After spending months grinding through LeetCode, polishing your portfolio, and surviving the interview gauntlet, you've finally landed your first programming job. Congratulations - now the real learning begins. Having mentored several junior developers and remembering my own early days, here's what you actually need to know about starting your first dev role in 2025.
The First Few Weeks
Setting up your work environment takes a while
Most companies that have been around for a while usually have internal business processes in place that every employee must be aware of.
And you'll normally require access to everything, from the code base to the 3rd party software that is running somewhere to your email and payroll information. And this takes some time to get to your hands from whomever is responsible for it.
While you might be eager to dive into the codebase, you'll spend time:
- Getting your development environment configured
- Setting up VPN access and various internal tools
- Installing specific versions of languages and frameworks
- Configuring git with company-specific settings
- Setting up CI/CD access and permissions
So prepare to spend the first few weeks in this setup process. It's awkward sometimes, as you are essentially getting paid to install software and such, but fret not. Nobody cares. Everyone had to go through that same process at some point and it is a part of the game.
Not that this is a time relax mind you. It's important to see how the internals of a company work. This is when you get to learn who to go to for software and passwords and such. And really it's when you get to ask for help from your new co-workers and get to see who you are going to be inevitably going to lunch with.
Pro tip: Document your setup process. You'll thank yourself later when you need to reconfigure something, and your team will appreciate having an updated setup guide.
The Codebase Reality Check
That clean, modular code you wrote in bootcamp or college? Yeah, real-world codebases are different. You'll likely encounter:
- Legacy code that "just works" and nobody wants to touch
- Multiple framework versions running simultaneously
- Technical debt that everyone knows about but hasn't had time to address
- Documentation that's either outdated or nonexistent
- Code that makes perfect sense once you understand the business context
Don't be discouraged. This is normal, and learning to work with existing codebases is a crucial skill.
This is actually going to become your default work environment for years, particularly if the project you are working on has been around for 5-10 years.
Daily Worklife
What You'll Actually Be Working On
Despite what job listings might suggest, your first tasks probably won't involve building microservices from scratch or implementing complex algorithms. Expect to do the following for a good long while:
- Fix bugs in existing features
- Add small enhancements to current functionality
- Write unit tests for legacy code
- Update documentation
- Make minor UI adjustments
These tasks are valuable - they help you understand the codebase, business logic, and development workflow without the pressure of major architectural decisions.
You might notice other senior developers working on completely different things and being invited to meetings that you are not welcome in, and that's perfectly normal.
Once you've figured out the lay of the land and your managers trust you with more complex tasks, then you'll be dragged in to meeting after meeting.
Code Reviews
Code reviews may be a significant part of your day. A few things to know:
- I've only had code reviews at 2 out 5 companies that I've worked for
- Most were designed to teach me the proper way, and not so much to rewrite the codebase
- After a few years, no one really reviews your code
In the case where you do work for a company that heavily reviews your code though, you can expect the following:
- Type hints and documentation
- Error handling
- Logging
- Performance considerations
- Company-specific coding standards
The last one being the most important.
Meetings and Communication
Your day won't be just coding. Modern development involves:
- Daily standups (likely remote or hybrid in 2025)
- Sprint planning and retrospectives
- Technical design discussions
- Pair programming sessions
- Documentation reviews
Communication skills matter more than you might expect. Being able to clearly explain your work and challenges is as important as your technical skills.
Not all companies have agile practices in place though. Again, out of all the companies that I worked in only 1 actually had a structured agile plan in place. But they all had daily meetings with core business people and weekly meetings with managers.
Modern Development Practices
In 2025, AI coding assistants are standard tools, but they're not magic. At least not yet.
Most companies (most) are perfectly fine with developers hopping on board the A.I. train, particularly if its going to lead to faster development cycles.
But if you are going to use something like Copilot in your day to day work, then you might want to follow these guidelines:
- Use them for boilerplate code and initial implementations
- Always review and understand the generated code
- Be prepared to explain and justify any AI-generated code in reviews
- Don't rely on them for complex business logic or security-critical code
Growth and Learning
Start building your knowledge base early. Keep notes about codebase-specific patterns that you see daily.
Document solutions to tricky problems that you keep encountering over and over.
Save useful SQL queries or debugging commands, because there's a good chance that you're going to have to come back to it months later.
More than 'getting better at code', growth at a company really comes down to you learning how they operate and what your skills can do to help them and the product.
It's actually pretty fun
The most shocking thing about your first junior level programming job is that it is indeed alot of fun.
For many reasons, but mainly that you have little responsibility and that you will be learning an insane amount of content daily while getting paid.
You'll be a part of a coding team more than likely and people will walk by in awe at your magical coding ability. And that is not an exaggeration. The IT, coding, dev departments are usually the higher paid employees and they control much of what everyone else uses.
Not that you won't be busy. But you will genuinely enjoy what you are doing, so it won't feel like you are too busy.
From personal experience, both as a junior programmer and as someone who worked with junior programmers for years, it's always much worse in your head than in reality.
People are kind and they laugh at your mistakes and help you get back up. They will stay extra hours or come in early to help guide you along the way. And they will smile the day you sit with them and help them solve a tough problem. Not because you helped them, but because they saw your progression and because that genuinely makes people happy.