Reach out to new kids

I remember my first software development job in 1992.  I joined a software company that developed for the “new” Windows operating system: Windows 3.0.

As a junior member of the team, I was deathly afraid of revealing what I didn’t know and lose my coveted new job.  I was sure everyone on the team knew more than I.  So worked 72 hour weeks to catch up.  I studied, and coded, and watched, and listened, and tried to fit in as best I could.  It worked perfectly!  But it turned out I wasn’t the only newbie, and I learned that I knew more than I thought.

So now as a project manager, I’m sympathetic to newbies.  No newbie will lose his job just because he hasn’t been immersed in the latest technologies.  Reach out to the “new kids!”

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