Intimidation

Well, my first day as a Software Developer is in the books. It was an interesting one, for sure. The first few hours were pretty basic, with the focus being on human resource stuff, like where the fire extinguishers are, reading over my contract, and getting all of the paperwork signed. Then, I met with the CTO and the other guy I'll primarily be working with and we discussed the projects we'll be working on in the coming weeks and months. I was sent back to my cubicle and I started getting my developer environment set up. I installed vsCode and Node, as well as some plugins for vsCode. They use Windows to do all of their developing, which is the one operating system I've never developed in. I grew up using Windows and have used it up until around 9 months ago, when I started this whole thing, but developing in it is a completely different story. Instead of using Brew to install packages like you would on an Apple, or apt-get on Linux, you have to install something called chocolatey, which essentially does the same thing. Actually, before I installed Node, I had to get some kind of admin access on my computer, since I wasn't allowed to install anything on there. As a developer, you have to install all kinds of packages, and it wouldn't be any good if I had to call over the admin person every time I needed to install something.

It turns out they use a workflow system called Orange Scrum, which is essentially a project management system. Employees get assigned different tasks with due dates and you have to work through those projects. The system has a Kanban board and other features, but I haven't actually been assigned any tasks yet, so I haven't been able to mess around with it yet. They also use a video chat app and a messaging app within the company in case you need to get in touch with someone, and I got all set up with those programs, as well. I got my email all set up, and I was ready to rock. After that, I started looking over my projects. There were two in particular I'm supposed to start with, and the first is a form validation. This form validation is already written, but has all kinds of issues. I was supposed to meet with the lady in charge of this project, but she missed half the day and was playing catch-up the rest of the day, so I never really got briefed on it. I did, however, clone the project from the git repository and start looking through the codebase. The form validation is written almost entirely in jQuery, which is definitely not my strong suit. Without much guidance, I was left to kind of feel my way in the dark to try and figure out what exactly was going on with this project. Hopefully, I can get some better information on this project tomorrow, otherwise, I'm going to have a hard time even knowing where to begin.

I was left feeling a bit intimidated by the whole situation today. I didn't exactly feel fully qualified for the projects I was given, and I'm going to have to do some serious cramming to get to where I need to be. Also, there are a couple of folks on the team who don't seem as willing to lend a helping hand, and in fact exude an attitude that they are superior to others. Not to mention, the codebase itself is humongous. Within their overall account on Github, they have about 15 or so repositories that are each in themselves massive. I will be working on several projects at a time and going in all different kinds of directions. But, on the bright side, they are using way more React than I think even the CTO realized they were. When they interviewed me initially, they made it sound like the majority of the framework projects would be using Vue, but in fact they are completely getting away from Vue and the guy I'll be working with is a huge proponent of React. He has some great projects in React already up and running and is working on one that is in React Native. So, if I stick with this guy, I'm bound to learn quite a bit and really polish my React skills in the long run. In a year's time or so, I will have some serious experience under my belt in some technologies that are really useful going forward.

Until tomorrow!