Hi all! ☀️
I'll be starting my first full-time software developer co-op in the fall and I will be working entirely remotely. I'd love to hear your tips/advice on how to be productive and consistent when working in an entirely remote setup!?
I also want to secure a return offer with this company, so any guidance on how to excel during my WFH co-op would also be fantastic :) 🐳
Top comments (7)
Love this question. From me, find a schedule that works for you as soon as you can, but also be patient with yourself if it takes some time to adjust. I have tried a lot of different break structures and have ultimately found that a 9-5 structure works really well for me! I find when I belabor or extend my working hours for long breaks, I end up more stressed than does me good! (Just because I could do it during college, doesn't mean I should keep up those same patterns LOL!) Good luck on your journey!
Hi Rachel! I think there's a lot of merit in taking time to figure out what works best for you, and it will definitely take me a bit to adjust to working full-time + taking 1 college course on the side. I have also realized I'm most productive in the earlier hours of the day, so I'll be patient with myself as I find my groove. Thanks for your advice! :)
Good luck on your new journey!
First of all, Congratulations on your first steps into full-time software development !
One tip I found mega useful was a short walk each morning before work and in the evening. It's almost like you are walking to and from the office, and it helps reset your mind frame between work and leisure.
Have fun !
Hey there Joshua thanks so much for your advice! I definitely will try out a short walk before and after my work, at least while the weather is still warm here in Canada 😆
Nice work, congrats!
When I was starting out, learning how to manage myself was huge. I didn't have good study habits, wasn't a great student, and wanted to spend copious amounts of time watching tv and playing video games (counterstrike all day was so fun!). As obvious as it is from the outside, living it is a very different beast. I "discovered" that if I wanted to be good at being a developer (or anything, really), I had to change my relationship with what I thought was idle time.
The first thing I had to do was prevent distraction. Using the same machine to work and play was impossible for me. If the games were available, the temptation to click Steam was just too much. For me, I had to physically separate myself from the option. It took a while, but the perpetual pull back to games/tv diminished and I found the ability to focus deeply on the work.
With distraction handled, the next interesting development was noticing how my energy levels fluctuated throughout the day. The ability to focus deeply on one thing created enough space for me to actually notice this fluctuation. For me, I have two spans of time where I'm most capable of deep work: morning ~7am-11am and evening ~6pm-10pm. Of course, the overall quality of this time is impacted by food, exercise, and sleep... but these spans of time have been reliably where I'm able to derive 80% of productivity.
Working with this daily cycle rather than trying to fight my way to working all day was huge! And it's not like the rest of the time is spent doing nothing. It's made available for the lower value activities and recuperation where deep, singular focus is not required.
Managing myself and working with my innate daily energy cycles are the foundations that I built my career, hobbies, and family life around.
As for securing a return offer, there's a key question that I ask routinely of early career folks that reveals a lot, "What have you tried?" I do not expect early career folks to know everything, but I do expect them to try and be coachable. I look for folks who are interested in what they're doing, folks who are receptive to alternative approaches, and who are eager to learn the sometimes counterintuitive nature of our game.
If I were to boil it down to one thing: be curious.
Hey there Ivan, thank you for the congratulations and for sharing your journey!
I completely resonate with your struggle to let go of video game distractions (I myself was a huge fan of MMOs and I had to cut myself off from most games because they were too large of a distraction during school). They're a tempting pass-time but unfortunately too addictive for myself personally to engage in while studying for exams and interview prep.
Energy levels throughout the day is an interesting point and I think I'll be able to better gauge that once I get started at work. But I definitely will keep in mind what hours I tend to be the most alert and productive in, and work with that rather than against it!
Really appreciate your advice once again, thanks for sharing! 😁