
Ask HN: Need advice for someone who just got first job as a software engineer? - 0x54MUR41
Context:<p>I just graduated from Computer Science. Luckily, I got my dream job as a software engineer at my first interview. I don&#x27;t know why. I felt that my knowledge isn&#x27;t enough when I was being asked technical questions (paper based test and architecture design for a case study). But, I am eager to learn something new because I believe that software industry is different from what I got from the university.
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informatimago
Well, you basically got it.

Your knowledge and know-how is not enough. You've been selected frmo tests,
because you've demonstrated eagerness to learn, and probably some sound basic
capabilities.

Build on them, by keeping learning.

Yes, software industry is quite different from what you learned from the
university. Normally, what the university taught you should help you learn and
adapt to each circumstances you will encounter in the industry.

You will have to learn specific tools and environment used in your current
job. And basically it's an impossible task: there area more than 3,000 classes
and 350,000 methods in Android, and you've got similar numbers in every other
framework (iOS, MacOSX, MS-Windows, etc). What's more, every year there's a
new version of those framework, with new features, deprecated features,
sometimes whole new languages (eg. on iOS you switch from Objective-C to
Swift), etc. So you need to learn two things: the fundamentals of a give
framework, the general flow, on one hand, and how and where to find more
information when you need it. This means the internet and google, (you've got
it easy compared to your predecessors!).

Then you need to keep learning also more general and abstract topic, and for
this you have MOOCs (cf. [http://coursera.org](http://coursera.org)
[http://udacity.com](http://udacity.com)
[https://ocw.mit.edu](https://ocw.mit.edu) and others). I would advise you to
subscribe and study at the very least one course all the time (3 courses a
year). Don't overdo it, it takes more time to study them and learn than to
just pass the quizzes, so aim for at most one course at a time).

And plan to do that your whole profesionnal life! You're in to be studing for
50 years!

You also need to set time apart for real life, find a wife, build a family.
The earlier the better!

Good luck!

~~~
0x54MUR41
Thank you so much for writing this valuable long advice. I'll remember what
you advised. Anyway, I have questions:

1\. Any example about general and abstract topic? Is it like Economy,
Psychology?

2\. "... plan to do that your whole profesionnal life! You're in to be studing
for 50 years!". What does it mean?

------
JSeymourATL
> I am eager to learn something new...

Learning is a life-long process. As it relates to the industry, consider these
questions.

1) What are the most important problems in your field? 2) Are you working on
ONE of them? 3) Why not? On this subject, Richard Hamming offers excellent
advice >
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw)

~~~
0x54MUR41
> Learning is a life-long process.

You're right. Anyway, thank you for giving suggestions. I'll watch it.

~~~
JSeymourATL
Here's an idea if you want it-- Security is a Big Problem that will not go
away. The demand drivers are human fear & greed.

