Navigating Change: Reflections on the First 10 Days in a New Coding Adventure
Tags: webdev, reflection, career, learning
Published: 2023-11-18 10:51:25

I changed employment and moved into a full-time development role as a Principal Salesforce Developer in the middle of my 30-day JavaScript course. I refer to it as a full-time development post since, at my prior position, I was responsible for both internal system development and end-user support. This transfer compelled me to relocate to a different city within my Country. I had to take care of a lot of moving pieces after such a significant change in my life, so I had to put the 30-day coding challenge on hold. Which brings me to this article, where instead of sharing my first 20 days in the challenge, I shall share my first 10 days in the new role and lessons learnt during this transition.


## Always Lay Your Bed: A Foundation for Smooth Transitions 🛏️

As much as other people are of the view that you ought to create dependency syndrome with the company you work for, in some instances, it is better to finish tasks, document and teach others a thing or two about your work. Allow me to illustrate this with examples. In my previous role, I played a pivotal role in developing in-house systems that became integral to daily operations. Then, this new opportunity came up, and I had just about a week and a half to switch jobs. It wasn't a lot of time, so I spent most of those days writing down everything about the systems—how they work, the code, and the processes. I wanted to make it easier for the person taking over after me. If I had been more focused on finishing up tasks and sharing what I knew with others earlier, the change would have been smoother. 


## Make Decisions based on your personal aspirations 🤔

Life is a journey with lots of different paths, and each of us has our own dreams and directions. I took my last job because it was at a big, well-known place, and I thought having that on my resume would be good, even though it wasn't exactly the kind of coding job I really wanted. However, the job really taught me a lot, made me meet a lot of great people and I am glad I went that route. Before that, I taught programming at the school where I studied. It wasn't a complete coding job, but I liked it because I got to teach programming. Now, this new opportunity came up, and it's a full-on coding role, exactly what I've been aiming for in my career. So, going for this coding role might seem like a step down in the company hierarchy, but I see it as a step forward towards what I genuinely want to do. It's a journey, and I'm hoping this path I'm taking lines up with my goals, and I find satisfaction without any regrets.

## Read the manual 📖

On my first day at my new job, they handed me a project that involved using a sort of preview version of a language, called a Release Candidate (RC). It's like getting a sneak peek at the final version, but there might still be a few issues, like bugs. You won't find a step-by-step YouTube video for this, though. Instead, all I had was a ton of documentation—pages and pages of it. I had to quickly figure out how to use the documentation to make things work with this language. It's not as easy as following a tutorial, but I think if I had been better at it from the start, I wouldn't have had to spend so many hours getting up to speed. This whole experience showed me that while tutorials are good for basics, they only cover what the tutor knows. On the other hand, documentation has everything you can do with a language. I don't dislike tutorials, but the sweet spot is learning the basics from a tutorial and then diving into the documentation to really understand how to make the most out of the language. So, make it a habit to read the manual of every product, or you'll likely end up not using it to its full potential.


## Know your worth 🤑

When it comes to talking about how much you get paid, just be clear about what you think you deserve. Think about how any changes, like moving, might affect you. Don't sell yourself short because you're scared of being rejected, but also don't ask for so much that you miss out on a good job. Tell the potential boss what you want in terms of pay and stick to it. I'm assuming you already have a job or some way of making money because you can negotiate better if you can say, "No thanks, I'll stick with what I've got." But it's not just about the money. Sometimes, the workplace can be a really bad environment, or the job doesn't match up with what you want to achieve. If you're just starting out, it can be tough because you might have lots of skills but not get paid much. For those starting off, I say don't just focus on the money. Think about what you can learn from the job. Money comes and goes, but knowledge sticks with you. Nobody can take away what you've learned, and that kind of knowledge pays off in the long run as long as you keep trying and learning.


## Pray 🙏

I always say no one can convince another to believe fully unless that individual has a personal encounter that shall lead them to believe. I have gone through many paths and hurdles in my life as well as career. One thing that always suffices and gives me peace is prayer. Myles Munroe defined prayer as allowing God to intervene. Thus, it gives me peace knowing that it is all under control even if it might not seem so. The decision to leave a big institution and work for a remote company under a hybrid arrangement was scary. I did all the calculations and had a bunch of what-ifs but still did not find peace. After I prayed about it, I trusted that I would leave and I was at peace with it which was what mattered.

As I navigate this uncharted coding chapter, I'm thrilled to announce the launch of "[The Code Father's Journal](https://madalitsonyemba.substack.com/)" newsletter. Join me on this coding adventure, subscribe, and let's unravel the human side of technology together. Happy coding, fellow adventurers! 🚀