| - Until you build a network job hunting is a numbers game. Be ready to apply to hundreds of places. - Be willing to move. During the great recession a lot of my buddies wanted to stay near home and it hurt them a lot. I moved across the country and have been the better for it. - Be thoughtful about your partner/spouse choices. I married admittedly younger than most do now but your long term partners/spouse will have a huge impact on things like work and where you live. Make sure those are aligned well. - Don't lie on your resume but don't be shy either. - Work on your network as much as you can. Hiring is still a networking game no matter how much we wish it weren't. People like to hire people they know. - Stay out of debt! I spent the first couple years paying off bad college credit card mistakes. - Start an emergency fund. I would say at least $1000 but calibrate for where you live. - You're probably living as cheap as you will ever live. Stay that way as long as you can. Don't be too eager to get rid of roommates or upgrade lifestyle any faster than absolutely necessary. - Start a good routine of exercising and eating right. It only gets harder later and time is not forgiving for putting it off. - Start being thoughtful about what you have on social media. This will depend on where you work, live, and want to do but give your last few years of online life a good pass and consider purging anything that doesn't represent who you are now. - Takes courses on ethics, philosophy, speech, and other things that help you to think clearly and speak confidently. |
- Softskill are important, learn how to explain technical problems to non technical people. Try explaining CI/CD pipelines to your non tech friends and see if they understand.
- don't focus on tech all the time, try to understand why people around you are pushing for certain things that "don't make sense" ( there is usually a valid business reason).
- collaborate, don't say no, say "yes but here are the impacts" (it is not up to you/me/or a single person other than the CEO, to know if it is worth it to invest 2 months in what seems like a useless task).