I got my first computer when I was 5 years old. Nobody knew then, but this gift from my parents defined my further professional path: from then on, I knew what I would do when I grew up. Programming lessons, university, and first jobs followed suit. Curiosity, awakened by the computer as a child, has not disappeared to this day,
says Adroiti Junior systems administrator Mindaugas Jurgelėnas.
Mindaugas started his career as an IT Technical specialist in one of the Lithuanian corporations because he always wanted to know how computers in large companies work from the inside and how problems are solved. Over a year ago, he joined the Adroiti team as a Junior systems administrator.
I got into a team with real professionals in this field. Since I had less experience with development until now, I set a goal to grow in this field and have to learn programming languages such as Linux from scratch, says Mindaugas
There are two biggest challenges Mindaugas faces today: 1) A Tremendous amount of information and 2) Communication.
How to survive in a junior role when the amount of new information is huge and the team consists only of experienced professionals who know all the ins and outs? Mindaugas has 5 tips:
- Read. Reading books and articles on the field you are interested in helps you learn faster - you can try to apply what you have read in practice. Adroiti allocates a separate budget for the learning process, so you can deepen your knowledge as much as you please. I'm currently learning Linux, so I have Linux Pocket Guide by my side.
- Create an environment. If you are learning to work with Linux systems, use them wherever possible, not only at work but also at home.
- Ask questions. Experienced colleagues with many years of work under their belt will be your main pillar on the learning path. Adroiti seniors have been actively involved in my learning process: they constantly advise and point me to where I need to deepen my knowledge. I try to plan for what I want to achieve, then check with my team or members of other teams if I've got things right. There is not a lot of room for mistakes, so measuring everything seven times before making the cut really helps.
- Participate in problem-solving. When I face something that is not clear to me, observation sessions where an experienced colleague handles something are extremely helpful. My colleagues always make sure to include me in problem-solving - I try to participate in troubleshooting calls with my colleague just to see what is happening and what the process looks like.
- Communicate. Being able to talk to senior colleagues and correctly convey to them what I don't understand and how I can absorb information better is not an easy thing, especially at the very beginning. It gets easier later on when you get to know people. The essence of our communication is to solve urgent problems here and now: when I don't know something I write, I ask, and I get the answers. To progress, I always ask my colleagues to investigate code changes I am proposing and take in their insights into my mistakes or better practices.
"Adroiti" is a great space to grow and expand knowledge, and the most important thing on this path is the team, without which everything would move 10 times slower", says Mindaugas.