Your First 90 Days on the Job

You got the job. Now what?

Nobody expects a junior to know everything. They expect you to learn fast, communicate clearly, and get a little better every week. Here's a plan.

Days 1–30: learn

• Get the project running locally and read the onboarding docs (fix any that are wrong. Easy first contribution!)
• Ship one small change to production in your first week or two: a typo fix, a tiny bug
• Meet your teammates: ask each one what they work on and what they wish new people knew
• Keep a work log: what you did, what you learned, questions you have

Days 31–60: contribute

• Take on small features end to end, from ticket to production
• Keep PRs small, with tests and a clear description
• Start reviewing teammates' PRs. Asking questions in reviews is a great way to learn the codebase.
• Learn how the system is monitored: what happens when something breaks?

Days 61–90: own something

• Become the go-to person for one small area
• Fix something that annoys the team (slow tests, flaky builds, confusing docs)
• Ask your manager: "What would make you say I'm doing great by month six?"

How to ask for help (the right way)

"I'm working on the password reset bug. I've reproduced it: tokens expire after
5 minutes instead of 60. I checked config.ts and the value looks right, so I think
it's being overridden somewhere. Do you know where token expiry is set for emails?"

Context, what you tried, a specific question. Seniors love answering questions like that.

Using AI at work

Follow the team's AI policy, use it to understand code and draft changes, and always review and test what it produces. The developers who thrive combine AI speed with real judgment, and that's exactly what you've trained for.

🎉 You've reached the end of the roadmap. Keep building, keep practicing in Interview Prep, and come back to any lesson whenever you need a refresher. You did the hard part: you started.