Why Working From Home When You Land Your First Software Engineering Job is Not Smart

With everything going remote these days I wanted to share why going into the office was huge for me as a first time engineer

1. Connecting with people across teams

As an engineer, you’ll probably rarely speak to people in other teams like marketing and sales or operations. There’s almost never a need which is kind of sad or unfortunate because what I realized is knowing what other people in different teams are doing makes my job easier because I now know how what I’m doing fits into the bigger picture.

It’s also low key inspiring when I hear the work and effort that the other teams are putting in.

So being in an office and getting to see and talk to people in different teams makes you realize the tenacity that this “bigger picture” requires.

Also it allows you to connect with people in ways that you can’t do over slack.

For example, my first year as an engineer, my desk was right in front of the VP of operations. This guy was a legit genius in all aspects, business and life and here I was sitting next to him. I was able to ask him whatever questions I had, whether it was blockchain, finance, business related questions, anything, you name it. And every Wednesday we’d all sit and have lunch and I kid you not, every single time I would walk away with a new perspective or way of looking at things.

My goal is always to surround myself with really smart people who I can learn from. This goal was easily fulfilled by going into the office.

2. Learning about business

I learned how business works, how a company is ran, the people needed to run that company, the problems that arise, etc.

As an engineer, your job is SO important but there’s a lot more that goes into building a product. By going into an office vs being fully remote, I was able to see the different aspects that are integrated and required to run a company.

There’s marketing and sales, there’s product, there’s operations / compliance, there’s finance, there’s VC’s that you worry about, raising capital, revenue (Duh!) and the list goes on. It really opens you up to how the real world works and how business works.. I love that.

If I was working from home I would have never experienced or acquired any of that, not on that level at least, and I truly think it made me better at my job and gave me an advantage against those engineers that were strictly remote.

When you’re in the office seeing the day to day activities that are happening and needed to make sure the company continues to successfully run, that proves to be beneficial.

It’s valuable for yourself because if you actually understand why you’re solving the business problems that you’re solving, you’re going to be a better engineer BUT also, you’re going to be able to communicate with the business people a lot better and this will help you move up in your engineering career.

I know as a software engineer, you’re probably thinking that just being technical is more than enough but truthfully, it’s not. Of course being good at programming is HUGE and 100% needed but knowing how business works and how to communicate with the business people is really valuable.

The best engineers I know are the ones that can code well but are also able to effectively communicate with different people in the company. You’ll learn very early on that explaining technical things to non technical people can be a challenge and many times these business people have no clue how tech works. That being said, if you’re able to effectively communicate with non technical people, it’s going to massively help and get you noticed.

3. Learning about yourself

Being around people that are different than you and are working on different aspects of a project than you are is going to open your mind up and allow you to gain new perspectives.

Surrounding yourself with different kinds of people is going to make you better as a person, this is really how life works, not even just in business or career wise.

For me personally, the biggest things I’ve learned working at my job and going into the office was:

1. How important having the right people on your team is
2. How a business actually operates. I have no words to describe how cool it was to join a start up where the product wasn’t even live yet and seeing us turn this idea into a working product (highly recommend joining a start up).

I never thought business would be something I’d be interested in, no one ever taught me or talked about it growing up, it was never a conversation, and it always seemed like this big scary thing, which it is but at the end of the day it really comes down to someone having an idea and rallying people around that idea and building it out. Of course there’s a lot of problems that arise when you’re going from idea to a full product but that’s with anything in life that’s important or valuable. So I’m just fascinated by this these days. And all thanks to joining this start up and going into the office.

4. Advancing your career

I think it’s fair to say that not everyone knows what you’re working on at all times, the product manager that you talk to on a regular basis might not fully know what exactly you’re working on, so imagine other people in the company. If you’re in the office talking to people and they can clearly see you working, I’d say that’s going to help.

Also, being in the office is beneficial when you’re actively bonding with your coworkers and collaborating and talking to each other face to face, nothing beats that honestly.

You might be thinking well, I don’t really care about meeting these people or learning how the company operates and sure, maybe that’s true, that’s fair but I also feel like you learn a lot about yourself when you do, you start to see what you resonate with and what you’re intrigued by and in return that can help guide your career decisions. I feel like that alone is priceless.

I’m all about growth and development, so for me, going into the office my first year as an engineer was a no brainer. Of course I’m a fan of working from home, it’s great and I encourage it but if you’re just starting out in life or career, I highly recommend going into an office and getting a job where people actually show up and it’s a culture.

You can thank me later :)