others navigate new roles while also helping me contextualize each person’s role on the team. This allowed me to better support and leverage their areas of expertise as I inevitably came across problems across the entire tech stack.

People love feeling like experts. 

3/ Understand that nobody really knows anything

Sooner or later, Imposter Syndrome comes for everyone who tries surrounding themself with people smarter than them. It can be intimidating to see how quickly others can spot and resolve problems before you can understand even half of the acronyms in the step-by-step solution they handed you. 

Are these people all geniuses with a natural gift for navigating deep code-bases?

More than likely, your teammates have seen these problems (or some relevant variation) over and over again during their career and have developed an intuition for navigating all sorts of problems. 

Even then, they probably also keep their Stack Overflow tab (the Quora of the coding world, for you non-techies) open at all times.

4/ There really is no secret sauce.

A lot of my development over the past few months has really just come down to putting in the hours and being patient with my progress. 

Developing your comfort navigating a new tech stack, team processes, business outcomes, and life as an adult (maybe in a new city) turns out to be a matter of time at least as much as a matter of talent.

Showing up every day and putting in the hours really is the best and only way to develop your skills and confidence as a new engineer, student, business-owner, creator, doctor, athlete, whatever.

Just put in the time, be patient, and the score will handle itself.

Thanks for reading! 

If you enjoyed this post feel free to share it with any new SWEs, new grads, or whoever else you think should hear this sooner rather than later.

Also, if you're seeing this in your email, you should know that you can also see this online as a blog . I'll be putting up some articles there to avoid spamming your inboxes.