Return to Office (RTO) is a topic of debate these days. Here’s why you should be happy to see more of it in the future.
This blog was originally published on Substack. Subscribe to ‘Letters to New Coders’ to receive free weekly posts.
Last week, I caught up with some old colleagues who work at Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta. As we swapped stories, one topic kept coming up: Amazon’s new RTO (return to office) policy. Starting in January 2025, Amazon employees will need to be in the office five days a week.
Generally, the world’s reactions to this are mixed — some say Amazon is out of touch, others think it’s a push to downsize staff.
But at our table, we agreed on one thing: for junior developers, remote work can be the silent killer of professional growth (and RTO is a good thing).
As a new developer, remote work might seem like the dream: no commute, total flexibility, coding in your pajamas. But what if it’s holding you back?
If you’re early in your career, working remotely can make it harder to tap into the culture, mentorship, and learning opportunities that come with being in the office. Without the chance to engage with other developers face-to-face, you could struggle to bridge the gap to those coveted senior roles.
With more companies returning to in-office work, being on-site could be the key to accelerating your career growth.
Today, I’ll share 5 reasons being in-office is beneficial for junior developers, including:
- Expanding your network and gaining a competitive edge
- Immersing yourself in company culture
- Seeing the big picture of the development process
- Learning directly from senior developers
- Building essential soft skills for long-term success
Let’s go.
In-person work is on the rise:
While hybrid work remains steady (with 42% of developers sticking to a mix of home and office), something surprising is happening: more developers are heading back to the office. In fact, in-person work has grown for the third year straight — rising from 15% in 2022 to 20% this year.
2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey
5 reasons being in-office is great for new developers
1. You’ll expand your network — and gain a competitive edge
Being in the office gives you a critical edge by helping you build a stronger, more personal network — one that can open doors to new opportunities and accelerate your career.
As opposed to remote interactions, in-office networking happens naturally and spontaneously. Grabbing lunch, chatting by the coffee machine, or joining after-work activities lets you connect with more people — including those who aren’t on your immediate team.
What’s more, being physically present gets you more visibility for your work and contributions. Through your contributions in meetings, close collaborations on projects, and eagerness to learn, it’ll be easier to make a lasting impression on others.
And here’s the real advantage: a strong network helps you get valuable referrals, which lead to new roles and project opportunities later down the line.
Tips to maximize your in-office time:
- Join lunch or coffee breaks to meet people outside your team
- Ask questions and seek advice from senior devs
- Attend in-person company events, meetups, or after-work activities
- Volunteer for projects that expose you to different teams and leaders
2. You’ll integrate with company culture
Ever feel disconnected from your company’s culture while working remotely? You’re not alone.
Without in-person interaction, it’s easy to miss out on what truly makes the company unique — and to feel isolated from the larger mission.
Company culture is more than just a set of values to memorize before an interview: it’s the foundation for how leadership makes decisions and sets goals. For example, one of Google’s core values is “psychological safety,” which encourages employees to speak up without fear of repercussions. This value shapes how teams collaborate, solve problems, and work toward shared goals.
Being in the office allows you to witness how these values unite your team towards a shared goal.
Company values are the qualities you’ll be evaluated on in performance reviews. To move up within a company you need to embody and grow into them — and that’s much easier when you’re immersed in them daily, working alongside your team in the office.
3. You’ll get a big-picture view of the development process
In-office work gives you a front-row seat to the entire development lifecycle. You’ll begin to understand the bigger picture — how your work fits into the larger flow, from initial idea to the final product. It’s hard to get that same depth of understanding when every interaction is planned and structured over Zoom or Teams.
For example, imagine working on a small feature that integrates into a larger product release. In the office, you can observe discussions between teams about how that feature impacts other components of the system, how design and engineering teams collaborate to troubleshoot issues, and how deployment is managed.
These spontaneous interactions provide a deeper understanding of how everything fits together.
Some tips for ways to learn:
- Attend project meetings or sit in on sprint planning to see how tasks are prioritize, and how projects come together
- Volunteer to help with testing or deployment to understand how products are tested and launched
4. You’ll learn from senior devs
One of the biggest advantages of being in the office is the proximity to senior developers. As a junior dev, you’re often focused on smaller tasks with short deadlines. But being in the same space as senior developers lets you observe how they handle long-term, high-priority projects.
Early in my career, watching senior devs tackle complex system issues gave me insights I wouldn’t have gained on my own. Their approach – from diagnosing the root cause to testing solutions — expanded my understanding of the full development cycle.
By witnessing how senior devs work firsthand, you’ll see why being a developer isn’t just about coding — it’s about solving challenges, making difficult trade-offs, and leading teams. These in-person learning moments are invaluable, and they’re much harder to come by remotely.
How to make the most of your time with senior devs:
- Shadow their work or sit in on code reviews
- Ask them to walk you through a challenge they solved
- Offer to help with a small task
- Jot down key takeaways from what you’ve learned
5. You’ll build your soft skills
Some things Zoom just can’t teach you.
While you can pick up technical skills on your own, in-person work is the best way to build soft skills in real time, helping you grow into a well-rounded developer who’s prepared to lead and collaborate effectively.
Soft skills are skills that involve working with people, and include:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Handling feedback well
- Navigating conflict
Soft skills are just as important as technical expertise. They are non-negotiable for more senior developers who are in leadership roles. Even a highly data-centric role like data scientist has to have the soft skill of "data storytelling" to present their findings to leadership in a way that they understand.
Think about it: If soft skills weren't such a game changer for developers, then why would we put candidates through behavioral interviews?
Bottom line: Embrace being in-person (or be left behind)
Here’s the reality: being in the office will likely give you more career opportunities than working remotely.
While remote has its perks, if you’re a new developer looking to level up quickly, the opportunities for growth and relationship building you’ll get in person are hard to replicate online.
Sure, the comfort of working from home is tempting – but if it's slowing your growth, is it really worth it?
So, take the leap. Ask for more in-office days. Volunteer for on-site projects. And start building the connections, skills, and insights that will accelerate your career.
Your future senior developer self will thank you.
If you’re looking for other ways to level up your skills, Educative’s Learn to Code courses can help you master the technical skills you’ll need along the way. Then, you can pair that learning with in-office experiences for the ultimate career growth trajectory.
Happy learning!
— Fahim
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