Sefism Your First Tech Job Cheat Sheet

What this cheat sheet is

The Sefism Your first tech job cheat sheet is a reference for students and graduates who have just accepted, or just started, their first software job. It gathers the habits and terms of a first year at work in one place, from reading your contract and a new codebase to pull requests, one-on-ones, reviews and your first raise conversation. It has 8 chapters and 64 concepts, and each concept says what it is in plain words, why it matters, often a concrete example, and the mistake people make with it.

It is the companion to the Your first tech job roadmap, and its chapters follow the roadmap's stages one for one. The roadmap gives you the order, the checklists and the milestones; the sheet is the quick reference you come back to when you need a term or a reminder.

Who it is for

Anyone in their first year as a software engineer, whatever the stack. It is written for people who have never worked in a software team before, so it explains the things colleagues assume you already know: what acceptance criteria are, what a blameless postmortem is, how a probation period or a notice period works. Details on contracts, pay and rights are written in general terms, because they vary by country and company; the sheet keeps pointing you back to your own contract and local law.

Chapter by chapter

1. Before day one

What to check, set up and learn between accepting an offer and your first morning. Concepts: the employment contract; IP, non-compete and side work clauses; the fake job offer (a real employer never charges you to join or asks you to buy equipment for later reimbursement); company research; account security basics; light pre-start learning; and impostor feelings.

2. The first two weeks

Getting set up and finding your way around a codebase and a team. Concepts: the onboarding plan, your local development environment, reading an unfamiliar codebase, what makes a good question, the timebox before asking (a fixed amount of time you try on your own first, agreed with your team), the onboarding buddy, working notes and the starter task.

3. Working with your team

The rituals and written habits teams use to plan and coordinate. Concepts: the standup, tickets and acceptance criteria, estimates and story points, the sprint cycle, the retrospective, low-context written updates, working with product and design, and plain English at work.

4. Your first pull requests

Getting changes reviewed and merged safely. Concepts: the small pull request, the pull request description, self-review, testing your change, receiving code review, reviewing other people's code, safe deploys and rollback, incidents and on-call as a junior, and the blameless postmortem.

5. Communication and visibility

Keeping your manager and team informed and collecting the evidence of your work. Concepts: the status update, raising blockers early, the one-on-one, the work log and brag document (a running list of what you did, why it mattered and the evidence, added to weekly), asking for feedback, receiving feedback well, managing expectations and giving credit.

6. Productivity and learning on the job

Managing your time and focus, using AI assistants responsibly and learning the domain. Concepts: prioritising your work, focus blocks, context switching, getting unstuck, company AI policy, verifying AI output, confidential company data (code, customer data, credentials, plans and internal documents you agreed to protect), and domain knowledge.

7. Workplace basics

Concepts: the probation period, the performance review, notice periods and leaving well, payslip, tax and benefits, working hours and leave, harassment and how to report it, burnout, healthy boundaries, and remote and office etiquette.

8. Your first year plan

Concepts: goals with your manager, the career ladder, asking for more responsibility, the first raise conversation, checking your market value, when changing jobs early makes sense, and mentors and your internal network.

Most chapters end with library resources for going deeper, such as The Missing README, How to Ask Good Questions, Google's engineering practices, Conventional Comments, the brag document guide and Engineering Ladders.

Rules of thumb inside

The sheet ends with nine rules of thumb and a glossary of the smaller terms. A sample of the rules:

• Ask a clear question after a short timebox instead of staying stuck for a day to look independent.
• Write things down from day one: commands, names, terms and decisions.
• Keep pull requests small and review your own diff before asking anyone else.
• Raise a risk to a date as soon as you see it, with what you tried and what would help.
• Add to your work log every Friday so reviews are built on evidence, not memory.
• Follow your company's AI and data policy, and never submit code you cannot explain.
• Never pay money to get or start a job; real employers do not charge joining fees.

How to use it with the roadmap

• Before you sign, read chapter 1 with your contract next to it and check each clause it names.
• After each roadmap stage, read the matching chapter and try to explain each concept without looking. Anything you cannot explain is worth a second pass through the stage.
• While you work, keep chapter 4 open when you write your first pull request descriptions and review comments, and chapter 5 when you set up your weekly update and work log.
• Before your probation review or first review cycle, reread chapters 7 and 8 so you know what is being judged and what to bring.

How it works on Sefism

Everything on Sefism is free to learn from. The public cheat sheet page lists every chapter title, with the first chapters open to read. Keeping the sheet in your member area uses credits, and if you follow the Your first tech job roadmap the sheet comes with it. New members get 15 credits when they join, and the first roadmap you add is free. If a chapter raises a question about your own situation, you can ask Tauseef. New here? Create a free account.

Related on Sefism

• First 90 days in a new developer job
• How to say you are blocked without looking incompetent
• Can I use AI coding tools at my internship?
• Why professional software development feels different from university
• On the blog: What actually changes in your first two years as an engineer

FAQ

What is a probation period in a software job? A trial period at the start of a job, with its own length and criteria set by your contract and company. Chapter 7 explains it in general terms and the roadmap asks you to write down your own dates and ask your manager how it is judged.

What is a brag document? A running list of what you did, why it mattered and the evidence, such as links to pull requests, added to every week. It is what your reviews and pay conversations rest on.

How do I spot a fake job offer? Be wary of any offer that asks you for money, bank details or a paid "training kit", often after a chat-only interview with no video call or company email. Verify through the company's own website and a contact you found yourself.

Is this useful if I am an intern? Yes. Most chapters, from the first two weeks to pull requests and communication, apply just as much to an internship as to a first full-time role.