I joined Steemit around the same time and still have a lot to learn myself. (I planned on making a similar post)
I have seen these paid upvote / resteem bots like @minnowbooster and @randowhale everywhere but have not used them myself because I have no idea if they are concidered good or toxic for the steemit community.
Lets get even higher in our second month here, Steem Power all the way!
this bots are good for newcomers to gain first followers and to be in hot section, but they are bad for abusers :)
so it can be good and bad, ye its nice to have someone who started in same time so we can compete and share our experience :)