You know about object-oriented programming and all its goodness. Now, step up to abject-oriented programming. Learning to work in an abject-oriented (AO) environment is important since there is a high demand for people that can maintain existing abject code (there is a lot of it out there). Greg Jorgensen’s Introduction to Abject-Oriented Programming will get you started by touching on some of the high points of AO. Here’s an excerpt that describes an AO best practice:
A good time to write documentation is when someone in the department gives two-weeks notice: use that time to make sure the departing team member documents all of their code.
Make sure you peruse the comments on that post. Its amazing how many people disagree with abject-oriented practices.