
Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips? - melvinroest
Hi HN!<p>I have a question.<p>One of Julia Evan&#x27;s posts give amazing tips like maintaining a brag document. It&#x27;s a log of every workday with a short description of what you have done that day [1]. When your performance review comes around, you can remember exactly what you did! There was a more debated, but in my mind interesting, post about a career cold start algorithm [2].<p>I am wondering, are there other tips that I should think about when one just joined a startup and had their first day?<p>I created a reflection document. I state what I did, what I thought went well and what could go better as I think it&#x27;s more effective than a brag document as it helps with more processes (your own reflection, retrospectives and performance review). I also read the whole discussion on the career cold start and made my own variant of it. I call it: meet everyone one on one and get to know them.<p>One nuance: the place where I started, Triply [3], is seemingly not a pure startup. IMO, it is transforming to a scale-up, as they are looking for developers.<p>It made me realize that the tips might differ on the startup, scale-up and corporate level. So I wonder if people think whether there are certain tips that pertain only to a certain company size. Or how do things differ from US vs EU vs Asia vs &lt;categories I forget&gt;?<p>Second nuance: I know it&#x27;s tough for some during the corona lockdown. It&#x27;s one of the reasons why I mention that they are hiring. I hope it helps someone&#x2F;somewhat.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20665225" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20665225</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16550270" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=16550270</a><p>[3] triply.cc, based in Amsterdam. The name pertains to linked data (triple stores). But I like to think it pertains to &quot;three times is a charm!&quot; :D
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petargyurov
Congrats on starting!

One bit of advice I would personally give is to remember that work is just
work.

You will have responsibilities, deadlines, arguments, critisms and one day you
might find yourself anxious and stressed out. When that happens, it's nice to
remind yourself that the critical bug or whatever you're working on is
meanigless in the grand scheme of things. No matter how passionate you are
about your company, your personal life and principles should always come
first.

It sounds obvious but humans tend to forget that kind of stuff.

~~~
melvinroest
This is an amazing back to basic tip that I actually fully implement. My
variation is: work is just work, and when working make the most of it during
the time that you work.

Without that addition, one could interpret the "work is just work" too
negatively.

The discussion that this advice has created is something that I'll reread a
few times as I have experienced similar experiences while I was studying at
university.

~~~
petargyurov
I only just noticed your reply, sorry for the late answer. I agree with your
variation. Work can certainly be enjoyable!

> I'll reread a few times

Me too! I'm glad to hear my comment sparked something helpful :)

------
hirundo
Set aside some time at the beginning of each day to buff your tools and
skills. Over time these sessions compound like interest and make you wealthier
in human capital and a more valuable employee.

I do it for one pomodoro, 25 minutes. For me an example might be installing
and learning a new vim addon or scripting a common task or focusing on a tough
corner of a programming language. Something useful to the job but not directly
making progress on an assignment. This is an easier habit to acquire if you do
it from the start, before your routine consolidates.

~~~
MrCapybara
This is a great idea!

Sometimes I take time from some task to do things like this, but as this time
off isn't a regular ocurrence, once it does happen, it ends up taking a lot of
time, making me feel like I'm delaying an assignment. Small but regular steps
like this could help with this feeling.

------
masukomi
Don't be afraid to admit ignorance.

"I don't know what that means." and "Can you explain that to me?" are two of
the most wonderful phrases. I use them regularly and have been programming for
over 30yrs. Every time I do, I learn something new.

My coworkers know that I'll speak up if I don't understand something, and when
you're finally experienced, it helps the new kids to not feel like such
imposters to see that an experienced coworker doesn't know all the things.

~~~
tfandango
Upvote! New people or people interviewing are always afraid to ask questions.
I find they think people expect them to always know the answer. I'd much
rather hire someone who will find the right people and ask questions when they
don't know how to do something. Communication skills.

~~~
melvinroest
I always say what I don't know during interviews. Based on my experience here
is what I've learned:

\- Most companies will believe you're inexperienced

\- It act as a filter to those type of companies

So one should inhibit themselves if they want more volume / don't care if they
end up at a place where this is an issue during the interview process.

I have to say, Triply's interview process was quite unique in this: saying
what you don't know was kind of the nature of the game. They were simply
interested in how you thought based on what you do know and how quick you get
to understand certain topics. I'll admit, I'm probably biased, honeymoon
period, etc. but I've had a lot of interviews and I found only a few sane
things in the whole process. The only other sane thing that I remember is that
Brilliant.org had a sane online coding challenge, just enough related to data
structures and algorithms to test your mettle, but also practical enough that
you could see yourself using that during actual web development.

------
erkanerol
Here are my tips: [https://erkanerol.github.io/post/adapting-a-
project/](https://erkanerol.github.io/post/adapting-a-project/)

Quote from the blog post: "Last but not least. Feel responsible from day one.
You are a part of the team and you are responsible for every failure and every
success. More or less. If there is a pain in somewhere in your team, feel it
in your heart. In companies, there are always some “local people” and
“tourists”. Tourists are only interested in “fancy” things. They follow their
interests. They hate problematic situations. They don’t take some much
responsibility in case of failure. They always blame decision makers since
they never try to be one of them. When they get bored, they just fly to yet
another city. In reality, there are lots of limitations and we are not living
in a perfect world. Unfortunately they are not aware of this fact. Maybe they
are just prefering ignoring it. I don’t know. What I want to say be one of the
“local people”. Local people know not only good places of the city but also
the suburb. Local people think about how to manage the city, how to “survive”
in the city, how to make the city more beautiful. They can live with the bad
sides of the city. At least for a while :)"

~~~
tomtomtom1
how can you reconcile that with the fact that job-hopping in 2-5 years is
proven to be a more effective way to raise your salary?

Being seen as "local" may have its benefits but I doubt that being one is more
beneficial.

~~~
erkanerol
That is why I said "At least for a while" at the end. You can take initiative
and feel responsible in that 2-5 years.

~~~
deepaksurti
"your job is not your job; your job is to find a better job."

Adams, Scott. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the
Story of My Life (p. 31).

------
watertom
I've managed a number of interns and new hires over the years. Here is what I
tell my newbies.

Keep a small notebook, or use a to-do app and track everything that gets
assigned to you. If something is assigned to you make sure that you get a
clear deliverable time or date and time. If you have any questions about
what's been assigned to you ask the person who assigned the task, even it your
question doesn't pop up until later.

If you take notes in meeting etc. use a separate notebook or app for the
notes. You want to be sure that you don't clutter up your to do list with
notes.

First thing in the morning: \- Review your to-do list. \- Check your calendar
for the day \- Check your inbox

Before you leave at the end of the day: \- Create a bullet list of everything
you did for the day. \- Check your calendar for the next day \- Check your
inbox one last time. \- Check to make sure that you don't have any unfinished
emails.

Learn how to use all the office tools, even if you think they are stupid,
lame, outdated. It's what you'll be using, complaining won't change the fact
that you'll need to conform. First impressions.

There will be a lot of things that won't make sense, roll with it. Intra and
inter system dependencies drive most things that don't make sense when you
walk into a new place. Telling people how to do it better won't win you any
points.

Take a few months of your first job and be humble. Listen more than you talk.
I like to tell new hires to be like a human Golden Retriever. Positive
attitude, want to help always, look like you are smiling all the time. Don't
bark unless it's absolutely necessary. Look good at all times.

I'm not suggesting that you completely alter your personality, just ease into
things. You'll be working for the next 40-50 years of your life so you have
plenty of time to be yourself.

------
blahbhthrow3748
Ask questions and be willing to discuss your thought process with people.
Don't be afraid to try and improve things even if they've been like that a
long time. Try and find something to work on you're genuinely interested in.

My first job out of school (8 years ago) was a pretty effective springboard.
Unfortunately the secret to success was basically to be excessively keen and
interested in doing anything and everything. At the time it was fun - I worked
too much and I made myself look foolish at times, but I was junior enough that
it didn't matter.

Now that I've been around for a couple years and I'm a little more jaded I
don't think I could do it again. But if you're very keen I think just being
enthusiastic and learning things will get you far.

------
mister_hn
Close social media tabs and silence your smartphone notifications.

You will be blessing the concentration you'll gain

------
jonnypotty
Try and be principled in your interactions with people and with the work you
produce. Don't get too confused with the myriad of tactics and behaviors
people pretend are required for success in the work place. Work is people, be
the best person you can be. Good luck :)

------
mathattack
1) Find a way to make the folks around, above and below you look good.

2) Invest in both technical and productivity learning.

3) Until you’ve built a reputation, show up a little early and stay a little
late. First impressions disproportionately matter, and this is all they can
judge you on.

4) Know how your internal and external customers use your product to hit their
goals.

5) Be as nice to the security guards and admins as you are to the CEO.

6) Write lots of Thank You notes. Email people’s bosses when you send.

------
mintym
Write everything down. Keep detailed todo lists, break todos into smaller
units when necessary. At the end of the day try to give yourself an easy task
for the morning, so you can accomplish something right away before you're
fully in the zone. Listen to the salespeople, they might be promising some
feature that's not on your radar yet. Don't eat the donuts.

------
explorigin
There have been some comments about staying off HN (or any news site). But
some tech news can further your knowledge and skills...so instead of foregoing
news altogether, just don't make it the first thing you do in the morning.
Instead, get some nugget of productivity done first.

Productivity, for me, has a strong "momentum" component to it. Once you get
going, it's easy to keep going as long as you can keep distractions down. But
if you start on a news site, that sets your momentum for the morning in the
wrong place.

Another thing along these lines are to leave a task unfinished in the evening
so that you have a place to jump right back to in the morning (balance this
with the ability to not think about work after work).

~~~
melvinroest
Thanks for the momentum tips. I actually visit HN after I'm done with work
(it's 17:30 here in Amsterdam).

The unfinished work thingy is a handy one, I'm testing it now. Thanks!

------
jaaames
Whatever role you're in, don't underestimate the value of relationships,
communication, and soft skills in being able to influence the impact and value
of the work you can deliver.

If you can persuade a product manager to drop a bad feature you might be able
to ship a more valuable feature at a higher quality.

If you can persuade a procurement office to change a supplier you might be
able to ship a better design faster.

If you can get involved in the hiring process you might be able to pick the
team you work with.

Always make friends with the admin person, accounting that pays you, and stay
on the right side of HR.

~~~
RhysU
+1 on knowing the administrative assistants. They run everything.

------
melvinroest
Thanks for the amazing response so far. I just closed off the second day and
just read all your responses.

Day 3 will see a lot of incoming change :D

It's a lot of info, but here is what I digested and what I'll experiment with:

\- 25 min. of skill building time

\- Work is work, I have a life outside of that. In fact, one of my own tips is
to be playful at certain times to lighten the mood. Living a life outside of
work really helps with that to stay playful and keep team spirits up.

\- "Take care of your health. Eat well and exercise. Sleep is important."

\- Admitting ignorance

\- Feel responsible for the company (I read the discussion, I figured I might
try the other side if feeling responsible has mixed results)

\- Keep separate apps and notebooks

\----- Working at Triply in Amsterdam:

If you're interested in working with Triply -- and me ;-) -- and can work in
Amsterdam, medior/senior software engineers are still looked for [1].

We're focusing on improving the developer experience for using linked data and
creating linked data (sets). As I understood it, the whole topic is too
academic, Triply is changing that by making it more UX friendly for developers
and data analysts.

[1] [https://triply.cc/career](https://triply.cc/career) (I'm not sure if they
do remote)

------
blaser-waffle
\- Personal Analog Assistant: literally just a small notepad where I jot notes
and To-Dos. A cell phone or desktop app could work just as well, but I like
the paper approach.

\- "Spellbook": any command that's not something bog-standard and simple gets
added to a Notepad++ file; e.g. a bunch of Cisco commands go in the Network
Spellbook, SQL queries go in the DB Spellbook, Linux one-liners in the Bash
Spellbook, etc.

~~~
melvinroest
Your tip reminds me of an amazing app for the Mac: Boost Note [1]. It allows
you to have all the spellbooks in one place.

[1] [https://boostnote.io](https://boostnote.io)

------
gabrielsroka
Take care of your health. Eat well and exercise. Sleep is important.

Learn about personal finance and the power of compound interest. Create a
budget and start saving for retirement. Contribute to a 401k/IRA/etc. Your
goal should be to save 12-15%. If you can't save that much today, start lower,
but increase it every 6-12 months and every time you get a pay raise. Save 6
months of expenses for a rainy day fund -- this is especially important in
2020. Pay yourself first. Save for a vacation every year and take it. Travel
the world and get a different perspective.

Every year you don't save for retirement means you'll need to work another
year, or save even more when you're older (think 20-30% of your salary).

I'm making up for lost time now. I used to buy new cars and toys. I bought my
current car 27 years ago; it still runs great.

I wish someone had told me this 30 years ago. I hope I would have listened.

~~~
Catsandkites
What would some recommended reading about saving for retirement? For example,
I have a healthy amount of savings but none is invested and it sits in an
account doing nothing (@ 0.1%).

I read the obvious subreddits, have a basic working knowledge of financial
concepts, understand that I should just invest in the broad market / ETFs and
not touch it for decades.

But when I go to invest, I feel I have no idea what I'm actually doing. When I
look for brokers I'm bombarded with advertising and marketing and get
frustrated with what I feel is a lot of dishonesty. Decades of stories about
pension funds screwing people over mean I have no trust in the "systems" at
all, which is probably wrong. Why would I pick one broker over another? Or a
pension fund over another? Should I just go with a big name like Vanguard as I
could always move it later?

For example, I've never had anyone answer this question: If a pick company Z,
invest through them and one day they go bust or disappear, what actually
happened to what I invested? I understand risk and that some financial
instruments are like bets and so on but seemingly can't wrap my head around
this concept. If I buy specific stock Y, through broker Z and broker Z
disappears, what happens to my stock Y? Like where is that actual record kept
that I have X quantity of stock Y?

It's really dumb questions like these that stop me doing anything and lead me
to fill an account, technically losing money from inflation.

~~~
melvinroest
I know this one!

Disclaimer: not a financial advisor, I do trade stocks as a hobby and am
interested in personal finance.

Invest in an index fund. I am a fan of Vanguard based on that one good friend
of mine is a fan of it (and he studied finance) and that one acquaintance who
has this as a very big hobby is a fan of it. (early bitcoin investor, read way
more personal finance books than me, etc.).

I only know specific vendors in The Netherlands. If I were you, make an ask HN
about it. I'm sure that enough people on HN can give you some directions as
even high frequency trading people frequent this site. My point is that people
who work in the field of finance are probably happy to help and guide you with
this question, but it's better to create an Ask HN than to dump all your
lifesavings into Vanguard just because I say so :P

Disclaimer: I only have a portion of my lifesavings in Vanguard. I actually
trade stocks more often, but that is a hobby, not a saving mechanism.

------
dsm4ck
Make sure your desk is set up correctly ergonomically speaking. Start early
and your back and neck will thank you later. Don't hesitate to request a
different keyboard and mouse if what you are provided isn't comfortable.

~~~
rebelrexx858
And if they won't provide, look to bring your own. This is a big part of your
day, being comfortable is huge.

~~~
melvinroest
I remember a friend who did that, he bought his own monitor and brought it to
work.

------
ipiz0618
Try to understand what your colleagues have done. This will help you get to
really know the team culture.

If you're a programmer, read through some parts of the codebase, if possible,
to get a sense of how your colleagues are doing their work.

~~~
melvinroest
As in just open random files and read? Or open up a UI and see what it does
under a debugger? Or open up the test files first to see how things are
supposed to be called/used?

I wonder what your structure is.

~~~
ipiz0618
If the code base is huge, maybe just read some of the code your team has been
writing (if you have a fixed team). Seeing how things are supposed to be
called / used is also very important if you're collaborating with others on a
project. Probably you'll find some internal libraries written by others
useful.

Maybe start with reading the parts related to what you expect to be doing?

This of course comes after getting their consent.

------
egberts1
Forget the ergonomics, tackle the requirements by diving into it. A good
developer knows how to help the system engineer meet their goal once the
requirements are understood.

------
docdeek
Congrats.

I'd advise you to avoid setting too many goals each day, especially when you
are getting up to speed at a new workplace. I like to make a morning checklist
of just three things that - if I was to achieve them - I'd finish the day
thinking "That was a good day".

Not my original idea but seems to work, and three is a far more manageable
number than five. ;)

------
pensv0
Shameless plug: I wrote an article exactly for people like you
[https://medium.com/@lolski/career-tips-for-young-software-
en...](https://medium.com/@lolski/career-tips-for-young-software-
engineers-21f7422ac95e)

Congrats on starting your first job!

------
Cactus2018
Read _The Beginner 's Creed_, by Peter J. Denning

[https://web.suffieldacademy.org/cs/intro/beginners.shtml](https://web.suffieldacademy.org/cs/intro/beginners.shtml)

~~~
melvinroest
That's a beautiful poem!

------
arkanciscan
Stay the hell off HN!

------
livealife
Stay away from HN!!!

------
vcoelho
They hire remote?

~~~
melvinroest
I actually don't know, they have a careers page, so you could ask them.

------
laran
Congratulations on your first day!

Here are a few thoughts that you might find helpful.

Be teachable. Prioritize learning what you didn't know you didn't know.

Don't try to be an expert. I call this the "amateur expert" phenomenon. It's
OK to want to be an expert and to strive for that every day. But it takes
time. And the only way to get there is to listen and learn.

Be approachable. Don't be too busy for people. Yes, everyone appreciates a
good work ethic. But it's more important for people to want to work with you.
If you don't make time for other people they won't make time for you.

Don't make it a goal to impress anyone. Your work will speak for itself. Focus
on making steady progress every day and you will naturally stand out.

Triple your estimates. No matter what you're asked to do, until you've done it
several times it will take you a long longer than you expect. If you have the
option to influence how much time you're given to do the work, under commit
and over deliver. This is way more important than some people think.

Be nice to others, but not too nice. If you're super nice to people, they'll
expect that from you every day. And when you have the inevitable "off day",
people will get way more upset with you just because it's such a big contrast.
So be nice, clearly. But again, let it flow naturally. Don't try too hard.

Learn how to make mistakes well by placing small bets and learning from your
mistakes. You're going to screw up. Sometimes you'll screw up and people will
tell you. But if you keep screwing up two things will happen. First, people
will stop giving you opportunities and you'll eventually wither and probably
either leave on your own or be asked to leave by your boss. Second, people
will stop telling you when you screw up. They will lose faith in you. And this
is a terrible place to be. Avoid this at all costs by simply learning from
your mistakes.

Batch up your questions. As you learn all the ins and outs of a new
environment you'll have many, many questions. And no matter how much you learn
over time, every time you move to a new environment you'll go through this
process again. You'll see things in the code that don't make obvious sense.
You'll have ideas about how to improve things. Some things will start to make
sense as you just spend more time with them. Other things you will need help
with. What you want to do is try to be as efficient with other people's time
as you can. If you ask questions constantly it will begin to annoy your co-
workers, even if they say it's ok. So write down your questions as they come
up. Make an honest effort to figure things out on your own. Then schedule time
once a week or so with more senior people. They'll appreciate you making it so
easy for them to help you and some of them may even become your champions.

Invest in relationships. As you take on more and more responsibility your
ability to influence other people will become more and more important. It
won't be enough to simply solve problems. People won't follow you just because
you have answers or experience. But when people feel connected to you and know
that you care about them as people, they will want you to succeed and go a
long way to help.

Continue to learn on your own time. You will have some opportunities to learn
on the job. But you will also make a lot of mistakes as you learn. Think of
the time you invest outside of the office as study time and what you do in the
office as the test. Contributing to an open source project is a great way to
try things out and get feedback from people with more experience.

I wish you the best out there. Take care and enjoy the ride :)

------
executive
Close HN and get to work

