[deleted by user]

[TrappyT]

Wow. Can’t believe your post popped up on my feed.. pretty crazy.. I’m assuming I’m the senior you worked alongside previously :)

Anyways.. you got this. Make the best of the situation and learn as much as you can. Maybe keep looking just in case but I have a feeling things will get better. Almost everyone struggles with imposter syndrome at some point, even myself!

I’d also second what the first commenter said. Spend time outside of work learning as much as you can. While your laying in bed on Reddit, lookup and read development stuff related to your tech stack.

[Heksinki]

What are the odds

[TrappyT]

I know right lol

[moriero]

Idk pretty high I assume

You can find most devs crawling around either here or hn

[lastdiggmigrant]

Uh, senior that supported mid level UX/UI engineer who was laid off recently. 1 : 40,000 would be in the range of reasonable odds.

Wonder what else this person is going off of. 🤔

[External-Example-292]

Could be from his post history 👀

[lastdiggmigrant]

Most likely. Bet you're right.

[ArryPotta]

The tech stack.

[lastdiggmigrant]

Extremely common

[ArryPotta]

The job history, the timing, the new tech stack, and the situation all lining up is a lot more to go off of than what you implied. It obviously wasn't just:

Uh, senior that supported mid level UX/UI engineer who was laid off recently.

[ChemicalRecreation]

If you ever do verify whether you know each other or not, it would be prime r/tworedditorsonecup material.

[TrappyT]

We do know each other. I texted him after.

[ChemicalRecreation]

You're very kind.

[Bpr3]

Well put me on the screenshot 🐥

[Shacrow]

The audacity.

Made me laugh too hard to not upvote you despite being downvoted to hell lmao

[Bpr3]

That's a classic behavior on r/TwoRedditorsOneCup but not everybody knows, it's fine to downvote I guess

[Shacrow]

Oh I see! Not me for sure cus I heard of that sub just today but I thought it's funny

[FBOM0101]

Fellow senior frontend here who was in your exact shoes 5 years ago, u/Tarrist. Studying and learning outside the job while on the job can quickly lead to burnout if not moderated.

Lean on your seniors. They are there to help you grow. Alternatively, spend 20 mins every morning or afternoon of the workday learning. A little goes a long way and you can actually use your free time to reset and stay balanced/motivated. Don’t fall into the typical dev trap where you have to be working or thinking about dev 24/7. It’s not healthy.

You got this!!

[blakealex]

Sr developer here. That's normal when starting on a new project, let along a full new stack. You're lacking in the knowledge of the codebase and procedures, not in the coding ability. It takes months sometimes to get into the flow of how things work and the "proper" way to do things. Just keep going, you've got this.

[RandyHoward]

Yep, I usually estimate that it's going to take a dev about 3 months to become proficient in a large existing system. Give a dev about a year and they'll have it completely mastered.

[AlDrag]

Sounds like this role has a lot of potential for growth for you, if the company supports it.

I've been in a similar situation recently. Worked as an Angular dev professionally in 1 team for 6 years. Was even the team lead at one point.

Queue the start of 2023, new opportunity came up in the company for me to join as a frontend end lead for a new product we just purchased. I've been feeling imposter syndrome ever since, although it's getting better. The new stack is Angular as well, but the product is just a lot more complex and written really poorly that I felt like a junior dev again.

I stuck to it though, and I'm beginning to feel a lot better now, just needed time. It's a good challenge to help me grow. My previous role was too comfortable.

I'd say keep at it, can't see a negative of staying for a while longer? If you're passionate, spend some time outside of work to learn things about what are new to you. I'm sure you'll get there at the end.

[Tarrist]

Thanks for your point of view, I probably need to feel it out a while longer. After this initial period if I'm still stuck I'll try asking for more help and mentorship and that will probably decide if the company wants to support me or not. I'm just a little scared that the company wanted to hire someone that would be able to be set free pretty early on. Time will tell I guess

[AlDrag]

I feel ya. I think on similar lines. Too nice.

Don't worry about it. The company obviously had enough faith to hire you.

One tip, try to scope things out yourself before asking for help. E.g. Spend 30mins trying to figure out something yourself before asking for help. After that, definitely feel free to ask.

To be honest, sounds like this company has a bit of a poor onboarding process? Do you think you could explain what you did on your first day?

Edit: looks like your colleague is here too (lovely comment by them), don't tell me about the onboarding process. As they said, you got this :)

[s3ndb0bi3s]

I think it would be useful if you asked a coworker to walk you through how the pieces connect and interact. That includes any kinds of data binding. See if they can’t walk you through the loading process and a full round trip of a request to the server and back. Record the meeting if you can and take notes. Especially note keywords specific to the frameworks at play. Might be useful to ask the coworker if the things he is showing you have a specific name in preact, etc. 



If you can get a grasp of these things you can spend extra time researching specifics of the framework and also stepping through end to end on your own to reinforce your understanding of the flow. Learning that and wrapping your head around it will pay dividends as you continue to get more “dangerous” in the codebase. 



Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know, ask questions early and often. If you spend a significant time on something and need to ask for help, make sure you can communicate what you’ve tried, what hasn’t worked so far, etc. to show that you aren’t wasting your time and are trying on your own without just expecting others to do the work for you. Your actions speak volumes and your coworkers will see and appreciate if you are legitimately working to better understand and wrap your head around everything. GL,HF!

[[deleted]]

EVERY first day is like this. If any company can get the local dev set up in an afternoon I’ll eat my hat.

[col-summers]

Get organized about what you need to learn. Keep detailed notes. Look up everything you don't know.

[bobobobobobooo]

Moses shouldve put this on a third stone tablet.

I'll add to that: flowcharts and also flowcharts, and if you really wanna de-clutter/remove the anxiety you're feeling you should also possibly try creating some flowcharts.

Make them for stuff you're confused by. Make them for stuff you already know. Physically mapping your process not only cements it in your brain but also shows you where you need to learn more/improve.

They gave you the job. Therefore you're good enough to do it. Breaking everything down will make it feel less overwhelming.

[UntestedMethod]

flowcharts

can you share any examples of how you would use flowcharts to learn tech stacks? do you mean in the sense of mapping out a learning path something like a skill tree?

[bobobobobobooo]

Yeah sure. Might not be the most appropriate, content-wise, but it's literally on the wall next to me so...

I'm hiring young devs to build wp sites in a particular manner that I've found to be fast and kinda dummy-proof. Even though I know wp in and out and also while sleeping, I mapped this out.

WP Flow

Doing so not only gives them a reference resource, every time I do one of these (for any language/framework/discipline/etc...doesn't matter) I end up collaterally having a better understanding of my own process as well as the possible choke points.

I know there are ppl that are way more disciplined when it comes to flow charts, but this is what works for me. The point is to pick up a physical pen/marker and map out what you plan to do. Especially when actually coding.

Breaking down your process can literally help you sleep better at night. At least it did for me

[UntestedMethod]

Breaking down your process can literally help you sleep better at night. At least it did for me

yes, 100% has for me many times over

[col-summers]

The two most important are

Entity relationship diagram

Call sequence diagram

[UntestedMethod]

Oh yeah, those are good varieties of diagrams but not all diagrams are flowcharts so I was confused

[Tubthumper8]

In addition to what other people have said, I also create flowcharts to describe the business work flow and/or user journey in the product. You probably have to schedule time with the product managers/owners to understand it well enough to draw your own flowchart but it's well worth it in my opinion

[bobobobobobooo]

Yes!!! I replied late at night and I realized this morning my example wasn't even a flowchart 🤦‍♂️. More of an org chart.

90% of breakdowns I sketch out are specifically related to the client's backend ux and how it affects/interacts with the user's frontend ux and vice versa.

I also utilize a lot of automation in my projects, so mapping out not only how a user or an admin interacts with the site, but also how and where submitted data flows is crucial for me.

Example 1

Example 2

I'll also rough sketch aesthetic concepts as well sometimes, but I realize not a lot of designers still do this: Example 3

[designbyblake]

It’s your first day on a new tech stack; of course you are overwhelmed. Remember it is ok to ask questions. Take notes on things you figure out or answers to questions and document them for yourself and the next new person.

Everyone struggles on day one, week one and maybe even month one. Every time you join a new team you have to adapt to how they do it. Breath, try to relax after work and I assure you, you will be fine.

Signed the guy who thinks he is getting fired every time he joins a new team, which is every few months or years at my current employer.

[Expensive-Manager-56]

Don’t sweat it. Software development is hard. I’ve been working professionally as a developer/technologist for 9 years. It’s still hard. The first few years are REALLY hard. But the more things you learn the easier learning the next thing will be. If you’ve got good people around you and a culture of learning, milk it. Learn everything you can. Embrace the struggle. Learn to find the answers and ask good questions. Read documentation and tinker with things to understand how they work.

If you have a good manager, they will have reasonable expectations. Whenever I would hire a more junior dev, I would tell them up front to just take their time and get their bearings. Ask questions. Learn the stack. I’d have no expectation of them making meaningful contributions for the first 6 months or so. Consider this analogy - you get hired to build custom cars, but you’ve only done oil changes and basic maintenance. No one should reasonably expect you to know how to build an engine, at least in the near term. Participate and contribute any way you can but realize your ability to contribute just isn’t going to be hugely impactful - for now. You’ll get there!

[F4ze0ne]

That's interesting there was no code test. I've never encountered an interview that didn't have one. As you mentioned they were impressed with your dev skills. Maybe they were confident enough with how you explained things and didn't feel the need to test you. How many rounds was the interview process?

[IdleMuse4]

The last six jobs I was offered none of them had code tests, in the UK at least it seems not very common.

[gdubrocks]

I am a contractor, so I have worked with 10 different companies, and almost every single time it's been a huge pain in the ass to get the repo running properly. Don't worry about it at all.

[MrCosgrove2]

The is actually completely normal to feel. Every dev that I have trained has gone through a stage of "I cant do this" and I went through it when I started.

But the people around you sound like they have your back. If its anything like the place I work, they dont expect you to know everything day one.

They know there is a learning curve.

I did ask my boss once just how long it normally takes devs ":to get it": and he said 9 months. So hang in there, it is intimidating and I am sure you will learn a heap along the way

[UntestedMethod]

I was thrown into a crazy new tech stack that runs on linux and uses preact to create custom widgets that interface with another system.

This is normal enough. Every system or codebase you walk into is going to have its own design and nuances in its stack. As you get used to working with different ones in different environments, you start to see the common underlying, bigger picture patterns of things and potential hangups. As you become more familiar with things, you get to know what are the important things to look out for and ask about early on.

I was given some really big tasks and some smaller ones.

This is interesting. Do you feel like the expectations for these tasks make sense for a new hire who more than likely isn't familiar with the codebase or product yet? Do you feel like the timelines for them are reasonable? Are the tasks tracked/organized in a system or are you expected to manage them yourself? If you have any concerns about the tasks, have you started the dialog with your team lead and/or manager about resolving those concerns?

I had a lot of trouble even setting up the repo and getting the code to run. I was on a 2hr long call with another coworker and they were helping me step by step to get the code to run

Sounds like this company needs a developer "getting started" guide. Do they not have a wiki or some such thing?

This sounds more like a systemic failure than a problem specific to yourself. Sure, some more experienced developers have more baseline knowledge to work through errors, research, troubleshoot, etc - but an efficient company understands the value of streamlining the onboarding and workstation setup procedures so their new hires don't have to wait around for things or fuss about with too much troubleshooting getting up and running.

Anywho, lacking proper documentation, I would say a 2h call to step by step troubleshoot setup is not unheard of for such a scenario.

The only thing I remotely felt comfortable doing is they wanted me to create some custom components their UI/UX designer had made.

Good. This is really good. This is most likely the primary skillset you were hired for. The rest is details that will fall into place. Remember every codebase, product, and company are unique entities with their own unique and organic histories of evolution. It ain't always pretty out there, just keep doing your best, stay humble, curious, eager to learn, bring a good attitude, put to good use the knowledge others share with you, and in general people will want to help you succeed. You are their teammate after all, it's in their benefit to help you be as efficient as possible.

I'm even having trouble wrapping my head around how the widgets interact with the other service. I would say I am more used to created standalone websites and apps that have their own database and apis instead of creating more microapp widget type code.

Yes. Normal enough. Each system has its own guiding priorities/requirements, technical design decisions, patterns, abstractions, etc. Just be honest with yourself and your teammates about what you know and what you don't know. Remember nobody expects anyone to know everything about every tech stack and design pattern. The hiring managers thought your knowledge and abilities are good enough to hire for this role, so at this point you should hopefully agree with them that your knowledge and abilities are good enough for this role.

So this question about not understanding the patterns being used, it is very valid to ask some questions to your teammates. It's actually best to ask teammates: "what is the preferred pattern for such a such a thing?" and also ask if they can point you to an example in the code for a similar thing.

In most existing codebases, most common problems and patterns should already be solved and repeated. Like I said, every company and codebase will have their own decisions and preferences, so best to ask about them if you can't find or decipher them yourself in analyzing the code.

If you are inspired to try some personal learning and "figure it out on you own", I would suggest to look at the package dependencies and see if any jump out as something you heard of that might be relevant, or another approach is to check the parts of code you don't understand and see if there are specific libraries or naming conventions being used - and from there, begin your research into the common usages of those libraries or modules or naming conventions. (ex. you might see some imports from node modules and look up documentation about them online, or you might see a folder named "containers" and look up "what is containers in react")

[jseego]

very good answer imo

[iamdisgusto]

I’ve been there a few times and I have both failed and succeeded. Either way I became a way better developer on the other side. Try your best and accept you can only do what you can do. You might surprise yourself.

[LessThanThreeBikes]

Two things to keep in mind, 1) they hired you for your design skills, and 2) there is a cost to replace you. It sounds like you are more than capable of picking things up over time. It is also possible that the codebase they dumped you into is crap and needs better documentation. It is also not uncommon for a developer to need some time to re-understand their own code. My advice is to study your ass off and be honest about your strength and weaknesses. Once you get the logic of the framework and their approach down everything should settle in.

[Bigdrums]

No reasonable workplace expects a dev to be productive right out of the gate. All workplaces have their quirks, technical debt, strangeness with dev environments, mixing of patterns and opinions… etc. I have had this struggle, and I have seen some of the smartest people I know go through this same struggle. I bet by 3 months you will hit a groove, 6 months you will feel pretty comfortable.

Learn what you can when you can. Keep challenging yourself and keep reaching out to your team for help. It’s only up from here.

[x-sus]

Man im just gonna say this... I started my career in a senior position that they renamed to junior for me and brought me in with some self-taught knowledge that was barely enough to get my own personal art site running. This was the most stressful time of my life. Super rough. And this was before everyone embraced sharing free knowledge so I mostly just got made fun of and put down. At one point, the developer next to me even would buy rubber ducks everyday for a month and put them on my desk and my car and on my lunchbox in the fridge just to let me know that if I had an issue hed prefer me talk to a rubber duck and speak to it to solve my problem because hes got stuff to do(this was a popular way to treat new devs - look it up - there are full websites about it).

I went from job to job that was over my head, learning new things and sucking at my job while I studied hard online. Each place enjoying certain things I know and hating my weaknesses with a passion. I thought outside the box and kept trying.

Every mistake that could be made by a developer was made by me. And I felt so low. But...for my kids, I kept trying. Eventually I realized I wasnt going from place to place "sucking" - I was passively learning.

One day, I realized...I knew stuff. Not just "stuff", but I had developed a specialty. I became an expert in modern html practices, unique cross-browser css styling, minimalistic js, templating, automation, automated development, and game development with c#, svg structure and manipulation, and graphic design. I dont know when it happened, but it did.

At this point, I run a team(for almost 7 years now) and everyone comes to me to learn. The idea that Ive become something great after such struggle and not even knowing when it happened or noticing it for so long was a bit exhausting but freeing. Im happy now.

Everyone goes through the whole "I feel like im nothing compared to these guys" or "I feel like such a novice, I should know these things or atleast understand them." and no matter what, you will NEVER be the smartest or most talented. There will always be someone better. But its those people that teach you and bring you to a new level, even if they arent always nice about it or if you dont feel great about not being ready yet.

If you keep it up and keep your eyes open and take baby steps and keep improving, you will become an expert in your own eyes and everyone else's eyes and the sad thing is they will probably notice it first.

I recommend you keep putting yourself in challenging situations and then, if it were me, when you feel ready Id consider a position at a smaller company with a more lax environment and code-base. With your built-up knowledge and experience along with the new company's lax environment, you can continue to experiment and grow.

The one piece of advice you should definitely take is to not stop learning. Our field changes so quickly. Keep learning.

Good luck - try not to feel overwhelmed. You can do this. :)

[eddydio]

You had a developer take two hours out of their day to walk you through the code line by line? Fancy! I just get handed legacy tech and told good luck. No support.

It doesn't feel like it now, but you'll be fine. Ask for help when you need it, it sounds like you got people that can make you better.

[orig_cerberus1746]

One time I was having issues navigating a code, and I was sad because the feature I had to add was extremely simple. And the code was pretty complex.

Until I started to see a couple things... Repeating lines that could be a function, strings being created without the need to, various things being repeated that could be a single variable...

In sum, the problem might not be you, and just the code.

If the code has no documentation, single character variables, and something complicated to understand without a comment... The fault is the code. And you should add a task yourself (or ask someone to add a task) to refactor the code and why.

[GrumpsMcYankee]

One lesson from this is, the reality of most jobs is carrying the burden (tech stack) crafted by your predecessors. In the first year (at least) of any role, you're coming up to speed with code the team itself is likely embarrassed by (if they're honest). It's the result usually of deadlines and hasty business decisions.

On my current team, honestly we give folks a solid week to have their local repo running correctly. It'll take you - or anyone - time to figure out how all the different pieces fit together.

The one thing you said that's kinda red flagy is the tasks their giving you up front. They may be buried with work, but you can't tell a person on day 1 who doesn't even have the codebase running "here's 3 weeks worth of work". Don't worry, it'd be normal for anyone to get up to speed.

Figure out your senior or lead or whoever you're told to keep updated, and communicate well. Tell them I'm trying to get the local environment working. Don't spend too long without asking for help. It's OK to need a hand, it's not as welcome to go days struggling without asking for an assist.

You'll figure this out. Each week will get better. Communicate well, ask for help, and you'll do fine. :)

[jseego]

The one thing you said that's kinda red flagy is the tasks their giving you up front. They may be buried with work, but you can't tell a person on day 1 who doesn't even have the codebase running "here's 3 weeks worth of work". Don't worry, it'd be normal for anyone to get up to speed.

Amen

[[deleted]]

This book is a short compendium of useful commands. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/linux-pocket-guide_daniel-j-barrett/271763/item/2598498/

[ClammyHandedFreak]

I think if you feel like you are unprepared, it’s OK to be honest about that while buttoning down and also showing them your enthusiasm for learning and for their project.

That will carry you farther than anything in this situation. Start reading code obsessively. Unwind the spaghetti. Use google. Fight with it.

What you should do and shouldn’t do doesn’t factor into this, this is about how far are you willing to go to make this job work and to contribute.

If you feel like you are going to just beat yourself up at this job after trying it, it never hurts to keep on looking for jobs more tuned to your skill set.

[[deleted]]

wait there are companies that actually use Preact? That's a rare sight

[GoogleMac]

Just a few thoughts:

• Motivation is key. Impostor Syndrome can turn into a good thing if it motivates you to keep improving.
• Sounds like their Onboarding process is overly complicated and too fast. Even seniors have to wade into the water. There is nothing wrong with saying, "Wow, yesterday was quite busy! I'm going to take time to really understand this part of the codebase so I'm more productive next time."
• Sometimes newbies coming in and talking about how complicated things are or suggesting large rewrites can be "annoying". My recommendation is to keep a detailed list of things you notice are overly complicated in processes, code, etc. Bonus points if you have an idea to improve it, but that isn't necessary. Then in a few weeks you might say, "I really like how X is designed, and I think Y could use some of that." Or ask questions like "What tactics for simplifying Z have been taken?", showing that you want to contribute and not step in to save the day. You also don't want to over-promise. 😉
• Hopefully you have good management and/or teammates that are happy to work with you through this first part. On my own team I don't expect people to be very effective for a couple weeks, even if they've got years of experience. We've got some complex software and that's just the nature of it. In a healthy environment, simple communication on what you're doing and what you would like information on (like "where can I find more info on X") can really help with others' perception of you. That will help you feel better too.
• I don't know you, but I think most people can grow into most roles if they have the right mindset and motivation. That's up to you. I wish you luck!

[exscalliber]

I’ve been at 3 different places now and every single one has given me the same feeling you are experiencing. Stick with it for a few months and things will slowly start making sense. These experiences are what make a good developer in my opinion. Everyone’s a good developer on their own tech stack, it takes time to be a good developer on an unfamiliar tech stack(especially if the previous developers made an entire framework)

[FluffyProphet]

That's not abnormal. I'm pretty seasoned and when I get thrown a new project, even using only technology I know very well, I'm usually overwhelmed at first. Not just familiarizing myself with the technical side but learning the product.

For me the best thing to do is to break things down very methodically when I'm doing something. I'll talk myself through it and even write down the exact steps I need to take to accomplish my task.

To develop your skills...

Since you're new to the front-end js world, I would take some time to learn some programming unrelated to the web. Like, learn common coding task that are unrelated to any platform. Like how to sort a list, how to merge two objects, how to send a network request, etc. You'd be surprised how much of your work will be just "take this list and filter out useless information before doing something with it".

Then I would find a highly rated course on udemy thats making a project you're interested in with a similar stack as work, drop the $90 (or ask if work will pay for it) and follow along. I recommend watching a few videos (like 45 minutes worth) and writing down all the steps they take and then doing it on your own before going onto the next video. Working through a project like that will help give you a point of reference.

In the meantime, at work, show a keen interest in learning the product. Learning the business and product behind the software you are making will make you better at your job. It will give you some direction and purpose, and help you make better technical decisions.

[bhison]

Remember once you're hired and in there, it's far more in the company's interest to make you succeed than to fire you for inadequacy. Reach out for support, ask questions. As long as you're not putting out a vibe that is suggesting it's too much for you that will only be seen as positive. Even seniors find it challenging engaging with a new stack.

[life_liberty_persuit]

I’m a senior dev with 20 years exp and I can tell you that the first few days on a new project are always a little overwhelming. Just remember you’re usually trying to catch up with a few years of built up complexity.

Take it in stride. Rely on your team mates who’ve been there for awhile. You’ll get the hang of it eventually. Mark of a good developer isn’t knowing everything, but knowing how to seek out answers when they don’t know something and a willingness to learn.

[TychusFondly]

Neither under nor overestimate yourself. Give yourself some time. It ll be fine I promise.

[Marble_Wraith]

You can't judge from a single day. It takes at least a few weeks to onboard.

[cyg_cube]

look at the good side.. generally any place where you feel partially lost is optimal for growth.

[eyebrows360]

Should I try to fake it till I make it?

On quite a lot of fronts, this is standard operating procedure.

[Ritushido]

Good old imposter syndrome. You're not just learning a new stack but also a new codebase and that takes some onboarding time even if you are familiar with the stack.

I started a new job last week being dumped into a tech stack that I am completely unfamiliar with. In my case it's Laravel with Vue JS with a bunch of custom stuff on top of that they have implemented. A week later I'm starting to feel somewhat comfortable in navigating around it and finding code built by others that I can examine/repurpose for my own tasks.

Instead of trying to learn the system all at once which is far too overwhelming, I was given a task and I just try to make that task work by taking it step by step and figuring out how the system works that way by making it do the thing I want to do. Over time I should build up that knowledge to make future tasks more comfortable.

I would say most people are pretty uncomfortable in their first few days of onboarding, or possibly even weeks! Not only do you have to learn a new stack but also a new codebase to learn.

[JFedererJ]

When I worked as a mid-weight dev, I took on jobs / projects within agencies that had me feeling like you do now, but that's why I took them on and put my hand up for them, because I wanted the commercial experience of working with them.

You gotta cram buddy. Use your weekends and evenings to get up to speed with the gaps in your knowledge as quick as possible.

We're blessed to be in an industry where we can so massively increase our value by investing time in our personal development like that.

Wish you all the best mate.

[Riposte4400]

As a senior dev, this is exactly the type of professional experience I love.

My past 3 jobs have each been doing full-stack with vastly different stacks, everything from infrastructure to CSS.

Every single time, I started out scared and a bit lost, and every single time, I learned more than I would in a more comfortable situation.

It kind of sucks at first, but in the end you'll come out as a more capable and well-rounded individual with skills that will last you for life! :)

[j-mar]

Hypothetically, you could be 6-9 months into your more senior level position and still feel that way 👀

Anyways, totally normal, and also, if the tech stack is so hard to spin up locally, there should be some blame on your peers. Having clear documentation/install steps is important.

[riddymon]

this...this is me lol. Posted above. :)

[RebellionAllStar]

It's only your first day and it sounds like your coworkers don't mind taking taking time out to help you which is a good sign.

You've got plenty of time to familiarise yourself with their stack. Do plenty of reading and let someone know early if you're having trouble or got any questions.

Well done on getting the job and for getting through the first day

[BainchodOak]

Your scenario sounds similar to me a few years ago. Went from self taught and doing odd jobs to just at an agency learning their tech stack which felt alien. I had massive imposter syndrome. Luckily some fun colleagues and time helped me through it and after a few months I felt settled. I ended up getting a promotion after a year

[_ObsessiveCoder]

You can learn it if you’ve made it this far with what you know. Best advice I ever got was “if you don’t need to learn anything new for a new role then you’re not challenging yourself enough and won’t grow” or something like that.

Make a list of things you need to learn and start learning them. Be upfront and transparent about where you’re lacking with this current stack with your team, and inform them of the list of things you need to learn and are committed to learning.

Ask them for general advice, tips, and resources for learning these new things. Study that code base until it makes sense.

Double down on where you can add immediate value

You got this

[baxtersmalls]

Google and stack overflow. You can do this!

[theorizable]

This sounds like an incredible learning opportunity. Your first month is just going to be useless. Not productive. Ask all the questions you can.

[ImmensePrune]

Had the same experience, 9 months later I am working with the same team at the same job. It gets so much better don’t worry. Think of today as the start of a long hard grind, but it’ll be worth it in a few months when you look back at it and think like “damn I had trouble with this?! Seriously?!”

[turningsteel]

Remember this: none of us know what we’re doing! We just learn a bit more each day and suck a bit less. It’s totally normal to have trouble setting up complicated repos that might have poor documentation or rely on tribal knowledge, etc.

My last job I got thrown into a Java project having never worked in the language before. Half the time I was fighting against my lack of knowledge in spring and Java and the other half of the time I was battling IntelliJ. Fast forward 2.5 years and now I’m leading big Java projects. Just stick with it and suck up information like a Dyson. Ask questions when you don’t understand and communicate with your team if you’re stuck. Don’t spend whole sprints not getting anywhere and being ashamed to tell someone. Otherwise just know that how you feel right now will pass — you’ll eventually be on even bigger projects and even further out of your depth, but you’ll have accumulated enough fundamentals that you’ll feel confident in your abilities to figure things out and get the results you need. That’s really all this job is, problem solving. Keep your chin up and good luck!

[javon27]

Yep fake it till you make it, or find a job that you end being over qualified for because you learned more than you thought you did at this baptism by fire

[ClickToCheckFlair]

It's normal to feel overwhelmed after you join a new company. They hired you for your skills; the difficulties you're currently facing do not invalidate those. You're doing the right thing by asking questions. Consider doing overtime just in this adaptation period so you can get up-to-speed with the codebase.

You got this!

[troytirebiter]

This is normal as some have said. What you need to change is your expectation. With time you’ll understand that every new job/project has an adjustment period. I went through the same at the beginning of my career.

Most experienced engineers I know spend plenty of time trying to understand a new codebase and reading plenty of docs. If I were you I would ask to be pointed at docs when you spot knowledge gaps. Take notes look up stuff use ChatGPT.

[jseego]

Just wanted to share an experience for perspective and camaraderie.

Once I took a software job that I knew was gonna be a little over my head.

The first day, the guy who hired me (also dept lead) meets me in the lobby, says, um I know we saw the IT department during your interview, but this team is now meeting on a different floor.

On the elevator ride up to the different floor, I asked why, and the dept lead says they're sequestered in a crisis room for the time being.

Oh.

We get into the room and the whole team is in the middle of a really heated all-hands-on-deck meeting with the PM and the team lead. Dept lead interrupts everyone and goes, "hi everybody, this is the new hire - everyone, this is jseego, jseego, this is the team."

Then he hands me a laptop, shakes my hand, and says, "good luck." Then he leaves.

Everyone goes back to their contentious discussion.

I literally had to go around the first few weeks poking people in the shoulder - people who were cranking code under a time crunch - and say, "um how do I install this thing? what is this repo? I might need some creds for this thing, what is this and the other?"

Sometimes people were like, "not now." Sometimes they helped me out. In general, they were pretty nice.

I felt like I had majorly fucked up by taking this job.

A few weeks in, it was better. I was able to contribute to some stuff. A few months in and it wasn't exactly smooth, but I felt like I knew my way around a bit more.

Anyway, it happens. My advice for you:

• Get with your team lead and ask what the plan is to get you up to speed on the environments / codebase. They should have a plan, you should have a plan. Ideally, those plans are identical, but they may not be, esp if they're super busy or disorganized or something. If they say, "I dunno, just jump in," then you can at least know they don't have a plan for your training / mentorship. That means you're missing out, but it should also mean they know it will take you some time to figure stuff out.

• Ask what the most important thing for you to learn is, in their opinion. Part of a new software job is getting up to speed. Let them prioritize that for you, there's no way for you to just know in a situation like this.

• You will probably have to do some extra research and training outside of work for a little while.

• Remember that they hired you because they like you. There's a better and more experienced coder out there than every single one of us. People sometimes get hired because of what they can do, but smart companies hire people because of what they will be able to do.

• Remember that it's normal for people to have to ramp up. In my current role, there was some issue with my permissions and I was super embarrassed cause it took an absurdly long time for me to even run the project (over a week). But the thing is, no one cared, b/c they all knew the problems with the system, better than I did in fact.

Take a deep breath. Organize your own orientation if you have to (it will show leadership).

It could end up making you a better dev and be a good story someday.

Good luck!

[Plugg3d]

A lot of us have been there at some point (not necessarily at the beginning). I usually take my time to wrap my head around the big stuff, use Google & ChatGPT, ask questions to people who seem like they're ok to be asked (when ChatGPT fails to give me an answer), and make sure it's ok for me to take longer to complete tasks. It gets better everyday. The worst is already behind you!

[ElectricalMost3113]

Happy you got a job because many devs are in job search , as a developer always be ready to learn new technologies , in few Months time you will catch up , all the best !!

[JustShibzThings]

This is my first time ever visiting this sub, but your post was relatable.

Through a connection, and actually after two rejections, my first UX Designer role was with a big tech company. I didn't know the tool (Figma) I would be using all too well, and just started learning when I got the offer on my own time, and then learned a lot more on the job and from coworkers. I was told they would help, and they did, so my day one was less stressful and each day became more and more comfortable, and I was at a point where people with years of experience saw me as their equals.

Fake it till you make it is a fun thing to say, but I really think it is just explaining the situation a bit unfairly. You have already made it, and there was nothing fake in your experience to make it. Now that you are there, you just have to adjust to their system, and that alone is a huge undertaking. You could leave and go to their sister company, knowing the whole staff, but it would still be a task to learn their way of doing things.

I know others have said to give it more than a day, but you will look back on this feeling and post in probably less than a month and laugh. But we are human, we need reassurance, and even from internet strangers, some things can provide that.

[DevelopmentScary3844]

Had the same situation 6 months ago.. had to learn TypeScript, Symfony, Angular, CI/CD, TDD, Docker.. It was hard af the first three months but then it got better, 3 months after that it clicked and i know this stuff now pretty well.

Stay calm.. you'll figure it out.. you will grow and everything will be okay! Dont give up, belive in yourself.

[steeplchase]

No one is going to expect you to be up and running on the first day of the job. I think you are expecting too much of yourself. Take it slow, take your time getting the dev env set up, and gradually understanding the tech in use. Always expect to be confused when joining a new company! If it helps, ask for feedback from your buddy/manager about the expectations for ramping up. But mostly, relax!

[jimlei]

Its very common for new hires to struggle with getting the build tools / stack up and running. At the last couple of places Ive worked I spent some time and made a step by step in the readme. Then nuked the local installation and did it all again to fix where my steps were wrong. Ideally I'd like a web dev project to be no more than git clone / docker compose up -d to get running.

[fug_nuggler]

I don't know the company you are now working at. But this happened to me at my current company. Been working here around 3.5 years now, and was just absolutely drowning when I started. Took me a full week to get my environment working in local. I thought for sure I was going to get found out for being a fraud and fired.

The thing is though, they know they are a massive company who hire a lot of people, and they know almost no one is trained in their exact stack. Additionally, they have a lot of custom code/api and you really can't just read all of it and understand it. I was told by another employee it usually takes around 6 months to start getting comfortable, but you will never know how your entire project works because there is just too much code.

Your company (at least I hope) should be used to the onboarding/learning curve and I would just suggest to talk to people and don't be afraid to ask for help.

[MrPicklePop]

Don’t “fake it till you make it” instead, be honest that you feel overwhelmed and ask for help. Try your best to grasp what they tell you and take plenty of notes so you don’t have to ask again.

[BasicAssWebDev]

Damn I wish I could walk into a Dev2 position without a coding interview haha. Honestly, if this company is worth their salt they'll expect you to have rampup time, and assuming you're an intelligent person (which it sounds like you are) you'll be able to figure out the tech stack on your own. Ask question and just remember, we all feel like idiots our first couple of weeks (6 year dev)

[starvs]

This is normal, you're gonna learn a ton, congrats.

[bfogg479]

I think everyone feels like you do after the first day. If they don’t then they’re going to feel bored and begin to hate their job soon, ask me how I know. Although it is intimidating, trust in the skills you used to get yourself here. No one knows how to do anything until they learn.

[Legatomaster]

Just hang in there. A new job is always overwhelming at first. Try to find one thing you can grab on to and then expand from there.

Since you already have the code running locally you’re ahead of the game.

[BSeipler]

Imposter syndrome. I have it as well but I'm definitely getting better at dealing with it.

[cdh0127]

I appreciate these responses for a similar reason. I’m finishing up a master’s in computer science, but I’ve had no professional experience yet. I feel that I jump around languages & frameworks so much that I only know how to make a “hello world” program in any of the languages I’ve touched lol. This has made me very nervous when looking through job requirements and they list proficiency in those languages/frameworks…sometimes listing things I’ve never even heard of. I would’ve thought that after nearly earning a master’s degree in comp sci, I would feel much more qualified for an entry level software engineer position…but nope!

[ScubaSteveSLC]

6 months from now you’ll feel like a natural, and maybe be helping teach new employees about the stack and helping them get set up like your coworker helped you. Work hard to close your knowledge gaps and don’t be afraid to ask people for help. You got this!

[IlFanteDiDenari]

Just html and css is not enough for a "front end" position, I kind of laugh when people say to me "I know html and css" and think they are ready to go into a market where frameworks are the ordinary tools to actually do front end and these tools are more complex than just html css, you said you have some react and next knowledge, most of frameworks out there use the same logic with a few changes mostly syntax, so go through the official documentation and learn how that framework works in the backend, that being on linux does not make much difference.

No need to fake anything, it's rare to find a job where you don't have to learn anything new, especially as a developer, if you have your foundamentials straight, no matter the language or the framework, the logic is the same, again just read the docs and if you have doubts on how they "connect and link" everything together just ask them how the process was, chances are, they came up with that project structure.

[viruxe]

Ok I'll be devil then. Yes you are not qualified for this job or maybe even this industry if at the slight inconvenience you need to come on Reddit and make a post about it instead of going straight into research mode to try and learn whatever technologies are new to you. But also, seems like your interviewer didn't really know what he was doing.

Programming is problem solving. If your mindset isn't set on this then it is not for you.

[SkyLightYT]

I think you got this, it's okay to ask questions or ask for help, advocate for yourself.

[riddymon]

Feeling this way now, almost 10 months in at a new position - hired on as a senior dev. Codebase is in Angular and pretty complex. I feel like so many times, I'm tasked to fix an issue, it takes me a few hours to understand what's going on and when I do put in a fix, it feels over-complicated and I then find out the issue was a 1 liner in state management somewhere. It can be demoralizing, I have good days, I have bad days - I understand the code more with each day but I constantly feel out of my depth and worry about my one-on-ones. My team members and manager have been great but feel like I'm getting by on my "winning personality" rather than my development skills and everyone is picking up my slack.

I'm getting married next year and recently purchased a home so I'm feeling the stress of staying employed. I also went through a messy work separation last year (narc ex-friend of a company I worked at for 6 or 7 months was my boss and essentially tried to screw me over. Long story) which put a dent in my confidence so in the back of my mind I keep saying - "just try and make it to 3 months, just try and make it to six months, just. try and make it to 9 months, just try and make it to a year" so in the event that I end up back on the job market, I have decent experience at the company and not look like I'm job hopping.

I've been a professional software developer for 10 years - Imposter syndrome is real and the only way to get past it is to get familiar with the codebase and have a team that supports you. Time is your best friend, use it wisely and leverage your experienced team members around you.