I am now within a couple days of having survived as a Junior Developer at Metal Toad for 10 whole months. To celebrate, I considered starting my first blog post with a well worn cliché about the passing of time and the having of fun. Fortunately I hold my literary career to a much higher standard. However in all honesty, if I had stooped to such a pathetic low, it would have been a completely accurate description of my time here. It has been an incredibly fun experience working at Metal Toad and I can't believe I've been here for so long. Better yet, I've stuffed my brain so full of new information that a less talented writer might exclaim that my head is about to burst!
That said, it's hard writing blog posts as a Junior. While I've learned a lot in these 10 months, I can't confidently say that I can explain any one of these chunks of knowledge better than they have already been explained elsewhere on the internet. So for now, I won't try. Instead I'd like this post to be interpreted as an inspiring message to all those who were in the same position I was in 10 months ago. It should definitely not be interpreted as a thinly veiled attempt to pass off a bulleted list as a blog post. This is a list of all the things I had no experience with before I started working at Metal Toad. Many of these items I now interact with on a daily basis and I have a hard time remembering how I once lived without them. Others are still mostly shrouded in mystery but I've made small discoveries about their inner workings. They are in no particular order. I must warn you that after reading all of these things that I didn't know, you might ask me how I was hired in the first place. To which I would reply: “Ssshh...”
I'm sure I've forgotten something. The point is, you can learn a lot in 10 months. Especially when you're surrounded by extremely smart colleagues who actually want to share their wisdom. I know that it is rare to find a company that is as supportive of their Junior Developers as Metal Toad, but for the sake of humanity I have to believe that there are others out there. If I could impart some advice to fellow Juniors it would be this: First of all, never pretend to know something that you don't know. Secondly, if you really want to be a part of some company, it can't hurt to get in touch with them (regardless of whether or not they have a job posting) and show them what you can do and what kind of person you are. At worst it could lead no where, but at best you could spend the next 10 months filling your brain with a bulleted list of awesome knowledge. … Also don't wait so long to write your first blog post. There's no time like the present.