The 3 things I learned at Plus91 in my first week

By Nikil Kurian

Joining a new workplace can be both an exciting and scary experience. You do not know what to expect or how you will adapt to the organization. Fortunately, during my first week at Plus91 technologies, I’ve been able to absorb the most crucial aspects of the workplace.

In this blog entry, I will be taking you through those elements.

1. Not everything begins and ends with GUI

The first thing I noticed was that Plus91 favors the Linux environment over Windows, and even though Linux has a good GUI, it mostly depends on the terminal to do tasks. This differs from the typical Windows OS, which depends on the way the user goes about his daily tasks using a mouse, and when facing issues, he promptly calls the support helpline. The result is that the user does not understand the task he’s performing as he is not directly exposed to the processes running in the background.

Compare this to Linux, where knowing the command line grants a gateway to greater control of the system. The command line gives you access to control certain complex operations like giving permissions on your system with greater precision. To become better, it is always good to know the command line. The Linux world serves as the “programmer’s paradise” in this context, offering a lot of programming tools, community support, and configurability with the need for very little hardware. It allows the programmer to gain more in-depth awareness of the various processes.

In addition, I learned that running software like Apache and MySQL directly from the terminal was much better than having to install and depend on a GUI-based software to run it for you like WAMP. Learning the command line gives you those “Aha!” moments and an “I can actually do that …..” motivating feeling.

2. Read the manuals

Who knows the language better than the creator? Rather than going to other, unreliable sources who at times make up their own code, it’s always better to try and figure out the manual for yourself. This will reduce errors in your code and blunders in the overall software.

Another benefit of reading the manual is that it contains the little specs of information often overlooked by other websites trying to teach you the language.

3. Be crisp and clear

Imagine creating a great product and not being able to get people to understand what it does. Convoluted explanations can lead to your targets confusing a spoon for a hammer. This is why it is necessary to be absolutely clear when it comes to communicating the ins and outs of your product.

At Plus91, I am realizing that an effective and easy way of achieving this is basing your communication on asking questions, even simple “Yes or No” questions wherever possible.

It has been very encouraging to have learned these salient points in my first week at Plus91. This could just be the start of a great learning curve in my career.