Read on Twitter
I got a CS degree, which is a good foundation on programming languages. But I learned everything about web development at my first job. My first week, my boss dropped the O& #39;Reilly book about HTML on my desk. "Read these chapters. We& #39;re gonna make some forms". https://twitter.com/operaqueenie/status/1289941661838008321">https://twitter.com/operaquee...
There is a lot to unpack here that a lot of people aren& #39;t going to want to hear. This was a great opportunity for on the job training. It played out the way many people *say* it should work. But it& #39;s also not what people *ask* for from employers these days.
I was given a lot of room to be inexperienced at my first job. But I still had to take ownership of my own learning and be responsible for growing quickly. If I wasn& #39;t prepared to read that book and actually understand a lot of what it said, I would& #39;ve been in trouble.
Instead I see a lot of people talking about how technical writing is inaccessible and that& #39;s the reason they& #39;re not able to grow. Technical writing can and should get better. But you can& #39;t let that be your barrier today.
I started building web pages. But of course even after reading that book, I was getting it wrong. Forgetting attributes, missing closing tags, etc. I worked with senior engineers who& #39;s job it was to look at me code and tell me I was doing it wrong.
I called that mentorship and I thought it was great. Today mentorship refers to something else. And that kind dynamic with senior engineers might be called toxic. Because people don& #39;t expect to be told they& #39;re doing it wrong.
This one is tough. Because there are certainly many dysfunctions in tech that can rightly be called toxic. But some people are finding it difficult to navigate what& #39;s toxic and what& #39;s not. And the result is they are not getting feedback about their work.
There is one big difference between my early work experience and what I see today. My first job was hiring a bunch of people straight out of college. I was part of a group of peers of similar age who were all going through the same thing as me. That was important.
At a lot of tech startups, even if you get that coveted "entry level" spot, you& #39;re often the only one. Or one of few who are spread across the department. Building solidarity with peers is a big part of surviving your first years of work. We don& #39;t give that to people enough.
Today, when I build entry level hiring programs, I always organize them into cohorts. At least 3-4 people who will all start at the same time and be onboarded together. The difference in how well those folks work out cannot be overstated.
If you accept a job where you won& #39;t have that peer group, you have to find that kind of solidarity and support elsewhere. It can make the difference in being successful and giving up. For the record, I hang out in @talkdatcode. It& #39;s a great community for Black technologists.
