How to thrive as a junior engineer: Tips and insights
Starting an engineering career can be both exciting and overwhelming—I know, I’ve been there. Life comes at you fast; bugs get reported, features get requested, meetings get scheduled. You have to navigate uncertainty, learn fast, and grow from mistakes—which happen, and that’s ok! Below I’ll share lessons from my journey—from beginning my career at a startup to then growing from junior to mid-level engineer at GitHub in just 2.5 years—to hopefully help early-in-career engineers succeed in any company. How you can help yourself grow as a junior engineer Growth as a junior engineer comes down to actively seeking out learning opportunities and taking responsibility for your progress. Here are a few strategies that helped me progress quickly, from asking the right questions to making my work visible and building connections with my team. Embrace the learning curve Asking questions is a strength, not a weakness. What really brought me forward was embracing every learning opportunity. I soaked up knowledge like a sponge. I exposed what I didn’t know daily, which helped me fill the gaps fast. It’s tempting to prove yourself by figuring everything out alone, but asking questions isn’t ignorance—it’s curiosity and initiative. Before asking for help on a problem, I also set a one-hour limit, which gave me time to try to find answers independently, while avoiding getting stuck in an endless loop of frustration. That said, knowing what to ask can be really helpful. While asking questions should be a regular habit, having a few key questions in your back pocket is a great way to get started and guide those early conversations. Here are a few questions I think every junior engineer could benefit from asking their mentors or teammates: Are there any common mistakes you see juniors make and how can I avoid them? How do you approach debugging when things aren’t working as expected? How do we prioritize tasks when everything feels urgent? Are there any habits or practices that have helped you level up in your career? And a question to ask yourself: Am I taking the time to learn from my mistakes and finding ways to do better next time? Make growth and progress visible “Proof or it didn’t happen” is a common phrase and it’s true: Showcasing your work and progress is essential. Find ways to share what you’re learning, whether it’s writing about challenges you’ve overcome, contributing to documentation, or suggesting improvements to established processes through your fresh perspective. Before I started working at GitHub, I was at a small startup. In a team of six to eight engineers, it was impossible for achievements to go unnoticed. But in a larger company, it doesn’t always work the same way. Doing great work is still vital, but with so many projects, meetings, and moving parts, it can be easy to get overlooked in the hustle and bustle. It took me some time to get the hang of this, but eventually I developed a knack for it. If I got stuck on some undocumented functionality, I made sure to update the docs and let the team know. Or, if I was tackling a tricky bug that required a lot of cross-team collaboration, I’d summarize everything we discovered so that it would be easier for others to pick up later. Close a gnarly bug that was passed around for centuries? Adjust the team’s project board to make it more efficient? I post about it in Slack and highlight its impact. Communicate your way to success Good teamwork isn’t just about solving complex problems—it’s about bringing the team along for the ride. It’s not just about getting things done: It’s about getting them done together. Keep your communication clear, simple, and make sure progress, blockers, and decisions are easy to track. Found a hack for a tricky problem? Write a team post about it! Led a cross-team discussion to create clarity on a vague problem? Create an entry in the decision log! Your team, stakeholders, and the future you will be grateful. Build a network Networking is more than making small talk at events, it’s about building strong, authentic relationships with your coworkers. Lean on senior engineers for guidance: they’ve been there, done that. Dive into internal communities, contribute and learn from them, set up cross-team coffee chats and volunteer to pair. And don’t just take, help others shine too. Share your knowledge, support your teammates and you’ll be known as the go-to person who makes the team stronger. This doesn’t only help your teammates, but also boosts your visibility. This can show up in peer reviews and play a big role when it’s time for promotions. Focus on depth before breadth In the beginning, I thought I had to master the entire software delivery process: write a Rails backend, build a React frontend, and somehow wing the AWS part. Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen. I quickly realized that trying to juggle all of that led to a lot of half-understood concepts and not much real progress. Instead, I focused on the skills I needed right away, building depth before branching out. With so many technologies and moving parts, it’s easy to nibble at everything without real progress. That doesn’t mean stifling curiosity—you need it in this industry—but sometimes, you have to put your blinkers on and tackle what’s in front of you first. Fight imposter syndrome Who hasn’t had that sneaky thought, “What if they find out I don’t know as much as they think I do?” Imposter syndrome can quietly undermine your confidence, making you hesitate to collaborate, speak up, or advocate for yourself. Over time, it can hold you back from promotions and make you less effective as a collaborator. Be aware when it starts to sneak in, and take steps to address it early. Ask mentors and peers for perspective, track your wins (you’ll be surprised how many add up), and remind yourself that growth comes from embracing the journey, not from being perfect. How teams can help early-in-profession
