I have seen junior engineers often dread their on-call shifts or they are frustrated when their turn comes around.
They feel like it’s a burden and a major distraction from their main projects.
But guess what? On-call shifts offer many learning opportunities and can make you a better engineer.
Here’s why:
1️⃣ It’s like a crash course in understanding the production systems and customer issues.
2️⃣ It’s a great opportunity to learn which graphs and metrics to look up while debugging production issues.
3️⃣ It allows you to discover and learn the parts of the system you’re not usually involved with.
4️⃣ It’s an excellent chance to get better at system design, especially at big companies where opportunities to design large-scale systems from scratch are rare for junior engineers.
No doubt, it’s scary at first. 😱 But with patience, shadowing, and a little bit of curiosity, you’ll be amazed at how much you can learn.
So, the next time an on-call shift comes around, go in with curiosity and a learning mindset, it can truly make you a better engineer
