My first week as a software engineer has been an utter whirlwind. I’ll chronicle (ba-dum tss!) some of the emotions I underwent below, and then list my learnings.

Lonely 😞

Last Saturday, my flight touched down in Oakland International Airport. It wasn’t until then that the whole “new job, new city” thing truly hit me.

My start date was a mere two days later in San Francisco, a city in which I know only a handful of acquaintances. I was lucky that my family flew out with me to the Bay Area; without them present, my sense of aloneness and insignificance would have felt more oppressive. RIP.

Self-Righteous 🙄

When I took the BART on Monday morning, I experienced the nagging sensation of being an outsider looking in. From the BART to the bridges, everything about the Bay Area seemed… wrong. I kept comparing things to Chicago, lamenting ad nauseam that the L is cheaper than the BART and that Chicago’s summer weather was better than Berkeley’s. I doubted that San Francisco could ever feel like home.

Nervous 😖

Needless to say, I had reduced myself to a pipsqueak-ish person by the time I walked in the door at work. I work at Medium, a company with less than 100 employees, so my Chicagoan grievances turned into nervousness about fitting in with such a small group and adding value to the product.

Welcomed 😍

Looking back, my apprehension was understandable but overblown. My team welcomed me with open arms. There was a box of my favorite snacks (!!!) and swag awaiting me on my desk. Even when my mentor went on a brief vacation, every other engineer on my team offered to pair with me and answer my questions until I got ramped up.

Team aside, I’ve been able to eat lunch and talk with not only my new grad cohort, but also ~10-15 more experienced Medium employees. My engineering manager took me to the lovely Asha Tea House for our first one-on-one, which got me hooked on boba and established a comfortable manager-engineer relationship. Double win.

Lucky 😇

If everyone at Medium has one thing in common, it’s friendliness. This has been said time and time again, but it’s worth repeating: work culture matters. As a newcomer to this city, this company, and this line of work, feeling happy and safe at work is a blessing and a privilege.

Confused 🤔

Of course, not everything about my first full-time engineering job is peachy. I’m currently working on Medium iOS, and, because my iOS development experience has only been with personal projects, Medium’s vast codebase intimidates the hell out of me. Fortunately, my fellow iOS engineers have been more than willing to bring me back to the light when I get lost in its depths.

Proud 😎

Despite my newness to the iOS codebase, I added a small feature that will soon be in production and now I’m working on a second! First PRs have been a big milestone for me ever since I started contributing to open source, so I celebrated the moment my first contribution was approved.

Educational 🤓

Aha. You made it to the last of my emotions! Now, I’ll share with you some of my takeaways from my first week that I think any engineer – perhaps any human? – can learn from.

Ask questions. Admitting confusion can be a hard step, especially for new engineers who feel self-conscious about not living up to the high expectations that got them hired. Because I’m cognizant of this feeling, I challenge myself to ask questions, because, without them, my growth would be greatly impeded.

Give small companies a chance. Medium is the first small tech company I’ve ever worked at, and so far, I really like how flexible the teams are and that I’ve already met most of the employees. I anticipate having a highly personalized engineering experience that stretches me where I want to grow, which often doesn’t happen at larger companies.

Check in and check out. At the end of each day, I write down what I accomplished and what I’d like to accomplish the next day. This has helped me track my progress and remember where I left off, which has improved my productivity. Plus, taking a break from my laptop to write in a journal feels really nice.

Say yes! Nope, not to the dress, but to going with your co-workers to do things! This week, I’ve said yes to getting lunch with someone I didn’t know, hunting down food trucks, and picking out team snacks at Trader Joe’s. Taking up these invitations has been quite conducive to having conversations about the non-work part of my co-workers’ lives, which makes me feel even more comfortable at Medium.

Settled 😌

I lied, there’s a bonus emotion.

I’ve had a exciting (albeit turbulent!) first week that turned into a weekend full of meeting up with friends old and new. I’m starting to feel more settled as new engineer and new San Franciscan.

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