First Day Jitters

Almost 5 years ago, I started full time at my first real job.  I came straight out of college with nothing more than a BS in Computer Science to work on the C# compiler.  Yes, I'd done a few odd ball jobs programming here and there, but nothing with real testers, a schedule, and certainly not for a large corporation.

I felt fairly at home though in my first job.  Maybe it was because I knew most of the team from a past internship.  Maybe it was because I had a really good manager/mentor.  Maybe it was because the product was so small at the time.  Maybe it was because I was so young/stupid/naive/arogant.

Well, this last weekend as I the reality of my impending switch sinks in, I have become very nervous.  I do know several teams members from previous interactions.  I know the manager quite well, and I've heard tons of great things about his mentoring skills.  My best guess is that I'm now experienced enough to realize how little I know.

My previous post mentioned how BYU was bigger on theory.  Well even though I took two semesters on compilers, I've never actually read through the 'Dragon' book, nor actually implemented any real optimizations.  Well, I guess I'll find out how smart I really am.  Can I put theory into practical use?  Can I learn something new?  Even though I'm no longer a big fish in a small pond (remind me to tell you about my hometown), can I still prove I'm worth what Uncle Bill is paying me, or maybe even more?  (I still getting used to the idea that you can get paid for having this much fun, but with a wife and 2 kids I've grown kind of dependent on the money).

Well, I hope this isn't waxing too personal for you.  Maybe next time I can blog about the cool stuff I'm learning.
--Grant