<story><title>Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job</title><text>Hi, I&amp;#x27;m 19 and currently in my second CS semester. I&amp;#x27;ve got some projects on my portfolio, did some internships and will start an job as an research assistant at an institute next semester. However, I really have no clue how I can prepare myself enough before landing my first job after university. The only things I can find are: build a portfolio and contribute to open-source.&lt;p&gt;Which advice did&amp;#x2F;would have helped you landing your first job after university? And whats your best tip for life in general?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>CapitalistCartr</author><text>A few useful phrases to memorize:&lt;p&gt;When someone asks for information, rather than try to answer immediately, or rush to research, ask, &amp;quot;When do you need that by?&amp;quot; Even if they tell you it&amp;#x27;s urgent, it causes them to consider.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sure, I&amp;#x27;d be glad to. Just let my boss know you need me.&amp;quot; If they hem and haw, be suspicious.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What budget is that coming out of?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Other useful tidbits: Politics is a euphemism for, someone&amp;#x27;s ego will otherwise get hurt. Tangentially, your ego &lt;i&gt;isn&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; you. Don&amp;#x27;t let it getting hurt affect your thinking.&lt;p&gt;Most people are naturally good; the one&amp;#x27;s who aren&amp;#x27;t work hard to position themselves in a position handling communications. So be careful to route communications as directly as allowed, and regularly check what&amp;#x27;s incoming.&lt;p&gt;Faith is blind, trust is earned.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>awillen</author><text>PM here: I agree completely. A lot of PMs aren&amp;#x27;t great with phrasing requests, and they come off sounding way more urgent than they are. I used to be guilty of this, and I thought it was great how responsive the engineers were until a manager told me I was disrupting their schedules with all of my urgent requests. We solved that one pretty quickly by agreeing I&amp;#x27;d specify the timeline for eng requests, and for things that were big and urgent, I&amp;#x27;d check with team lead&amp;#x2F;manager before asking. If any of those engineers had asked me how urgent things were, we wouldn&amp;#x27;t have run into that problem (which is not to say it&amp;#x27;s their fault - it was my job to give that context - just to say that an inexperienced PM won&amp;#x27;t mind you asking about timing&amp;#x2F;urgency at all and you may save him issues down the line).</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Tips for students before starting their first job</title><text>Hi, I&amp;#x27;m 19 and currently in my second CS semester. I&amp;#x27;ve got some projects on my portfolio, did some internships and will start an job as an research assistant at an institute next semester. However, I really have no clue how I can prepare myself enough before landing my first job after university. The only things I can find are: build a portfolio and contribute to open-source.&lt;p&gt;Which advice did&amp;#x2F;would have helped you landing your first job after university? And whats your best tip for life in general?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>CapitalistCartr</author><text>A few useful phrases to memorize:&lt;p&gt;When someone asks for information, rather than try to answer immediately, or rush to research, ask, &amp;quot;When do you need that by?&amp;quot; Even if they tell you it&amp;#x27;s urgent, it causes them to consider.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Sure, I&amp;#x27;d be glad to. Just let my boss know you need me.&amp;quot; If they hem and haw, be suspicious.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What budget is that coming out of?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Other useful tidbits: Politics is a euphemism for, someone&amp;#x27;s ego will otherwise get hurt. Tangentially, your ego &lt;i&gt;isn&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; you. Don&amp;#x27;t let it getting hurt affect your thinking.&lt;p&gt;Most people are naturally good; the one&amp;#x27;s who aren&amp;#x27;t work hard to position themselves in a position handling communications. So be careful to route communications as directly as allowed, and regularly check what&amp;#x27;s incoming.&lt;p&gt;Faith is blind, trust is earned.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nlawalker</author><text>In the same vein as these - when someone asks if something can be achieved, unless the answer is &amp;quot;No, because the physical laws of our universe prevent it,&amp;quot; then the answer is &amp;quot;Yes, with the following assumptions, caveats and tradeoffs...&amp;quot;</text></comment>