How To Behave At a Software Company? 842
dawilcox writes "I'm a recent grad and am going to begin work at a software company. I want to make a good impression on my boss and coworkers. I know that performance is usually tracked, but there are also innate personality traits of good software developers that bosses just want to have around. What are those personality traits? What should I be trying to do in order to make a good impression on the people at my work?" (Appropriate side question: What behavior traits would you like your co-workers to exhibit?)
Attitude (Score:5, Informative)
Be confident without being overconfident.
Know how to communicate and also when to leave other people alone.
Don't be too pessimistic or too optimistic when setting goals.
Don't be a pushover, but don't be a dick, either.
Be productive, positive, and competent.
Always work to improve yourself.
notepad.exe (Score:2, Informative)
Use notepad or nano and write down everything. This way you won't have to ask more than once for something.
Re:notepad.exe (Score:5, Informative)
Also, read this: http://samizdat.mines.edu/howto/HowToBeAProgrammer.html
Wear pants. Shower. Stop reading slashdot. (Score:4, Informative)
Those three things would put you immediately ahead of me as a coder (and ahead of 99% of the coders in the industry). And, for fucks sake, let go that stupid stapler.
Now, jokes aside, it all depends on what company you are working for. I own a small software (and hardware) company. We develop several solutions, including DVRs/NVRs, digital signage server/client solutions, and other video capturing/processing/streaming/recording/analysis devices. I look for smart, creative people that can truly think out of the box and work in a non-conventional environment. I look for good multitaskers, eager to get things done. I look for good hackers, and good hackers aren't good employees by definition.
There are companies that look for just good employees, other look for the best employees they can get considering they are looking for smart, creative people. There is no recipe for this. Working at Apple-like, Microsoft-like, Google-like, or ID-like companies is radically different.
My advice is: If you are worried about making a good impression, you will end up in management. I am the kind of person that on my first day would be worrying about what new challenges I will face, and what great problems I'll get to solve. If you are truly worried just about making a good impression, and job-security is your main concern, you belong with the soul-less bastards in management, not in IT.
Re:Humility (Score:4, Informative)
It's worse in my case. I am BOTH a software developer AND an Argentinian. If we could gather energy from my ego, we could solve the world energy crisis.
reliability (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Lunch (Score:5, Informative)
And going back on topic, talking about your food like that over lunch is a big NO.
Re:Humility (Score:3, Informative)
I am not in the US, why do you assume that, I said I was an Argentinian ... isn't it logical to assume I live in ... let's say, Argentina?
And, since you were wondering, I have sex every day, thank you very much.
Team Player (Score:3, Informative)
You're going to be part of a team, there's no getting away from that. How well you do depends on how well the team does and how well you fit in it. As someone who's been a dev, a team lead and a tech lead over the last 15 years (including hiring and working with many greenhorns) here's what I look for/appreciate:
1) Be confident. We hired you because we think you're smart and can do the job. Don't be afraid to speak up, and have some faith in your instincts. Show us we were right.
2) But if you need help, ask for it. Have a go at figuring it out for yourself (that's initiative) but if you're up against a brick wall come ask - most devs are never to busy to show how smart they are ;)
3) Don't be cocky. You were probably the smart kid all through school, you went to a good university and got a good degree (otherwise you wouldn't be here). We all did. Plus we have many years of experience. This might seem to conflict with rule 1, but it doesn't really - it's all about balance. What I love is someone who comes up with suggestions, what I hate is someone who won't take criticism of those suggestions or ignores advice.
4) Don't wear yourself out. There's often an instinct in my industry to try to prove yourself by working all night and trying to get more done than anyone else. In my experience it's not worth it, there's a limitless amount of work available so it'll never all be done, and even if you do get thrown a little extra cash at the end of the year it won't be enough. Set yourself some limits to protect your social and personal life, maybe it doesn't matter so much right now, but if you set those limits early in your career you'll thank yourself later - it lets those above you know what they can and cannot expect from you.
5) Be a friend. We spend more time with each other at work than we do with our families. That can really suck if you don't get along. You won't end up best buds with everyone but try to be social, get to know everyone. It makes things go more smoothly, reduces stress and gets you better reviews at the end of the year. And that means promotions :)
6) Be flexible. This is the hardest one for me personally. As somewhat of a perfectionist I hate being taken off a project before I consider it "done" - I hate having requirements change under me so my solution ends up being suboptimal. But you know what? This is the real world. Suck it up and deliver the best thing you can for the people paying your salary.
Re:Good hygiene, don't be a know it all. (Score:5, Informative)
Bullshit.
I have a co-worker who constantly pulls the "dude, RTFM" on everyone like he knows the answer. But when you pin him to the wall, frankly, he constantly doesn't.
He frequently chortles when someone asks a question "dude, didn't you learn this in 4th grade?" but he then gets the same thing wrong the next time he has to do it because he can't ask the same question (having teased someone for asking it before).
Knowing a lot is very different from being a jackass, which is what is implied in the GP's answer.
Asking credible questions incorporating the previous steps you attempted to answer your own question gains you a lot of support and will make you a wiser person in the long run.
Simply being a turd and thinking you already "know it all" just impresses people who don't know any better. Those who do know just roll their eyes and quietly check you off in their head as a know it all turd.
Re:Good hygiene, don't be a know it all. (Score:3, Informative)
Dental hygiene (Score:4, Informative)
I know this was mostly a joke, but here is a serious bit of advice on tooth care.
0) Floss at least once per day. If you need an incentive, here is one: your breath will smell much less bad if you do this. I don't really like to floss, but I absolutely hate my breath after even one day of skipping the flossing. It makes a difference.
1) I highly recommend a good electric toothbrush. I use a Sonicare, but presumably there are other good brands too. I just happened to start using a Sonicare one month before a cleaning/checkup at the dentist's office; the dental hygienist took one look at my teeth and said "I can already tell you are doing something different, and whatever it is, I like it." I have noticed that tooth cleaning takes less time and is less unpleasant now that I have started using the electric toothbrush. There is just less tartar attached to my teeth. Also, my gums are improved; I'm not sure what the "pocket depth" means with gums or why deeper is worse, but mine improved after I started using the electric toothbrush.
2) You might even want to use a flouride mouthwash. I use Act Restoring (stupid name, but the one I use is the one that is alcohol-based; the other Act has no alcohol). I figure killing germs in my mouth is always good, and the flouride can't hurt.
Re:Advice, Dawg (Score:2, Informative)
"If you are a software engineer, and you can't afford going out for lunch, you might consider the chance of having been screwed during the salary negotiation.
Or have a boatload of student loans costing thousands a month. ... at least I tend to think I am not alone in this.
Re:Advice, Dawg (Score:3, Informative)
Or having a boatload of student loans costing thousands of a month, and having 5 kids and an unemployed spouse to feed at home, which is mortgaged under water.
Re:Good hygiene, don't be a know it all. (Score:3, Informative)
And they do this with a tone that suggests it's someone else's fault for not having the customer environment constantly updated to the latest release of everything, rather than their problem for not dealing with the actual situation in front of them. If you don't know why customer environments don't get upgraded as soon as the new release comes out, then ask a colleague over coffee.
Of course, when v3.2 came out in 1997, v4.0 came out in 2001 and the software is currently at v7.4 and the software is backwards compatible and either open source or only costs a few hundred bucks to upgrade "Just get the customer to upgrade" may very well be a valid response. It's a classic IT failure that everyone just starts thinking "we've always done it that way" and any suggestions for change are considered rocking the boat.
There are still companies running ancient off the shelf software on NT4 servers that require daily attention from their IT department because they consider the cost of spending a few hundred or thousand dollar on updated software to be an unnecessary expense, and not just little mom and pop shops either.
Re:Good hygiene, don't be a know it all. (Score:5, Informative)
You might be surprised how hard it is to break such a habit.... Speaking from personal experience it is a lot harder than one may think. ;)
Reminding the guy that he is doing it would be the considerate thing to do. If he doesnt realize he is doing it then he cant at the same time be inconsiderate
Re:Good hygiene, don't be a know it all. (Score:4, Informative)
You might be surprised how hard it is to break such a habit.... Speaking from personal experience it is a lot harder than one may think. Reminding the guy that he is doing it would be the considerate thing to do. If he doesnt realize he is doing it then he cant at the same time be inconsiderate ;)
Assist him in breaking the habit. Get him one of those novelty electronic shocking pens. For some fun at the office, replace it while he's not looking.
Re:Dental hygiene (Score:3, Informative)
But it does not work, especially on bio-slime. Mechanical action works. If you can't floss easily use one of the flossing tools.
If you couple mechanical action and follow up with the irrigator it can be better than either alone but don't give up on the mechanical flossing.