I’m curious what HN thinks about having a successful career in IT. What advice would you impart to a young person considering a career in the field? How did you succeed or differentiate yourself? What are some common behaviors or attitudes that prevent someone from doing well?
Be a good problem solver. One way or another everything comes down to that. That includes always thinking a solution might exist even when all seems lost.
- Be good at understanding issues from a systemic point of view, and be good at finding information needed to resolve the issue. Not everything is an engineering problem, it could be a business process issue, or a user story misunderstanding.
- If someone asks how long it would take you to do something, don't tell them the exact time, tripple the time just incase that way you will always overdeliver instead of under deliver.
- Perfect is the enemy of good. Anything worth doing is worth doing mediocrely or as a minimum viable solution. This is because perfection does not exist and you will get stuck in engineering non shippable hell.
- Watch out for bad temporary solutions, as they will become permanent solutions that turn in to technical debt that can be hard to fix. I know this contradicts perfect is the enemy of good and mediocre is the aim, but that doesn't mean you should do a sub par solution.
- Make sure you don't drink the cool aid of "culture" and "we're a family" because you are not. As soon as a company isn't good for you, start looking for an exit.
- If you need to do an exit, do it quickly if you notice red flags early. No need to stay more than a few months. If no early warnings, then stay a minimum of 2 years this is because your company matches your pension scheme (you set aside x% of your salary for the company pension scheme, they match that 1:1). BUT In most jurisdictions if you do not stay for a full 2 years the company matched contributions revert back to the company.
- Don't say yes to everything, you will burn out. Learn to politely say no to extra work.
- People you work with can be friendly, but they are not your friends. They all have different incentives and goals, they set them selfs first and so should you. People can be very different in a work setting compared to out of office settings.
- Never lie to customers, stakeholders, or your manager. That said, you don't need to tell them everything either that they do not need to know. If you are instructed to lie to stakeholders or customers, this is a huge red flag.
- Especially about your personal situation.
If they ask you to work weekends and you don't want to, just say "I have a prior engagement" if they want to know what that is, just say "It is a personal prior engagemnt" that is all they need to know.
- Read the company handbook and understand that you might have company benefits that you are not told about. Mostly becasue people are not good at keeping tack of it, if you find a benefit that people dont know aobut and you spread the info, people will appreciate it.
- HR is not your friend. If you are ever going to an HR meeting, make sure to record it if you are legally safe to do so, or ask to bring a person of your choosing as support (Basically a witness incase it is needed).
Im sure you will have a great fun career, but this is what I wish I had known when I started.
