from college to first job

a few months ago, i was a student whose biggest worry was upcoming semester exams. now i have a job, a salary, and the terrifying realization that i'm supposed to be an adult now.

the transition from college to work is weird. nobody really prepares you for it.

placement season chaos

indian engineering college placements are something else. companies come to campus, everyone dresses up in formals they borrowed from seniors, and then the waiting game begins.

my prep routine was chaotic:

dsa practice on leetcode (easy to medium, who actually solves hard?)
mock interviews with friends
reading "system design" articles without really understanding them
memorizing hr answers ("where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "growing with your company, obviously")

// my interview prep in code form
while (!placed) {
    practice_dsa();
    apply_to_companies();
    if (interview) {
        try {
            answer_technical_questions();
            answer_hr_questions();
        } catch (rejection) {
            analyze_what_went_wrong();
            continue;
        }
    }
}
celebrate();

the rejections

before getting an offer, i collected rejections:

one company didn't shortlist me (resume filter)
one company rejected after technical round (couldn't solve a graph problem under pressure)
one company rejected after hr round (still don't know why)

each rejection stung. but looking back, they were necessary. taught me to handle pressure, identify gaps, and keep going.

the rejections you collect on the way to success are just tuition fees.

the offer

when the offer finally came, it didn't feel real. reading the salary number felt surreal. this company was going to pay me money to write code? every month?

the imposter syndrome kicked in immediately. what if they realize i don't actually know that much? what if my leetcode skills don't translate to real work?

first day at work

showed up in ironed clothes (mom's orders), laptop in hand (personal, company laptop would arrive later), nervous energy at maximum.

what i expected: intense coding, meetings with important people, working on critical features.

what i got: hr paperwork, setting up email, figuring out how to connect to the vpn.

first week was mostly onboarding. reading documentation. getting access to systems. virtual meetings where i barely spoke.

the adjustment period

real work is different from college projects in ways i didn't expect:

the codebase is huge. college project: 2000 lines i wrote myself. work codebase: millions of lines written by hundreds of people over years.

# me trying to understand the codebase
git log --oneline | wc -l
# 15000+ commits
# great, i'll just read all of these

legacy code is real. that code pattern you read articles calling "anti-pattern"? it's everywhere in production. and it works. so you leave it alone.

meetings exist. so many meetings. standups, planning, reviews, syncs. some useful, many could've been emails.

asking for help is okay. in college, asking felt like admitting failure. at work, asking is just efficient. seniors expect juniors to ask questions.

things nobody tells you

the learning curve is steep, then flattens. first month: overwhelming. second month: slightly less overwhelming. third month: you start recognizing file names.

work-life balance is your responsibility. in college, the day naturally ends. at work, you could keep working forever. setting boundaries is on you.

your code will be reviewed. someone will read your code and comment on it. this is terrifying at first, then helpful, then normal.

office politics exist. but as a junior, you can mostly stay out of it. just do your work, be nice, and observe.

salary feels different when it's yours. that first salary hitting the bank account hits different. not allowance, not gift. earned.

what helped the transition

a few things made it easier:

accepting that i'm a beginner again. i had to let go of my college confidence and embrace learning mode.
finding a work buddy. another new joiner i could share confusion and venting with.
keeping a work journal. what i learned, what i struggled with, what i want to ask. helps when you feel like you're not progressing.
maintaining hobbies. work can't be everything. kept coding side projects, reading, going to the gym.
being patient. three months in, i still don't fully "get" the system. apparently that's normal.

looking back

the transition is harder than it looks. you go from a structured environment where your only job is to learn, to an unstructured environment where you need to produce.

but it's also exciting. you're finally using the skills you spent years building. you're part of something bigger. and you're getting paid for it.

to anyone about to make this transition: it's messy, confusing, and sometimes overwhelming. but it gets better. and you'll look back at your first-day nervousness and smile.

also, save your first salary. don't blow it all on that thing you've been eyeing. financial advice nobody asked for, but there you go.

*from college to first job