<![CDATA[Whatacoder]]>https://whatacoder.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!rfUA!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F856b166a-f62c-4b86-a4ff-55ba7c615f67_427x427.pngWhatacoderhttps://whatacoder.comSubstackSun, 19 Apr 2026 15:08:58 GMT<![CDATA[The Initial Experience]]>https://whatacoder.com/p/the-initial-experiencehttps://whatacoder.com/p/the-initial-experienceSat, 29 Jul 2023 03:27:57 GMTThink back to all your past jobs in your software development career. If you’re like me, you’ve had many. Now ask yourself, do I remember my first day at each one?

I certainly remember most of mine - very clearly in fact. From those where the first day was almost perfect to those where I literally cried driving home because I was so upset at the mistake I’d made.

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The point is, the first day matters to new employees - a lot! So why do managers and employers treat it as if the first day doesn’t matter? Why do they not seem to care about it?

Here are some of the things I have experience on my first day during my career:

  • No hardware on day one

  • No introductions to my new team members

  • No onboarding materials

  • No credentials or access to email or other systems

It’s crazy, right? I mean, how hard is it really?

Think about the experience that you’re presenting. Think about the long-lasting opinion that this person is going to have based on those first interactions with you, your teams, and your company. And think about how excited and motivated they are when they first join. Why would you want to ruin all of that within the first few hours?

Do the right thing, people. Put your mostly unnecessary busy work aside for a minute and spend some quality time on the new person who can actually make your job easier.

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]]><![CDATA[Ready. Set. Go.]]>https://whatacoder.com/p/ready-set-gohttps://whatacoder.com/p/ready-set-goThu, 27 Jul 2023 03:58:39 GMTI am a software developer.

In fact, I always have been and always will be a software developer.  I learned to write code at a relatively young age and have been doing it ever since - and at a relatively high level.  It's what I love to do.  And if you're here, reading this, I’m probably describing you to some extent as well.

Come with me on an experiment.  The journey consists of a somewhat fun, and somewhat painful, story of all the trials that exist while living and working in the software development industry. Some of the younger readers will be completely terrified and some of the older readers will undoubtedly relate to the content.

I’m not doing this to make you think a particular way. I’m not doing this cause controversy in the industry. I’m doing this to highlight the insanity in the industry and hopefully make a positive impact.

Creating software is difficult and riddled with complexity and nuance - there’s no doubt about it. But, it’s not that hard. Or, at least it shouldn’t be.

Subscribe today to get this thing launched and to support me from day one. I appreciate every single one of you.

- Kai

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