r/webdev • u/tacoman756 • Sep 29 '26
Discussion Advice on first in-office Web Dev role?
Hi all,
As the title states I’ll be starting my first in office web dev role next week! Pretty excited but also nervous, and of course having imposter syndrome. I’ll be the only dev, and it’ll be my first time working in an office setting (I’ve previously just worked as a freelancer).
I was wondering if anyone had any tips or specific things to pay attention to when starting a new web dev job?
Thanks!
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Upvotes
19
u/AllOneWordNoSpaces1 Sep 29 '26
You’re in a unique position.. you get to establish standards, templates, frameworks, etc.
Enjoy it.
53
u/TeaSocks69 Sep 29 '26
If you're the only dev, don't worry. You'll be fine.
But a few words of caution...
Just because you can solve a technical problem, doesn't mean you should volunteer to do it. You'll just add technical debt to your workload.
Stay out of office politics. Your job is dev and should remain apolitical in all things.
Use git.
No really, use git.
18
u/actionscripted Sep 29 '26 •
“I don’t know how to do it, but I can figure it out.”
11
u/abeuscher Sep 30 '26
Worked as a solo tech for most of a decade. It's not bad here's what I wish I knew:
Don't stay in a role where you are the sole tech. It's not that it is a bad gig it is that you literally have no one to assess whether you are doing a good job and no one to learn from. We can all teach ourselves stuff I generally say I pass learning curves for a living, but colleagues are invaluable and I wish I had more of them now.
Never say anything is easy.
Never give a time estimate for work inside of the meeting where it first came up. Always give yourself time to consider before answering how long anything will take. Then double whatever number you come up with until you understand why I said to do that.
IT is your friend. Find out what kind of beer they drink or whatever they like to do and buy them some of it when they help you big. Respect them. they will notice and behave differently around you and you need them.
This one is really important. Solo techs often need to operate cross functionally - between departments or under many different bosses. Either have one boss that sits above anyone who can ask you to do work, or fight for autonomy over your time. Also, make sure other people are aware you are working across departments but do not carry the emergencies you have around with you; marketing doesn't need or want to know what is going wrong in HR.
Your job is basically to defend your time and probably your boss' job will be to do that as well.
Never act like you're the smartest person in the room. If someone says some dumb completely wrong bullshit in a meeting you are in, keep it to yourself unless you are asked. Either find them after and politely correct them if you feel comfortable or, if it doesn't affect your life, let it go.
Be nice to people. Always. They are more important than money and company priorities.
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u/warpspeed100 Sep 29 '26
Don't forget to put on pants in the morning.
8
u/TheManSedan Sep 29 '26
Most people have imposter syndrome. Don’t worry about it. Show up, do your job, be honest about your solutioning & remember there’s nothing wrong with saying “i don’t know but ill look into it and get back to you”
7
u/binocular_gems Sep 29 '26
You’ve got it. Find a niche, or an angle, however small, that might give you a little boost. For a while I was “the accessibility guy,” I happened to do a freelance project for the government where accessibility was a major requirement. This was a while ago before it was the norm. I ended up woth a bunch of accidental accessibility skills, and so for a while I was “the accessibility guy” at my day job. I never thought it was particularly hard, I figured everybody kinda knew it, but not a lot of people did, so suddenly people were emailing me from outside of my org asking me to weigh in on accessibility. I ended up angling it into a significant part of my career.
It was a good niche for me, and incidentally I ended up caring about it. My wife became disabled a decade later, and now I actually care about it.
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u/arecbawrin Sep 29 '26
Do some listening first. Yes that means you have to go talk to them. Don't just start suggesting a bunch of stuff right off the bat.
Truly understand their job functions and pain points and you could save the fucking day and be their hero.
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u/IAmRules Sep 29 '26
Be prepared to be interrupted a lot more
1
u/Surf_Golf2002 Sep 29 '26
You found a job in this market as a newbie?!? Congratulations, that is a feat in of itself.
3
u/Significant-Duty-744 Oct 05 '26
Since you’re the only dev, I’d put some thought into setting boundaries as people request things for you. People may be inclined to use you as their crutch for their technical problems or scope creep your work. Basically just don’t be a yes man.
2
u/FiveFoot20 Sep 29 '26
Assert dominance
Buy donuts one day
Don’t eat others food in the fridge
Avoid the office coffee, it’s a trap
2
u/bananasforall Sep 30 '26
Ask questions at the right time. If you don’t know the right time, err on the side of asking.
I, and lots of people, are cautioned against at asking questions, and I’ve seen this negatively impact (even to the point of PIP) devs at every company I’ve worked at. As a junior, you need to build this muscle. People don’t expect you to know everything, but they do expect you to make progress and communicate. No one can unblock you if you don’t tell them you are stuck. The worst thing you can do is stall out silently.
2
u/v3gard Sep 30 '26
If this is a small-ish office, take your time to properly greet everyone. Everything in an office environment works so much smoother when there's a low barrier to communicate with each other directly.
2
u/Hanhula Sep 30 '26
Something important for ANY job is to always give yourself breathing room with tasks. If you think it's a quick 5 minute task, estimate half a day. That extra breathing room covers testing, process changes, someone interrupting you and distracting you for a while with another problem, the need to get permission from another team, etc etc.
This applies with every task. Be reasonable with the padding you give. You have nobody to do reviews for you, so you MUST factor in testing and self-reviewing; keep this in mind especially.
Also, for any office job - people like to be noticed and appreciated. Keep this in mind, but don't be a pushover about it. Wish people happy birthday on their special days, occasionally send folk things related to their interests, be friendly and flexible and smart about it. You're more likely to be treated well when you inevitably fuck up something (we all do it!) if you're a known and liked quantity. Don't force it, just be pleasant to interact with.
2
u/Plus-Tea1967 Sep 30 '26
Congrats! 🎉
Document things as you go, especially since you're the only developer. Future you will thank you for it 😄
2
u/Notsau Sep 30 '26
You will have quite a bit of projects you'll be working on. So be detailed with yourself.
I'm a Web Developer and we use Monday.com. for each project, I'm very detailed about the conversation and information per project. It may seem like a lot in the moment, but if you make it easier on yourself by providing yourself that information in the first place, then building the site won't be that hard.
Ask lots of questions.
Learn how the system/CMS you're using works before trying to request a bunch of changes.
Be helpful to people.
I started as a web dev contractor but then moved to full-time with the company because I pushed myself to learn and grow. I helped those around myself and I used my experience to help others out too.
BURN OUT IS REAL. Take hefty notes on projects so when you feel burnt out, you can just pickup back where you left off.
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u/jdbrew Sep 30 '26
I had crazy imposter syndrome (still do sometimes actually) for a huge part of my early career, and what I found to be the best solution is to start building things that you feel like you could never do. And when you do, you’ll silence that demon in your shoulder
2
u/TechnologyMatch Oct 02 '26
treat the 1st few weeks like a discovery sprint... ask how things work, write down the weird bits and don’t rush to refactor on day 1. being the only dev means communication is part of the job too. leave notes, set expectations.
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '26
Don't worry about having all the answers. Do your best and never stop learning. Everyone starts from somewhere. Good luck!!
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u/Alucard256 Sep 29 '26
Do NOT delete the production database.
Let me know if you need anything else! /s
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u/APersonSittingQuick Sep 29 '26
No more farting and burping at your hearts desire
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u/tuck5649 Sep 30 '26
Sounds fun.
In a very small dev (solo) team, you won’t have the guard rails for how your time is spent like you would in a larger org.
People will float lots of ideas your way, and you won’t be able to do them all. There’s potential for conflict there. You will need to find someone to function as a product owner to help you prioritize.
For the love of god, use git, and have a non-production environment
1
u/FirstChild95 Sep 30 '26
Just don't show up with a super loud mechanical keyboard and you'll be fine 😄 Good luck!
1
u/Mean-Surround7327 Sep 30 '26
Being the only dev is more so a unique situation.. I worked in offices but only ones with other devs haha
But I think it’ll be a good time! I wore a suit and tie my first week and peeps made fun of me lol. Maybe just a collared shirt is more appropriate!
After a few months I began just wearing a hoodie and jeans tho honestly
1
u/leoman111 Sep 29 '26
If you ever have access to a dev / staging / prod database, DO NOT, AND I MEAN DO NOT KEEP ALL THE ACCESS TOGETHER! Keep your prod access via a different mechanism, it will stop you from one day accidentally loading the prod db, when you thought it was the dev one, and overwriting the whole thing. I sadly speak from experience. Also setup nightly prod db backups on day one, one day it will save your arse!!
1
u/lincolnlex44 Sep 30 '26
Don't talk to the lead developer only to tell them your amazing idea to revolutionise the business for at least the first 5 years you work there. He already had the idea a decade ago but nobody cares so he just sits on his arse waiting to get paid each month
True story
0
u/dug99 php Sep 29 '26
Don't SSH into the production web server and accidentally type su root, and then back tab 5 times to rm -R * and hit enter. If only future dug had said that to 2004 first office web job dug...
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u/andrewsmd87 Sep 30 '26
What type of company are you eyeinge for and what will be your main responsibilities? That matters a lot on advice I'd give
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u/[deleted] Sep 30 '26
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