softie-ramble

Leading up to my full-time employment as a junior software engineer at Amazon, I've had a couple stints as an intern. The work terms each comprised of 4 months of focused work. My manager and mentor would work together to define the scope of the project and tasks I would implement by term's end.

The main measuring stick at this time of success, and a return offer would be: how closely the actual deliverables aligned with the expected milestone dates. If there was a deviation, were the circumstances / situations that presented itself reasonable enough to give context around the late deliverables.

What's equally more important is the intern's ability to follow instruction, listen to feedback, implement them, and how they presented themselves. As a golden rule, don't be a dick.

I returned as a junior engineer in 2013 in the summer. The days were long, black-eyed-pea's songs kept punishing my ears. My work day starts and ends with an hour commute to and from Toronto downtown core. The smell of cinnamon buns when entering the concourse would put me in a good mood. I grab some coffee, head into the office, greet my coworkers for stand up, and get to work.

Expectations

The expectations as a junior engineer are pretty well known. It involves gaining skills in the following areas: – write code, tests and deploying – learn from others through code reviews, interactions, and meetings – learn verbal and written communication skills – write stories and tasks, estimate points, learn SDLC – scope project, propose solutions, write ups

I needed to be in LEARNING mode. Personally, I felt the hardest part is to balance between relying too much and not enough on my coworkers. If you ask too few questions, and you'll waste hours not getting anywhere; if you ask too many questions, you won't learn to feel comfortable with the unknown and risk being a nuisance to your more senior engineers. I think having a conversation with your manager on this topic should provide some you a reasonable frame of reference on what they expect.

Lifestyle

There are countless articles, videos on how to save money. Instead I think along the two axis of saving for your future, vs. spending to garner experiences.

Being in this industry as an software engineer, this will probably be your first taste of financial freedom (student-loan-debt withstanding). You probably won't have more free time in your working life than now — make the most of it.

Spend time with your friends (or to make new ones), discover activities and discover your city.

Try to limit spending on material / consumer goods. It only makes cleaning up, selling them and moving more difficult. At the end of the day it'll just make your wallet lighter.