Struggling to Adapt to My First Job as a Software Engineer – Any Tips?

Make sure to use meetings to your advantage. Bring your questions and take detailed notes. When working on tasks, dig into the relevant files based on the ticket info. Learning commands like find, grep, and sed will save you time compared to searching in the IDE.

Focus mainly on the part of the codebase you're currently working on. You don’t need to grasp every detail of the entire system. Just concentrate on the smaller functionalities and familiarize yourself with specific objects and their methods in that context.

It's expected to feel overwhelmed at this point in your career. With AI tools like Copilot, try asking it to summarize files or help identify where features are implemented. You'll gain insights into the codebase while letting it assist you. Don't feel bad about finding things challenging—many of us felt the same way starting out!

It's totally normal to feel out of your depth initially. Begin by understanding the overall architecture of your project and then break it down into manageable pieces. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from your teammates; they’ll understand since they’ve been in the same boat. As for Copilot, it should complement your skills, not replace them, so balance its use while you learn.