The last few weeks have been quite a roller coaster, to say the least. The last time I posted I was excited to be finishing my internship and preparing to start my first developer job. What I couldn't have known was that within that same time period the world would begin to shut down as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
There is nothing quite like starting a new job when the whole world is spinning into an inevitable recession, you know 'last one in, first one out' and all. However, on my 4th day the CEO called an All Hands meeting and during that meeting it was announced that they were in a good position and would not be cutting any jobs at this time. This came as a great relief both because this is truly an ideal job for me (not to mention my first development job, which is NOT easy to get) but also because my husband works in the restaurant industry which has been severely impacted with all that is happening.
One of the key advantages of my job in general, but definitely during the current events, is that it is remote and the majority of the company works in a distributed manner. This meant that even as other companies were trying to figure out how to make the adjustment to remote work, there were no changes to my onboarding.
As to be expected the first day was filled with information sessions, account set up, and introductory meetings. On day two I was able to move on to setting up the code base on my system, and they had set me up to begin pair programming with another developer on the team which also began on day two. I knew that they had been utilizing pair programming from conversations during the interview process, but I was surprised that I would be participating right away. However, this proved to be really helpful.
The first thing we did was finish setting up my code base as I had run into a few snags. Once this was done we began to tackle a small issue together. In the past I have tackled new code bases on my own, and while I can usually get a good feel for where to find things within the first week or so the process of going through it with someone who is already familiar with the code really sped that up. As a result I felt pretty comfortable within the code after 2-3 days as a result of pair coding once a day for the first few days.
Now that my first week is over I'm honestly so grateful to have this opportunity. The company culture is a great fit for me, the team has been super welcoming and friendly, I feel really comfortable asking questions (which as a newbie is so nice), and the project I will be working on is one that will really improve the customer experience and that feels really good to be a part of.
So, while the world is swirling in chaos I'm going to try to soak in the positive energy being on this team and working on this project will bring me to get through it.
Wishing you all good health ~
