Some tips for new developers joining a software company

When joining a new company as a software developer, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself/others to make a significant contribution in your team.

Things to ask yourself:

•  What is the software about?
•  What is problem the business/software is trying to solve? 
• Who are the customers? 
• What makes the software different/better from its competition? 

It is often the case that new developers (especially juniors) get stuck with a small portion of the codebase or a couple of features and forget what the overall software is about for months.  To avoid that , you should take time to study  (at least have a general knowledge of) each feature. Understand how your project/the feature you are working on fits in the grand scheme of things. 

Always make sure to ASK questions! I cannot emphasize this enough. Never shy away from asking questions. Some developers might give you the frustrated look, but you should think in terms of your career development not this particular job (so never worry about offending  people by asking questions).