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How To Behave At a Software Company?
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?)
Good hygiene and refraining from acting like a know-it-all are my two best pieces of advice. Nerd types are often (myself included) poor at those two things.
disclaimer: the following is common sense
I'm an electronics tech and not a programmer, but generally people adapt to the subtleties of their employers' corporate culture. First, read Dilbert and The Art of War if you haven't already.
Second, most importantly, do not participate in gossip and compartmentalize your work and play behavior. If somebody says, "man, person x is a dumbass," just respond with a disinterested neurtral "hmm." and keep an element of mystery to yourself. It will have a snowball effect -- people will see that you aren't a loudmouth, and so they share increasingly damning information about your coworkers and the company in general. They will respect you because you know how to keep your mouth shut, and you will know more than anybody else because you are the only neutral person on the floor. Bosses will also see that you are at work to work, not jabber, and they like that. Eat lunch by yourself so that you won't be obligated to reveal personal information.
To quote the Grand Nagus from DS9, "You don't grab power, you accumulate it." Inevitably, you'll run across a player-hater. Wait for them to make a mistake and then show the boss what you did to fix their mistake. An example(I've described before) from my last job was a fellow turd of a technician who tried to boss the rest of us around while talking on the phone and doing little work himself. After he sent 2 units out the door with the same serial number, I wrote a program to throw a warning if duplicate serial numbers were entered(easy reading keystrokes using the Java robot and since all serial numbers followed a certain format). I don't like passive-aggressiveness in my personal life, but that tact is a necessity at work.
One more thing - it's helpful to mention during the interview that you're there to work, not talk. It looks good and your boss won't think you're a dick. Being unsociable may cause others to think you're a dick, so offset that by helping anybody who asks -- just watch out for the malingerers - they'll feign ignorance and ask your for help as a way to weasel you into doing their work for them.
It's easy, and requires no reconfiguration of your brain. Bonus: your current configuration drew you into studying this in school. Chances are, the same configuration is desired by software development managers.
Sincerely,
A Software Development Manager
Admit when you don't know how to do something. Admit when you don't understand something that someone has explained to you. Most of all, admit when you have made a mistake (such as a bug in production being your fault).
I don't know what it is about software developers, but collectively we'd have to be amongst the arrogant people in the world. For some bizarre reason, we pretend that we know everything and blame someone else for our own mistakes. The best developers can recognise their own short-comings.
A lot of nerds value things like talent, transparency, and being tacit when there are no errors. And also are averse to things like small talk, self-promotion, and various shades of lying. These are all great qualities. But they are only valuable to nerds.
If you really want to get in good with someone, and you'll have to, since a work environment is a multi-faceted beast, you'll need to play their game. Am I saying you need to sacrifice the values that make you who you are? Absolutely not. Will you require some tweaking? Probably.
For instance, small talk. If you don't ping people every so often, even if you don't need them for anything work related, you will lose out on social capital. It's good to keep everyone in your sphere, so to speak, so that it's easier to ask them for things as you need. Having a purely work-related relationship with someone is so dry and inorganic. I'm not saying you have to be BFFs. But you can cultivate a personable in-work casual relationship with someone to smooth out those moments that you need them.
I'm sure a lot of other comments in this thread will elaborate on the things I've mentioned. In general, it's about working on your soft skills. To put it in RPG terms, you are an INT hero who graduated from the top of their class. You know all the spells. But guess what, this is a STR and AGI challenge and you need to work on your charisma to rope in some help. No one is taking your INT skills away from you. But you'll have to work extra hard on navigating this new game called office politics that nerds typically aren't used to, exposed to, or want in their lives.
Good luck and tread cautiously!
Am I glad that I don't work with you! "I'm here to work, not talk". Ever hear of the concept of colaboration? You know, working together as a team to achieve a common goal? Normally involves this thing I like to call "communication", you do it with your mouth. The advise on avoiding gossip is good, but the rest of your post smacks of some severe personality problems. Many of my co-workers are now friends, and this is a good thing! Lifes too short to be the "lone wolf". As another counter-point, you will never get anywhere if you don't socialize. It's half gaining peoples respect for your technical ability, and half gaining their trust because they know you. Get your head out of your arse, and join in!
Some random thoughts - I'm a Systems Admin/Engineer by trade, but have spent some time in the Manager's chair as well. Here's some thoughts that would have helped me for my first real job (i.e. why didn't someone tell me):
Don't act like a know-it-all, but don't be afraid to offer a concise answer if solicited. Us nerds tend to LOVE to elaborate to "make an impression". The only impression is "Thanks, now how do I shut this guy up?".
Don't be afraid to challenge your peers when your approach may be better, but know when to back down when you're out-numbered.
In a cubical farm, your voice or other odd noises carry much further than you think. Same applies for the office restroom.
Speakerphone is a privilege reserved those with an office and a closed door. (Ab)using speakerphone (esp. loudly) in a cubicle will earn many more enemies than friends. Consider a headset if you're going to be on the phone a lot and need to type or do other things with your hands.
Learn and understand your company's core values. Chances are, you hold some of these yourself or you wouldn't have been hired (at least by any competent manager). These values will help guide your management team's decisions, just in case you question their motives.
If you lied on your interview, you'll be quickly found out the moment you submit your first program. If it's a serious lie that you can't lie your way out of again, don't even bother showing up for your first day.
Learn how to comment your code, but don't do it so much that stripping them out strips 75% of the file.
Use sane variables that someone else can maintain. "a, b, foo and bar" are not sane.
Be willing to learn - always. This may involve learning OUTSIDE of your job as well.
You will be required to understand the business to a degree that helps you develop useful code. Don't be surprised if your first few weeks on the job involve training that seems initially pointless (stocking shelves, packing boxes, etc.). It will all make sense in the end, and may even help start the creative flow of "I could do that better".
Innovate or get out of the way. Complacency often gets you fired.
For some companies, continuous improvement is expected. For others, they prefer the tried and true. Don't be afraid to ride the middle if you aren't sure which one you're dealing with at first. Someone will set you straight.
Make sure your line of communication with your manager is wide open. Understand his/her expectations and deliver on what's asked. However, if the expectations are completely unreasonable, have a backbone and ensure they know why you can't rewrite Linux in a day.
This is hard at first, but employees who perform well need little management. Those who don't can expect constant management. Then again, some managers like to micro-manage anyway, especially their under-performers.
$ man woman *
-bash:
There is such a wide variety of office "culture" that general advice is hard. I think a lot of it is trial an error.. you're going to at some point piss someone off or at least do something/say something and hate yourself for it. When you do, just try and learn from it and minimize the damage as best you can.
I guess one thing I'd recommend though is that while you (being fresh out of school) probably have all kinds of great ideas on how you're going to revolutionize everything, you have to accept that companies can't just change their process with ever new graduating class. Not saying you shouldn't try to bring in new ideas.. but don't be "that guy" who spends every meeting talking about how the way things are being done is totally wrong and how pair programming and executable UML would be perfect. The guys with 20+ years of experience may be set in their ways.. but they also (probably) have a lot of experience seeing projects succeed and fail.. having some new kid throwing ideas from a textbook at them can ruffle some feathers.
The answer to your question depends on your boss, actually. I've found that there are generally two types of bosses: The better kind that are intelligent, do things right, and get shit done; and the crap kind, whom are generally idiots, don't care about doing things right, and are only out to make themselves look good.
So, if you have an intelligent boss, here's your advice:
An intelligent boss respects good communication and honesty. If you inform your boss enough about the projects and solutions you are working on, he'll have a better idea of the status of whatever project you are working on. If he can answers basic questions from the 'customer' without having to bother you, you're doing it right. I find my boss greatly enjoys that I keep him informed enough about my projects that he lets me operate pretty much unsupervised. Second, always be honest, especially with your boss. If you're having a problem with someone's crap code, make sure he knows about your impediment. If you've run into a tricky problem that will take time to figure out, or you've made a mistake that's going to cause to take longer on your project, be honest with him. A late project with an honest explanation is so much better than a late project with no explanation or an on-time project that has subtle flaws that will inevitably cause problems. Lastly, be flexible. We all know it's difficult to drop what you're doing and work on something else, but your boss is generally not the one setting priorities. If he asks you to drop what you're doing, do it, and if the change of direction will cost time, let him know, politely.
Now, if you have a crap boss, here's some advice:
Keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, do what you're told, and if your boss hasn't been replaced with a better one after two years, get those resumes out. A shitty boss will do everything in his power to make sure you can't advance.
That's all I got.
~Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
Be yourself, otherwise you'll come off as fake and no one will like you.
Lots of great stuff here already, but as a corporate executive in charge of R&D, I'll put in my additional two cents worth... The first rule of business: don't take it personally. It isn't all fun and games. You're not there to make friends or have fun - you're there to do a job. Yes, ideally, on the whole, you should enjoy it - if not, you're in the wrong line of work; but there will be times that the job sucks ass no matter where you work. There will be assholes that rip on you, rightly or wrongly. Don't take it personally. Keep your spirits up and focus on the work at hand. This will get you way ahead of the rest of the crowd. Act as though time is of the essence - it is. You'll be amazed at how quickly you go from being a green kid out of college to being an old geezer like me. Don't waste your time on piddly bullshit. Work your ass off at all times - not for the company's sake, but for yours. Your life is ticking away by the minute - the only reason it doesn't seem that way is because you are young. Youth is wasted on the young - the sooner you understand why, the better off you'll be. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Take on the hardest work you can handle, then ask for something even harder. You don't grow by taking it easy; strength comes from adversity, not comfort. If you're comfortable, you're dead. Ask for help when you need it - there is no shame in admitting that one is in way over one's head; real achievers always are. Good luck!
Find out what you didn't learn in college but the company expects you to know and start learning. Fast.
You've probably learned a lot in college, but there are plenty of things you weren't taught that you'll eventually need to learn in order to succeed. Some of them are related to programing, a few are related the the corporate culture of the place at which you're employed, but a lot are just people skills that are acquired the hard way.
Most importantly, don't be afraid to ask for help if you're in over your head. If there's something you don't understand, ask someone else for help. It's a good way to make friends/acquaintances within the company and saves you the time of wandering around clueless. Personal initiative and a good work ethic will get you far, but when you first start out there are a lot of things you won't know or have any experience with.
Best of luck to you on your new career. Hopefully you do well and can impart some advice of your own to future generations.
I have been a team leader at different times so maybe I can give the bosses perspective:
There is a lot of overlap in the above. It comes down to "don't be a dope". Posting here suggests to me that your biggest problem is a lack of self confidence. Work on that by being open with people. Maybe by telling them you were the guy who posted "How to behave in a software company" on slashdot. That'l get some laughs.
The only other thing is to look out for sociopaths. Don't assume everybody you work with has a perfect personality. In practice a great many do not. I can't help you deal with these people. Sometimes they are hard to spot. A good skill it to learn not to reply to trolls. Don't let people wind you up. Getting somebody angry is a great way to beat them at something. If you are good at something you will likely get picked out for treatment early on if this kind of person is around.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
You know that performance is tracked. That's only the the first step, though. You need to know how your performance is being tracked. Are you being graded on the number of bugs you solve? On the number of variances in the product? On what new features you implement? This is even more critical to know if your manager gives you a non-answer like, "We take into account a variety of factors." Ask around. Try to discover what those factors are. This isn't so that you "game" the system. This is so that you'll know what to spend time on, and what factors are of lesser importance. Spending a few hours writing great documentation isn't going to help you if your boss doesn't recognize the effort. That effort can be spent where it will be recognized, like getting started on the next bug.
Yeah, in an ideal world, you would be recognized for every activity that contributes to the product, whether its writing documentation, or fixing a bug. But you and I both know that in the real world, some things count more than others. Its important to figure what those things are and optimize your efforts for them.
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
#1 write good code because you will someday want to look back to one thing you did 'right' (whatever that means)
#2 arrive at work immediately after your boss and leave sometime after (s)he has said 'goodbye'
#3 wake up each morning with the thought that 20 million Asians are after your job at a third the cost to your employer
#4 know that coding for someone else is like building a BMW 750Li and watching some rich guy buy it from them
#5 Ritalin is better than caffeine
#6 listen to everyone and nod appreciatively, but do what you think is right
#7 most importantly, don't pay attention to this idiot
Someone mark this funny please, not interesting
To answer: if expected to work weekends or evenings also expect time in lieu when things are slow. If this is not a given, raise it with the boss, but privately. Also, convey the impression you are happy to work overtime, but for important stuff - not a presentation the boss must make to his boss the next morning, but didn't plan for. Play this by ear, but convey the general idea so they are respectful in their demands on your time.
Plan on starting your own little business on the side (that does not impinge on your company's turf or time). Contribute to open source projects, keep your resume updated. Spend money on upgrading your own skills - buy books, sit for certifications, and if possible get your company to front up money. SAVE MONEY!! Once you can afford to, buy a house. Marry someone sensible and like yourself.
Working 60hour weeks for 40hour salary? You got to be insane.
That only helps create environment for abuse of the greatest asset a software company has. In my experience how much you work means shit, infact if you work longer hours you will have LESS respect from management, even if you are not a push over and get paid +50% extra hourly salary for those hours.
IT employees are probably the most abused, neglected bunch of employees in the world just because of that kind of an attitude. Good coders are actually highly creative, yet engineer like while sometimes code is just as much art as engineering, if not even more about art than engineering to create that very simplified, easy to maintain system. Simple code pretty much is an art, to see the connections and make it so simple. To be creative you need good environment, but promoting abusive behavior like working 50% more for the same salary is going to just make things worse, it's like saying "It's ok to whip my back bloody to get more productivity out of me, and ruin my personal life".
Pulsed Media Seedboxes
yep, they certainly are... ...right after factory workers, checkout chicks, shop assistants, office clerks, [...], third world sweat shop laborers, and pretty much everyone else in the world below middle and senior management in large corporations.
sure, IT workers get shafted by their employers making unreasonable demands. but there's a huge difference between someone making 60-90K per year for physically undemanding work who has the skills to get a similar or better job pretty nearly whenever they want, and someone working a physically demanding minimum-wage (or lower if they're in a seriously exploitable category like "immigrant" or "stupid") shit job that barely pays enough to live on, let alone save anything to improve their situation. or worse, someone working for a $1 a day to make t-shirts and other stuff that rich western programmers pay $40 or more for.
so, while i know from personal experience just how much IT workers get taken for granted and ripped off, we're still MUCH better off than most.
BTW, this is absolutely *NOT* saying "just put up with it and stop whinging" (i'm way too much of a socialist to ever think that exploitation of any worker is acceptable). it's saying "being outraged by it is sensible, but get a sense of proportion and lose the ridiculous exaggeration".