5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Job

Summary

Manisha Panu shares five lessons from her first year as a full-time software developer at Amazon, informed by eight months of internships at Microsoft and Amazon. Her central point is that getting hired is only the start. Succeeding at work depends on learning, communication, collaboration, and accountability—not on knowing everything from day one.

Key lessons and actionable practices

• You aren’t expected to know everything immediately. A new employee may need time to understand a company’s codebase, systems, services, and tools before making changes. Being effective means learning what you don’t know.

  • Ask thoughtful questions to understand how systems work and why decisions were made.
  • Don’t pretend to understand something in a meeting; ask for clarification when needed.

• Ask for help with context. Investigate a problem before escalating it, but don’t stay stuck for hours just to avoid asking.

  • Review relevant code, logs, and existing workflows. Identify what you expected to happen and what actually happened.
  • When requesting help, explain what you tried, what you observed, and where you’re blocked.
  • AI tools can help with initial research, such as interpreting errors or unfamiliar code. Follow company policies on sharing internal information, and verify AI-generated suggestions.

• Treat reviews and feedback as part of the learning process. Code review comments are generally about improving the work, not judging the person.

  • Ask questions to understand the reasoning behind feedback.
  • Don’t accept every suggestion blindly or defend your work reflexively. Explain your rationale and discuss trade-offs to reach the best solution.
  • Use recurring feedback to improve future work.

• Communicate progress, risks, and goals. Delivering good work is important, but teammates and managers also need to understand its status and impact.

  • In regular updates, state what is done, what is in progress, and any blockers. Keep updates concise.
  • Raise risks or schedule concerns early rather than waiting until a deadline approaches.
  • Use one-on-ones to discuss progress, feedback, expectations, development areas, and desired responsibilities.
  • Keep concrete examples of contributions and growth to support performance and promotion discussions.

• Take ownership of outcomes, not just assigned tasks. Completing a task and getting approval is not always the end of the responsibility.

  • Consider the broader problem, system dependencies, edge cases, failure scenarios, and potential effects of changes.
  • Track deliverables, dependencies, blockers, and deadlines. Follow up on needed work and report problems promptly.
  • Ownership does not mean working alone; collaborate and involve others when needed.
  • Check whether the work solved the intended problem, not merely whether the assigned task was completed.

Metrics and timelines

• Manisha had completed one year of full-time work at Amazon at the time of the video.
• She had eight months of internship experience: two months at Microsoft and six months at Amazon.
• No revenue, productivity, performance, or other business KPIs or numerical targets are provided.

Presenter and sources

• Presenter: Manisha Panu, software developer at Amazon.
• Experience cited: Internships at Microsoft and Amazon; the advice is based on her own early-career experience.