During these 2 months I’ve succeeded a lot, but never forgot to fail at the same time 🙂 However, I guess that failures almost don’t exist as all of them help you to grow up. That’s why I am going to share with you my top 3 DONT’s that this internship has taught me, which are actually DO’s if you paraphrase them the right way 😉
1. Don’t be afraid of Git
Almost anything in Git can be reverted. Once I understood that my relationship with Git became so much easier! It felt like the wall between me and Git just felt down. I became so interested in doing things there that I started searching for commands I was rather curious about than I really needed to use at the moment. Now I know for sure: you can master Git only by practice.
2. Don’t think that if a developer is more experienced than you, they’re always right
Many times I assumed that the code written by more experienced developers must be flawless. So, often I would use it as an example. However, at some point, I understood, that we’re all human beings and we all make mistakes sometimes. You really need to double-check all the things you get or find by yourself. Even if they are coming from seniors. Of course, these are rather rare situations. In the first place, you should soak up all information like a sponge. Every day of my programming life I realize how little I know. Still, there were situations when it was me who came up with a solution. The point is: never underestimate yourself 🙂
3. Don’t write code that just works. Write code that is easy to understand, change and extend
It takes time. It really does. Writing a lot of functions, plenty of different small classes and constantly thinking how to improve your code even more — all of it is a huge effort. But while working on a project that is changing all the time you’ll understand how much it helps you. Furthermore, next developers, who will be working on the project after you, will thank you a lot, believe me.
And the last bonus from me — remember: nobody will teach you better than yourself!
P.S. Hope we will meet somewhere again with all of you! Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding how it really is to be an intern in Schibsted Tech Polska 😉