Hey folks 👋
I graduated a few months back and landed my first "real" SWE job, working mostly on AWS backend stuff. Stack so far:
- Node.js/TypeScript on Lambda, sitting behind API Gateway
- Postgres + Drizzle ORM
- Cognito for auth, plus the usual encryption fundamentals (AES-256-GCM, HMAC)
- Serverless Framework, some SAM/CloudFormation, Docker for local dev
I can ship features and I'm not drowning, which is nice. But I keep noticing the gap between "I got the ticket done" and "I actually understand why the system is built this way." I don't want to spend year one just closing Jira tickets and calling it growth — I want the growth to actually compound.
So, genuine question for anyone who's mentored juniors or remembers their own first year clearly:
1. What actually separates someone who "gets" backend architecture from someone who's just wiring up endpoints? Is it a specific set of concepts, or more of a habit of asking different questions?
2. Past Lambda/API Gateway — what's actually worth digging into next? I keep seeing SQS/SNS event-driven patterns, ElastiCache/Redis caching, and observability come up as "the next level" for serverless folks. Curious what you'd prioritize and why, versus what's a distraction this early.
3. How do you build technical credibility on a team without turning into "that junior who won't stop talking in standup"? Genuinely trying to be useful and visible without overstepping into territory I haven't earned yet.
4. What's a trap you (or juniors you've mentored) fell into that a senior had to catch in review? Doesn't matter if it's cost blowups, connection pooling gone wrong, IAM permissions sprawling out of control, swallowed errors, whatever — I'd rather hear it from you than learn it the expensive way in prod.
5. If you had to pick one book, mental model, or daily habit that paid off the most in your first year — what would it be?
Even a single sentence helps. Appreciate anyone who takes the time 🙏
