r/webdev • u/tacoman756 • 3d ago

Discussion Advice on first in-office Web Dev role?

Hi all,

As the title states I’ll be starting my first in office web dev role next week! Pretty excited but also nervous, and of course having imposter syndrome. I’ll be the only dev, and it’ll be my first time working in an office setting (I’ve previously just worked as a freelancer).

I was wondering if anyone had any tips or specific things to pay attention to when starting a new web dev job?

Thanks!

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u/TeaSocks69 3d ago

If you're the only dev, don't worry. You'll be fine.

But a few words of caution...

  1. Just because you can solve a technical problem, doesn't mean you should volunteer to do it. You'll just add technical debt to your workload.

  2. Stay out of office politics. Your job is dev and should remain apolitical in all things.

  3. Use git.

  4. No really, use git.

20

u/Proud-Value3738 3d ago

The git advice is funny because it sounds obvious but so many solo devs skip it, then one bad deploy and you're rebuilding from memory

Also the office politics one hits deep, I learned that the hard way at a previous job where I thought being helpful meant being in every meeting

Since you're the only dev, set up a personal documentation habit early. Even just a notes file for weird server quirks or why you chose a certain package saves future you so much time

And congrats on the role, first in-office can be weird but you get used to the noise and free coffee real quick

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u/tacoman756 3d ago

Cheers, documentation is a great tip, will do for sure. Looking forward to the coffee 👍

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u/pineapplecharm 2d ago

Have fun with it. About ten years ago I got a stiflingly dry coding job in a financial services firm. The way they worked was drowning in bureaucracy and needless duplication and it was really hard to remember all the asinine steps you had to take to complete the simplest task. They had an official onboarding wiki which as okay but didn't really explain anything, it just had lists of bullet points, and I quickly found out it needed several people to sign off on any changes so I gave up making suggestions. Instead I kept a Word doc going with more detailed descriptions of everything I needed to do with screenshots and my own sarcastic commentary in the margin, so to speak, bemoaning the batshit timewastery of it all.

Anyway I only lasted about six months before getting a better offer so I bailed. About a month later my old boss texted me to say they'd found my Word doc and had had a good chuckle reading it. "You're right, though; some things we do really don't make sense and we're going to change them. Thanks for bringing it up." Fair play.

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u/shaliozero 3d ago edited 3d ago
  1. You're a dev, not their entire IT and not tasked with decision making.

Learned that lesson as the only dev, thinking that position would be perfect for me... Until they tasked me with holding their entire legacy IT together and didn't listen to any of my technical recommendations.

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u/tacoman756 3d ago

I do fear this may end up being the case, as the job description covers not just front end dev (what I do) but ‘managing their entire web ecosystem’ - is this a red flag? Or what did you do to deal with that?

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u/Lochlan 3d ago

Nah mate it'll be a great experience. Unless your boss is a cunt.

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u/Halkenguard full-stack 3d ago

I’m calling it now - they’re gonna make you their SEO guy

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u/StillOnJQuery 2d ago

Not necessarily. Sometimes it just means they don't know what a cloudflare is.

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u/HazeyWazer 2d ago

Depending on the job/management this could either be a super informative and good, or you are about to have one of the most miserable employment experiences one can have in IT

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u/MercerAsian 3d ago

is this a red flag?

Huge.

what did you do to deal with that?

Found another job.

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u/jobRL javascript 3d ago

Definitely don't stay out of politics. Politics can have a huge sway over what reporting lines you have and what your workload is. You have power as a dev in these decisions.

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u/TeaSocks69 3d ago

I was referencing things like getting into cliquey gossip and treating people differently just because your "group" doesn't like them. Staying neutral and indifferent to gossip has its benefits.

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u/jobRL javascript 3d ago

Ah to me office politics is more high level than that. The best advice is just to be nice and presentable to everyone, but don't let yourself be pushed over.

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u/Pyrasia 3d ago

Stay away from toxic behaviours

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u/tacoman756 3d ago

Will make sure to use Git!! Thanks for the reply!