An email from a friend before I jump start my career

Here it is. Don't try to read in my voice.

You'd feel this is so not coming from me :D
But, well, I did write it in pieces, from experiences.

Work:

*   Document what you are going to code. Write tests using that doc and then write code that adheres to those tests.
*   Maintain a Sheet where you log what you did that day. Just a single line would do. Add a column that chooses either of these smileys in the end. :) or :| or :( It is known as Niko Niko calendar, in case you're curious.

*   There will be monthly/quarterly reviews or 1-to-1s with your manager/team lead. They will appreciate you and tell you where you should improve. But you'll know for yourself if you look at your Sheet for past few weeks.
*   This will also help you prepare for 6 months or annual appraisal. Just in case someone asks what have you done or what are you proud of or what new have you learnt.

*   Don't overwork. For instance, don't work like 200% of the existing best performing employee. At first, this is very satisfying, but this backfired in my case, because

*   There's this general rule where they always expect you to be more than what you did yesterday. There's limit after which you may not be 200% of what you were yesterday. And there's a very slim chance that they can use this to say that you're not improving the way you used to be.
*   Also, your colleagues, especially the people you're involved with for any project will start bitching about you.

*   Just stay good to yourself, don't try to compete with people and if you can't stop the urge to stop competing, just don't beat them by a huge margin.
*   This doesn't mean that you shouldn't work to your potential, just don't overdo it. You shouldn't feel burnt out at the end of a week or two or a month.

*   Don't be afraid of code. `git grep` is the ultimate weapon. Crawl and crawl and crawl through the entire code like a search engine even if that doesn't fall under the radar of the current bug you're fixing. After 6 months, you'll become an expert at that part of codebase and everyone will come to you to know more about it even if they worked on it for the same duration of time.

*   Always help them out. Remember that line about "likability" from The Social Network? Well, that's a very important aspect of professional work. Your likability matters a lot. This can even decide if you should be promoted to next level or not. Ofcourse there are other factors as well, your humbleness, capabilities, performance, respect, rapport among seniors/managers and colleagues and juniors as well.

*   Communicate well. Developers are generally accused of having bad communication skills. Communicate well to your fellow devs, manager, QA team or anyone for that matter. Communication can be asking questions about specs, suggesting better ways to do something to your colleague, making sure your accomplished work was indeed noticed by the team and manager specifically etc. You get the gist.

Relations:

*   You build relationships by doing favors. Very little ones. Like helping them when they are stuck. Going out with them for a coffee or lunch. Some people think team harmony is built by going out on a trip together once in a quarter. I think it is built by spending very small little moments with the members of the team everyday at random. Like:

*   "Hey, I hear your parents are in town, how are they liking it in here?" "Good, they really love the weather."
*   "Yo! I'm going to get some coffee, you want anything from cafeteria?" "Sure, can you get me water melon juice." And then after some days, you can directly ask "Wanna go for some water melon juice?" Obviously you can have something else, but such little moments go a long way. They bring people close, build trust, increase "likability".

*   "You seem upset" "I can't get this code to work" "Let me check that" Become their rubber-duck. It really helps. One of you will definitely figure what was wrong and that's what builds rapport.

*   Relationships with manager or seniors work a bit differently, usually only casual times would be some team party. You should definitely spend more time with them and get into a comfortable zone. Remember, they know more about the company than you do, get the most out of them. Some people don't approach them just out of fear and then when there's need they still resist because they didn't build that comfort level with them initially. I have seen this happen here. Sometimes, I have to talk to Vivek on someone else's behalf.
*   Try to know as many people as you can, don't limit yourself to your team. This will help you know about ongoing projects and what cooking up in the company in other departments/teams.

Conflicts:

*   Talk. Discuss. Put yourself in their shoes and then reply. That's the only way to resolve any conflict. Conflicts can be between two different implementation ways, or you feel that this feature is not at all needed and we shouldn't be building this (discuss with the product manager), time estimation of a project (first do your homework about time estimation and then discuss with project manager or team lead). That's it. Discuss. That's the only way to resolve conflicts.

*   Never try point out mistakes publicly.
*   Never blame people or say that I told you that's gonna happen.
*   Never bitch about others to someone in the the company (unless you have 100% faith in them, sometimes you'll feel like bursting out, so find someone you can trust)
*   Take a break if you feel frustrated from people or work.
*   Even if you know someone doesn't deserve to be in team, don't disrespect them. Management will notice and let them go, but just treat them equally as long as they are with you in the team.

Personal:

*   Try to maintain a hobby or a side project or something that distracts you from work. It is very important that you leave work at the workplace. If nothing helps, go out to meet friends or binge watch a series or play games. Tons of ways for distraction in the current state of world.
*   Try to create a goal for yourself or what you want to be in next 5 years and then 10 years. It is hard. If you have that figured, you're doing good. And then assess monthly or quarterly if you have moved closer to that goal. For eg: I want to run a company of my own. I'm trying to learn how to do sales, how to build a product that other people want (not what you want).
*   Visit your family once in every 3-4 months.

Finances:

*   Try to save half of what you earn. It's okay if that's not possible, but atleast spend them in the right place using your best judgment.
*   You can show a max of INR 150000/- of savings to the government.

*   Research more about how to do these savings. PF account, Fixed deposits, post office account etc are some ways.

*   Go through all the expenses of the month and see if you regret spending on something. Make sure never to repeat that.

*   I see people spending 20k per month on drinking/partying. Obviously you won't do that, but be advised, peer pressure can make do unimaginable.

Cheers