Adapting and Excelling at Your First Job out of School, Remotely

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Maitri Shah
February 24th 2021

I started my first job (SWE @ NerdWallet) out of school back in May. Like a lot of my peers, I started remotely. I remember feeling nervous and anxious about transitioning and adapting to this new way of working. I already had feelings of imposter syndrome (I hope my team likes me, I hope they think I’m smart, …) and having to start remotely, well, I was not here for it. But the situation was out of my control and if COVID taught us anything, it was the need to adapt.

How would I ask questions? How will I collaborate with others? How will I meet people and make friends? How do I optimize my space to make me feel productive? How will I put myself out there and contribute to the company in ways I envisioned? Will it take longer for me to grow in my role? These were some questions that ran through my head all the time when I first started work.

Initially, work from home was an adjustment, but after some time, it grew on me. I put the time I saved commuting towards extra sleep and having ample time for a proper morning routine (with proper skincare, breakfast, and a good book). 8 months in, I’ve learned how to make WFH work for me and create systems that help me thrive at work. Here’s what I’ve learned:


  • Ask lots of questions: this may seem obvious but asking questions in a remote environment feels different than a tap on a shoulder at work. It feels more formal: having to Slack a co-worker, wait for them to respond, and set up a Zoom is a lot more work than it used to be. However, people at work were really appreciative and open towards all the questions I had and frequently offered to codepair and whiteboard on Zoom.

  • Make a cheat sheet: you will learn a *ton* at your job, and you’ll start building a tool kit for yourself. In order to save myself time from googling the same thing multiple times or asking someone a repeat question, I made a document of tools, tips, and tricks that I refer back to (featuring some git hacks, links to documentation on internal tooling, troubleshooting, etc).

javascript code

sneak peek of my cheatsheet

  • There’s advantages to being a beginner: you bring fresh experience and have the license to “act like a beginner”. There’s less trepidation to failure and asking questions where “you should know the answer”. However, I’ve come to notice that even 8 months in, I still ask lots of questions, but the types and depth of questions I ask evolves and has greater complexity over time. I still have my fair share of what feels like “dumb” blunders or naive questions, but hey, I’m here to learn, grow, make mistakes, repeat.

  • Keep track of your accomplishments, technical, and non-technical: Our team works in sprints, so I have one doc for my sprint accomplishments and one doc where I keep track of my quarterly goals. Currently I’m thinking of keeping a daily log of what I accomplish at work which when I look back will 1) allow me to include more granular detail in my reviews and 2) show me how much I’ve learned. I also have a doc of screenshots for when my coworkers saw value in what I did, and I look back at it from time to time to see how far I’ve come. We all have accomplished more than we give ourselves, so now is the time to own it!

Maitri review

looking back at what my coworkers say about me makes me 🥺

  • See something that needs to be improved? Fix it! If you find code that’s unused while working on a task, remove it. If you work through a challenge that doesn’t have documentation, create it yourself. If you see a flaw in the way your team runs, speak up and propose some suggestions. It shows you have initiative and you’re involving yourself in areas outside of your assigned work.

  • Bring your unapologetic self to work: I’m a very social and extracurricular person: I like talking to people and bringing people together. When I first started working, I realized that I was getting more technical help than I was giving, so I thought of ways that I could uniquely contribute to my team’s culture. I hosted lunches and game sessions, added my own flair to our scrum procedures, and got involved with the women in tech group at NerdWallet, helping put together a panel on how to transition from IC to management and co-hosting a session on the state of women in tech and be a more effective advocate and ally. I love taking initiative and turning my visions for what I want my workplace to look like — it can be hard to do so but it’s very rewarding (internally, and externally). People appreciate it when others take initiative, don’t need to be asked to do something, and find ways to do better.

  • Take breaks every so often: I like to stretch and make a few rounds around my neighborhood during my break time to get some air and movement in. It gives my mind a break to recharge, and feel refreshed/ready to smash more PRs.

picture of clouds in the sky

I love taking pictures of ☁️ on my walks

  • Come prepared with a list of questions to your meetings with your manager and mentors. I have a running list of questions that I have for my manager and each mentor, which helps me see my progress and types of questions I’ve asked, helps me stay organized and optimize the time for the meeting.


I hope this helps in any way!