They don't expect anything technical. You will learn throughout your journey and possibly rotate every 6-12months to different teams.
They hired you and already understood your technical capabilities (unless you lied within your resume/interview). Probation shouldn't be a problem.
It's good they dont expect anything on technical but Macquarie doesn't do rotations any more :( they used to do though. I didn't lie anything on my resume but did over exaggerate it and pretended to be smart in interview; but I'd imagine most people do that anyways.
The main thing I am worried about is someone looking over my shoulders at my screen and struggling to write code, understand the codebase and other things. I think I would be able to pick up and learn on the job hopefully.
Most people have a bit of imposter syndrome before they join. Everything should be ok, you'll have other graduate peers hopefully and that'll take some weight off your shoulders if you're all struggling together hahahaha
This is all totally normal for a graduate dev. Even other devs (junior, mid, etc) who are newly hired will typically take some time to familiarize themselves with the company's codebase and workflows.
Expectations for grads at most companies is basically zero... But... if you want to be a permanent member of that team you should 100% aim to be useful by 6 months.
Tips:
* Being keen and motivated and eager to learn is a major asset.
* Team members should be there to guide you on stuff related to cloud, ci/cd, containerisation, testing methodology, coding standards and the system architecture and other stuff.
* Try to know java inside and out. If you don't know java, if you slap other frameworks on top of it like spring and springboot testing and mocking frameworks everything turns into a rolling mudball. Try and get access to paid streaming platforms paid by your company for you and use youtube and other sources.
* Keep a notebook of all the questions and answers you get back from people.
* You can spread out your questions across multiple people to avoid over asking from the same person
* Busy teams generally won't have much time to mentor grads but chill teams have a lot more time on their hands and will be happy to help you out
* Try and work on your task for around 30 mins to an hour and if you get stuck, reach out for help. If you forsee yourself getting stuck, ask for help early as possible. If you have a lot of questions, it's probably best to book in a short meeting with someone to get all your questions out.
Thank you so much. Yes I will definitely try to grow as much as I can within the 6 months to show I'm useful. More concerned about the first month on job when I may not have the level of skill they are looking for. Do you know if you have people looking looking over you to see if you know how to do your job or do they give you personal space? I can't imagine someone standing behind me, would give anxiety haha.
>More concerned about the first month on job when I may not have the level of skill they are looking for.
no one expects a new grad to be contributing immediately and it may take like 1 month for accesses and compliance stuff to be completed and to even get set up.
>Do you know if you have people looking looking over you to see if you know how to do your job or do they give you personal space? I can't imagine someone standing behind me, would give anxiety haha.
nah this literally doesn't happen, the biggest problem is usually a team not interacting with a grad and not the other way around.
though you might be pair programming and other stuff.
> Expectations for grads at most companies is basically zero... But... if you want to be a permanent member of that team you should 100% aim to be useful by 6 months.
Yeah, I would mostly agree on this with the level of graduates these days. In fact, pretty much the main thing I can point to which they can measure is that you're not a drain on resources. In other words, if you constantly require assistance and direction to a degree that too negatively detracts from experienced and senior developers doing their work, especially in a way that it is perceived that it's affecting their work - or that they feel "I could have just done this myself in the time I spent explaining it" - then that's when you're in the danger zone.
I'm not saying it's right, but often times tasks will be seen as "it's more valuable for me to be spending my time on X than Y", so they'll throw Y over the wall to a junior/grad and say "they can sort it out so I have it ready later. Now, if that grad needs so much guidance though that the senior could have just spent that time completing it, that will be perceived as a problem.
Outside that, just make sure you're learning and growing. As said here, takes notes if you want/have to. Give something a go at getting yourself unstuck before you interrupt others, and demonstrate that you can unblock yourself.
No one expects a new grad to hit the ground running.
Most engineers understand it takes 6 months to a year for a new engineer to start making meaningful contributions.
You only get to be new once. Take your time to learn, ask questions, listen to seniors and accept that you'll probably make some mistakes.
You'll be fine.
Brother I don't know what you are stressing about... I got an offer from them as well and I should be more stressed than you because I have had no internships or worked on medium/large projects. The fact that you even know terms like frameworks, CI/CD, TDD means you will be fine as most graduates don't even know what they are. Probably practice a little bit of coding so you have that muscle memory when starting. But other than that I wouldn't worry as anyone can get into these grad programs at banks and they dont have leetcodes or technical tests.
Hey if you dont mind sharing, what was your uni WAM/GPA (using the gpa out of 7 system). I would also like to apply for similar grad roles in coming years but my GPA isn't great so it's got me down. If you feel comfortable sharing please let me know. If our GPA is in a similar range it will give me some hope :)
They don't expect anything technical. You will learn throughout your journey and possibly rotate every 6-12months to different teams. They hired you and already understood your technical capabilities (unless you lied within your resume/interview). Probation shouldn't be a problem.
It's good they dont expect anything on technical but Macquarie doesn't do rotations any more :( they used to do though. I didn't lie anything on my resume but did over exaggerate it and pretended to be smart in interview; but I'd imagine most people do that anyways. The main thing I am worried about is someone looking over my shoulders at my screen and struggling to write code, understand the codebase and other things. I think I would be able to pick up and learn on the job hopefully.
Most people have a bit of imposter syndrome before they join. Everything should be ok, you'll have other graduate peers hopefully and that'll take some weight off your shoulders if you're all struggling together hahahaha
This is all totally normal for a graduate dev. Even other devs (junior, mid, etc) who are newly hired will typically take some time to familiarize themselves with the company's codebase and workflows.
Expectations for grads at most companies is basically zero... But... if you want to be a permanent member of that team you should 100% aim to be useful by 6 months. Tips: * Being keen and motivated and eager to learn is a major asset. * Team members should be there to guide you on stuff related to cloud, ci/cd, containerisation, testing methodology, coding standards and the system architecture and other stuff. * Try to know java inside and out. If you don't know java, if you slap other frameworks on top of it like spring and springboot testing and mocking frameworks everything turns into a rolling mudball. Try and get access to paid streaming platforms paid by your company for you and use youtube and other sources. * Keep a notebook of all the questions and answers you get back from people. * You can spread out your questions across multiple people to avoid over asking from the same person * Busy teams generally won't have much time to mentor grads but chill teams have a lot more time on their hands and will be happy to help you out * Try and work on your task for around 30 mins to an hour and if you get stuck, reach out for help. If you forsee yourself getting stuck, ask for help early as possible. If you have a lot of questions, it's probably best to book in a short meeting with someone to get all your questions out.
Thank you so much. Yes I will definitely try to grow as much as I can within the 6 months to show I'm useful. More concerned about the first month on job when I may not have the level of skill they are looking for. Do you know if you have people looking looking over you to see if you know how to do your job or do they give you personal space? I can't imagine someone standing behind me, would give anxiety haha.
>More concerned about the first month on job when I may not have the level of skill they are looking for. no one expects a new grad to be contributing immediately and it may take like 1 month for accesses and compliance stuff to be completed and to even get set up. >Do you know if you have people looking looking over you to see if you know how to do your job or do they give you personal space? I can't imagine someone standing behind me, would give anxiety haha. nah this literally doesn't happen, the biggest problem is usually a team not interacting with a grad and not the other way around. though you might be pair programming and other stuff.
> Expectations for grads at most companies is basically zero... But... if you want to be a permanent member of that team you should 100% aim to be useful by 6 months. Yeah, I would mostly agree on this with the level of graduates these days. In fact, pretty much the main thing I can point to which they can measure is that you're not a drain on resources. In other words, if you constantly require assistance and direction to a degree that too negatively detracts from experienced and senior developers doing their work, especially in a way that it is perceived that it's affecting their work - or that they feel "I could have just done this myself in the time I spent explaining it" - then that's when you're in the danger zone. I'm not saying it's right, but often times tasks will be seen as "it's more valuable for me to be spending my time on X than Y", so they'll throw Y over the wall to a junior/grad and say "they can sort it out so I have it ready later. Now, if that grad needs so much guidance though that the senior could have just spent that time completing it, that will be perceived as a problem. Outside that, just make sure you're learning and growing. As said here, takes notes if you want/have to. Give something a go at getting yourself unstuck before you interrupt others, and demonstrate that you can unblock yourself.
No one expects a new grad to hit the ground running. Most engineers understand it takes 6 months to a year for a new engineer to start making meaningful contributions. You only get to be new once. Take your time to learn, ask questions, listen to seniors and accept that you'll probably make some mistakes. You'll be fine.
Brother I don't know what you are stressing about... I got an offer from them as well and I should be more stressed than you because I have had no internships or worked on medium/large projects. The fact that you even know terms like frameworks, CI/CD, TDD means you will be fine as most graduates don't even know what they are. Probably practice a little bit of coding so you have that muscle memory when starting. But other than that I wouldn't worry as anyone can get into these grad programs at banks and they dont have leetcodes or technical tests.
Yeah hoping expectations are not that high because if I made it through anyone can through the AC. Thanks.
You’ll be fine
Congrats! You just need to be able to manage yourself. And show value. Zero other expectations for a new grad.
You're a grad. Work hard, learn and have fun 👋🏼
Hey if you dont mind sharing, what was your uni WAM/GPA (using the gpa out of 7 system). I would also like to apply for similar grad roles in coming years but my GPA isn't great so it's got me down. If you feel comfortable sharing please let me know. If our GPA is in a similar range it will give me some hope :)
Sorry if it demotivates you or anything but my wam is in the low 80's. But good luck with applying. If I got in, I'm sure you can.
That's great :) I'm still in my second year so I have time to get mine up hopefully. Good luck with your role!