I will be beginning my career as a Software Engineer next month (Feb 2016), and I am scared out of my mind. As a recent recipient of a BBA in Information Systems, I am trying to convince myself that I’m qualified to do this job - even though I have limited experience programming. So, to comfort myself I’ve been researching other people’s experiences, advice for junior programmers, and resources for teaching myself to be a better software engineer.
This is the most comforting thing I’ve heard so far: “They know you’re going to be bad. They are expecting you to fail, at first. They don’t expect you to be the best right away, so you can’t expect yourself to go in there knowing exactly what to expect and how to do it. When they interviewed you they saw a drive to learn, a will to excel, an open mind, and the capability of being a team player. Those qualities are what makes you the kind of person who can be successful in almost any field, in any organization.”
How to Survive Your First Year as A Programmer - This article is so good,and mentions something along the lines of the advice mentioned above. It also says that there is A LOT of learning to do, and gives a great overview of what your first year as a programmer will be like. Here is my favorite tid-bit from the article:
Maintain a list of technologies that you think you should learn or would make you more useful to your employer.
Rank them by how bad you are at them and how important you think they are to your skill-set.
Pick the skill that ranks highest for both and work through two or three technical books on the topic. If you're tight on cash, Zed Shaw maintains a list of free books on most technical topics you could want to learn.
Repeat steps 1-3 for the next highest item on your list until you're happy with your skill-set.
The best advice, I think, is to always be willing to learn.
