🎓 How a Senior engineer effectively onboards at a new job.
Welcome! Trying something new again this week by sticking with a single topic. I’m hoping this makes it easier for me to write, since I prefer to go into a level of detail that becomes a bit overwhelming with two topics per week, as well as making things a bit more search engine friendly.
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You’re starting a new job – congratulations! Every new gig is an exciting opportunity. You will be challenged in new ways, learn new things, meet new people, and maybe even hit that coveted Senior Engineer title!
The first few weeks and months are crucial for building relationships, understanding the intricacies of the business and its products and tech, and setting the tone of your time there.
Here’s how a senior engineer effectively onboards at a new job:
Focus on learning.
You were hired at this new job for your potential to add to the team, based on your existing skills and past experience. But your first few weeks at an organization are not for demonstrating what you bring to the table, but for learning what’s already there.
Every organization has its own business problems, technical nuances, team dynamics, goals, and more. Your onboarding time is best spent learning about all of these, and determining how you can best apply your existing skillset to them.
Be humble – don’t assume you know anything already. Ask all the questions, even if you think you know the answer. Absorb everything.
Build relationships early.
Your ability to influence and lead is closely tied to the relationships you build. The first few weeks is a great time to introduce yourself to your new team, learn how you will work together, and along the way identify key stakeholders and potential mentors.
Here is the strategy I recommend:
Meet one-on-one with every person on your immediate team. Get to know each other a bit, but focus on having them explain their current work to you.
Get into as much detail as time allows. Have them show you the product, the internals, any documentation, etc.
Ask any and all questions you have. Write them down as you have them, so you can follow up in case time runs out. “Why” questions are the most important – they’ll help provide critical business and team context.
Ask how you can help them be more successful. Not everyone will have a specific answer, but those who do are opportunities for increasing your influence.
At the end, ask them who else they’re working with on other teams. Repeat the same process with those people.
When you run into people who aren’t working on anything relevant to you, you can stop.
Using this strategy, you will:
Make yourself known to as many team members as possible
Gain valuable insight into the business
Learn about the product in a way that’s relevant to your first few months of work
Set clear goals.
With help from your manager and immediate team, define clear and achievable goals for your first 90 days.
Ideally your goals will balance networking, learning, and tangible contributions (writing code).
Regularly check in with your manager on how these goals are progressing, and adjust as needed together.
Take ownership and demonstrate value.
While listening to your new coworkers and learning about the org and its tech, look for opportunities to contribute early on. The freedom you have during the onboarding period is a great time to add some wins to the team that they’ve been meaning to get to but haven’t had the capacity yet.
These wins could include:
Improving documentation, especially anything that has gotten out-of-date since it was last updated
Adding useful automation, such as tests or code quality checks
Fixing an annoying but low priority piece of tech debt
Making an application tweak to add consistency or improved UX
Optimize a slow-loading process
Your onboarding time is a perfect opportunity to leave things better than you found them. More on that in this previous edition:
Stay open to feedback.
An extension of being humble while learning, stay open to constructive criticism. Actively seek it, encouraging your team to provide advice when they feel you need it.
Feedback isn’t only about ways you can improve; it’s also about understanding how your work aligns with your team and the business’ goals.
It also establishes a culture of openness and trust, which is critical to your long-term success.
Use your product like a customer.
Put yourself into the mindset of one of your business’ customers, and start using the products your company offers.
This provides so many benefits:
Understand customers and their problems help contextualize future work
Learn about the products and their benefits and utility; ask questions about features you don’t understand
Identify any improvements that could be made
Which leads nicely into…
Understand the broader business context.
Senior engineers are expected to understand not just the technical, but also the business implications of their work.
Take time to learn about the company's products, market position, and strategic objectives. This broader perspective will enrich your contributions and enable you to drive more impactful innovations.
Own the process when there isn’t one.
Engineering teams understand that it takes time to onboard. You will almost never be expected to deliver production code within the first couple weeks, if not longer.
If your new organization does not have a formal onboarding process, or it is lacking some of the steps mentioned here that you find beneficial (or want to try), create a plan yourself and ask your manager for the time to execute it.
Taking initiative and ownership is a huge part of being a Senior. Set a good impression by demonstrating that in your first days on the job. Without overstepping what they have planned for you already. 😉
The beginning of your journey in a new organization is a unique opportunity to redefine your professional identity, expand your skill set, and contribute to something meaningful. By approaching this transition with intentionality, curiosity, and a commitment to excellence, you'll not only succeed in your new role but also set the stage for lasting growth and impact.
Up Next
🎓 Why you should be pair programming more often!
Thank you for taking the time to read. It means a lot to me!
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Aken 💙
Build relationships early - great point!