Full-stack Junior Engineer: 6months down the line

It’s 2022 and I am excited! I have every reason to be because this is going to be a good year!

Happy 2022 everybody! Welcome to my first article of the year. Of course, so many days later, but who is counting? 😀. The 14th marks six months since I became a Junior full-stack developer at Wefarm. It honestly feels like it was just yesterday and my experience has been nothing short of amazing.

I borrowed a page from my COO’s book on how my experience has been so far. The good, the bad and the ugly, so let’s goooo…

The good

1. An amazing team! The patience they have with me and how welcoming they have been. It has been wonderful to be working with a team that collaborates more than compete. I joined with no prior experience with Kafka or using Clojure for back-end development, but now I can confidently say I am good at both. I have learnt a lot from them.

Lessons I have picked from working with them:

• Acknowledge when you don’t know something and be willing to learn it with everyone else. (Knowledge sharing is key)
• Make sure it makes sense to you before you implement it.
• Ask and keep asking.
• Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know and don’t be afraid to share it!
• Appreciating someone goes a long way. My tech lead is fantastic at this (that man is a saint, basically)
• Understand what the company is trying to achieve and what role you play in achieving the company’s goals.

2. Discipline and responsibility. You handle your own time and productivity. Honestly, this has made me more productive than ever before. I feel I have a responsibility to give my best because they have entrusted me with their work. This, of course, requires you to be disciplined.

3. Frequent changes in technology. Being a start-up means a lot of change happens in a short period. They try to see what works for the business and I quite like it since it keeps me on my toes. In 6months, I familiarised myself with Vue and tailwind. Now I am in a new space learning next.js and styled-components. I get to experience all these new technologies while building something exciting. Who wouldn’t want to be me right now?😉

4. Transparency. I like how transparent our senior leadership team is with how the business is doing and the value they find in their employees. I know business means we are not family, but making the people who work for you feel valued is a motivating factor to keep going.

The Bad & Ugly

Okay, this is not my favourite part, but nothing is perfect.

1. We are a remote-first company. That means we don’t get to meet often. We do have constant zoom calls and chats, but it doesn’t feel the same to me. I have met some of my colleagues in person but have yet to meet the team I work with daily. That sucks. I want to make it my goal to meet them soon(hoping COVID won’t do that thing it has been doing for the past 2years).
2. Have you ever worked with a team outside your country? Let me tell you accents and different pronunciations can be a challenge at first. I did struggle, but after a while, I got a hang of it. Here is where I tell you to ask, even when it sounds like a foolish thing. You will learn a lot about different cultures and understand the world is a big place (advent calendars are a thing, by the way😂). I look forward to team catch-ups because I learn something new and not tech-related, and it’s just really fun.

There could be other challenges in a start-up like job uncertainty but funny enough, that doesn’t bother me at all. That goes for the perks as well. I love the space I am currently in my career so, let’s see where the road will lead us.

For the moment, the ride is exceptional! 😊