I hate to be a cynic, but your first assignment will be to make whatever it is work. As this is your first real programming gig you will probably be given a hop

I hate to be a cynic, but your first assignment will be to make whatever it is work. As this is your first real programming gig you will probably be given a hopeless assignment with really bad or zero infrastructure to build upon. Lacking development infrastructure or even fellow developers to work with, you will become a pawn in company politics you are totally unaware of. My advice is : bite that bullet. Work like a demon and spend your evenings building the infrastructure needed to produce a working piece of code. Spend your day time hours building code that is just good enough to demo. Talk to people and get feedback, but avoid giving your immediate superior the idea that you're going behind his/her back. Working like this blows, but do it for half a year to a year and suddenly you're an experienced developer. Now move to a different location. (If you're lucky enough to land your first real-world assignment in an environment where there are experienced seniors to consult and you have an existing build and test procedure, I would give different advice.)