What I learnt in my First Month of Paid work

My first month here has been awesome. I wouldn't have said this back at HKUST, but I can say that I have learnt a lot more about software engineering here than I did in school.

1. Failure is awesome.

I am glad to be in a team that does not worry about failure. We take project delays in stride, with a few laughs and chew it down with a meeting or two. We take things as they are - there's no shame in being inexperienced, or to make a mistake. The only sin here is dishonesty with a bad attitude.

2. OT is a good thing.

I don't know about other lines of work, but here, overtime is happy time.

People here don't OT alone. The grey images of workers in cubicles slaving away at spreadsheets and documents may be true in some IBM office next door, but when we OT, it's always the whole team. And that makes it a positive experience.

I OT-ed quite a lot during the first month here, but when you...

3. See the Big Picture

you start to realize you're not always going to OT like that. Someday in the distant future, I'll have other priorities and developing software might never be the same again. So I'm just going to do whatever I can here and then move on when it's time.

When the coding gets tough, I zoom out to get some perspective. I go off to the meetings. Help the project managers. Estimate development time for future projects...

4. Estimations are almost always wrong...

because we think it's hard and proceed to take the easy way out. We should really break down the tasks into familiar, hands-on steps, but instead most people like to say "a month" or "two months".

After a few of those answers, common sense took over for me and I decided to do the estimations for them... the effort which I too underestimated...

5. Nothing is ever easy.

If you want to make something awesome, it's always going to take more effort and ingenuity than expected.

The myth of easy success may exist in other areas, but software engineering is not one of them. One can make it a lot easier and smoother but hard focused work is always a requirement.

6. Effort is easy to forget

Something that took months to do can be forgotten within just a few years.

Take my FYP for example. I spent 8 months on it, particularly the last 4 months. I only just submitted it in May, but by now (August) the endless testing and re-evaluation now seems trivial in comparison to corporate projects.

7. Never underestimate your own influence.

In my experience, people behave differently when they are with different people. You may soften your voice and cheer up a little when talking to girls you find attractive. That's influence on not just the behavioral level but right down to biology.

 Based on past experience, recent observations and all those other states that persist in a mind, the tone of a conversation is often set before it even begins. I made a point of asking lots and lots of questions right at the start, and that seems to have put me in a kind of curious-fresh-graduate category. And that really gives you the opportunity to not only adapt to the environment, but through skillful questions, change the workplace culture. It's something the colleagues secretly desire.

Speaking of desire, everyone in the team will have hopes, wants and expectations. They might not even know it until you fulfill their unconscious dreams - Supply CAN create its own demand, which is all the better, since it costs you the least to be yourself.



Next week, I experience the office phenomenon known as The New Guy.