- Be a sponge and ruthlessly seek to maximise knowledge by asking questions. You’re in a perfect position to do so because you’re not expected to know much.
- Learn how to ask for help, properly. Show that you’ve exhausted yourself and have taken reasonable initiative, always. Explain your understanding of the problem, your goals, and your assumptions. List all the things you tried. Explain why each failed. “I’d appreciate it if you could point me in the next direction.”
- Technical skills are abundant and aren’t sufficient alone to impress people. You must be extremely technically competent and someone with excellent communication skills.
- Don’t be a hotshot junior. You’ll cringe at yourself and fall into arrogant thinking patterns.
- Document everything you do. My personal thoughts are to do this every day. Don’t let a day slip by where you didn’t know what you focused on. Start from day 1 of your professional working life.
- Just ship it. Get it out even if it’s very crude.
- Know your main programming language, to the bottom.