**4 tips for fitting into a dev team**

Every team is different, just like every developer is different, and even though there's no magic recipe that will make you fit in perfectly overnight in a new company, today I'm sharing 4 tips that have always worked for me!

And as I often say, attitude, manners, and interpersonal skills can very often outweigh the few technical gaps you might feel you have.

Ask questions

When you join a new company, you don't yet know the industry jargon, user expectations, internal processes, or how certain tools or technologies work.

For many of us, the first temptation is to try to figure everything out on our own, digging through internal documents to find information, multiplying searches on the internet, etc...

In reality, the most productive solution is to ask the people around you, even if they seem busy or too senior.

Worst case, you'll have to wait, or you'll be redirected to someone else, but there's also a good chance that resources have been specifically set up for this, and if that's not the case, it will simply be the opportunity for the company to start creating them!

Of course, if you have several questions/requests about a specific topic, remember to group them together to make the best use of your colleagues' time

Raise the alarm

The trap for a newcomer is putting so much pressure on yourself because of that famous impostor syndrome that you no longer know how to say "No."

Every assigned task, every problem you have to face can quickly become an obstacle you want to overcome at all costs, regardless of the constraints involved, simply to prove to yourself, as well as to the company, that you truly deserve this position.

But this reflex is very dangerous because, over time, it can turn into a habit and cause our ability to raise the alarm before a problem occurs to gradually disappear, until the day it's too late to warn anyone and the project is heading straight for disaster.

You need to relearn how to say "I think this is too tight," "There are unknowns in the roadmap," "I'll do my best but I can't promise anything," or even "I'm going to need help."

No team will hold it against you for raising the alarm early enough!

Stay open-minded

Whether it's about ways of working, technologies, means of communication, schedules, or habits, every team has its own codes.

You might quickly feel tempted to pass judgment on your new environment, but always remember that you don't yet know the particularities and constraints of the field, and you need to keep an open mind.

You might even discover habits that seemed crazy (or pointless) to you at first and that you'll actually try to reproduce later in your career once you understand their benefits!

Respect conventions/best practices

When it comes to naming conventions, you sometimes find gurus who will defend certain practices tooth and nail, but in reality, what matters within a project, and more broadly within a company, is consistency.

It may be that the naming convention or certain practices (comments, structuring, etc...) are very different from what you've learned, or from what you've practiced for several years, and the time or effort required to adapt might be significant, but you need to know how to put the good of the project ahead of your own little habits (or preferences).

Of course, there's nothing wrong with asking about the reasons behind these choices, discussing them, and why not even bringing a new perspective or new habits if they're well received by the company, but you absolutely must avoid forcing anything!