Hello newcomers! If your cherished dream has come true or you have reached your goal and finally received an offer from one of the best Angular development companies, and tomorrow is your first working day, then this article is for you. Here I gathered tips on how to behave in the new team and work during the probationary period. Let’s start!
The twenty-first century is called the information age: it began to play a key role in the economy, and the need for technology development led to an increase in the demand for IT specialists. The stories of the emergence from the garage of such companies as SpaceX, Google, Uber, Airbnb, Microsoft, Amazon, now do not surprise even the elderly. The most interesting thing is that over the past twenty years, Silicon Valley has remained the most desirable place for developers from all over the world.
Remember how long ago you were in a store that didn’t have a contactless payment terminal? How much has internet traffic consumption increased in recent years? If five years ago everyone got by with 5GB tariffs, now it’s hard to imagine life with restrictions. It will be the same with new technologies now. The popularity of programmers has not yet reached its peak, which means there is still time to ride the wave. But even if you successfully pass the interview and get into a cool team, routine difficulties can arise, such as conflicts with colleagues, lack of motivation or lack of skills. To make the first time go as smoothly as possible, I wrote some tips on how to behave in a new team.
But first, let’s deal with expectations. Yes, most likely, every working day will be the same routine as that of other office workers: traffic jams, late arrivals, fast food. You just need to be ready for this and not overestimate the expectations from the words about free cookies and Xbox. You shouldn’t go into IT if the main motivation for you is a high level of salaries. It may be enough for beginners to simply receive an average salary, but to move to the next level, you will have to seriously work on yourself. Tip: if you want to grow quickly, go to a startup.
It is IT employees who change their place of work more often than others. So do not enter into serious conflicts with the team leaders: most likely, they will simply find a replacement for you, they will find out about the antics in other companies and will not be accepted when trying to get a job. Open spaces, rooms with video games, a creative atmosphere, table tennis and buffets – everything that really is in the offices of large companies. But, most likely, you will start with an ordinary room for several people, with a computer on an outdated version of Windows and without specific instructions from the manager.
More employees need it, as a result, more companies provide the opportunity to work from home. But it should be understood that teamwork is an extremely important aspect, especially at the beginning of a career.
The facts above were not written in order to discourage the desire to work as a programmer: you just should not overestimate expectations, be overly active, then it will be easier to cope with the transitional stage and join the team. And now let’s move on to useful tips.
1. Don’t be defiant
First, create a friendly attitude in the team. Yes, it sounds incredibly commonplace, but a huge number of people neglect it, just go with the flow. Admit that you will soon be spending a lot of time with these people, but for now, you just need to be an unobtrusive colleague. Chances are, you have a lot of common topics of conversation, and informal meetings (to which you will be invited if you do not act like a snob) will help open up. Feel free to suggest having lunch together if you feel it’s appropriate.
2. Learn about the team atmosphere
Try to be as interested as possible in what happened in the company before you, the stories that everyone knows. Of course, if others are not in the mood to talk about work, then you shouldn’t be persuaded.
3. Understand who the informal leader is
Each team has those who are contacted if it is impossible to tell the manager about the problem. Such (and other useful members) should be identified as early as possible and established contact with them.
4. Run small errands
Simple assignments that are always poured from employee to employee during the day can show that you are ready to go. A different “dirty” job at first can very easily unite you with the team, showing you a responsible and purposeful employee, ready to carry reports and office supplies to the boss and managers.
5. Don’t let yourself run out of steam
The job of a developer is such that you will spend most of your time sitting. This does not contribute to mental activity in any way, so if you feel tired, try to distract yourself for a while with something else.
6. Ask what colleagues think of you
Ask managers, colleagues, what they think of you, as unobtrusively as possible, in the context of performing a task. This will help you understand how close you can go when dealing with work issues.
7. Try to understand why the company hired you
Employees are rarely hired just like that. Perhaps you were hired for the future, or so that competitors would not be hunted. To be more effective, you need to understand how your activity helps you make money, and what critical moments you are responsible for.
8. Don’t give out strategic advice
Work on your projects without wasting energy on other people’s problems. Even if it seems to you that the neighboring department can be made more efficiently, you can communicate your thoughts later. Otherwise, it will seem that you are meddling in other people’s business in order not to do your job.
What exactly is working on projects? Of course, from the first days, you have to show all your skills and abilities in working as an Angular Developer. You are a universal soldier. You will layout the layout, build the web application, and master the server part, if necessary. You need to know a lot: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JS libraries and frameworks, CSS preprocessors and frameworks, version control systems and task runners, backend technologies, unit testing, and much more. In addition, soft skills will be useful: interaction with people and teamwork, the ability to establish an effective workflow and solve tasks in the most optimal way.
You cannot do without confident knowledge of the English language. What programmers generally do at the very beginning of a new project: setting up an IDE, installing utilities, cloning a repository. Then they put together the project. If everything starts the first time, you are very lucky 🙂 (or third-party libraries were not used). Then familiarity with the code. Then experiments. Change something in the program and see if the result matches your prediction. Go through the main functions with the debugger. Understand how they work. Open the database, get acquainted with its structure. Discover what tables are there, what data are stored in them. Make a test copy. Make changes. Look at the result.
Conclusion
Remember that the first time is always a little awkward. You need to accept that you are unlikely to interest someone just so that you can be discussed behind your back,
that you will be evaluated by those from whom you do not expect it. So the main advice is to be prepared for everything, but not expect anything. Good luck on your first day!