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I’ve been “the new engineer” seven times in my career, during four internships and three full-time jobs. My first job after university was as a founding engineer (employee #3) at a Stanford startup. Onboarding at this company was as simple as “here’s your laptop, good luck!”
This startup was acquired by Pinterest, which was a Silicon Valley darling undergoing hypergrowth at the time with about 400 employees. Pinterest had more of a process than the startup, but the product and company were changing rapidly. The onboarding docs were frequently incorrect or outdated.
Then I joined Facebook (now Meta) as a senior engineer, entering a Big Tech environment with tens of thousands of employees. Facebook is famous for a very structured approach to onboarding through Bootcamp, a multi-week program to get engineers up to speed.
On top of company transitions, I’ve also had “mini-onboardings” within a company when switching teams or moving around due to a re-org. The tech industry today moves incredibly fast, so your ability to adapt and ramp up quickly is essential for career success.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed during the onboarding process because there’s so much to learn: a new codebase, team dynamics, and company culture. Instead of relying on standard documentation and training sessions, I discovered a more proactive approach among the best-performing new employees. This strategy lets you quickly ramp up with confidence.
The Algorithm for Intro 1:1s
When you’re new, don’t wait for information to come to you. A great way to seek out information is by having one-on-one meetings with your new coworkers. Here’s the “career cold start algorithm” I used for these conversations. (This comes from a blog post from Meta’s CTO.)
During these one-on-ones, ask three key questions:
- “What do I, as a new engineer, need to know?” (25 min) This helps you gather critical, unfiltered information from one person’s perspective.
- “What are the biggest challenges the team is facing?” (3 min) This reveals the team’s pain points and where you can potentially make a quick difference.
- “Who else on the team should I talk to?” (2 min) This helps you set up subsequent 1:1s. By asking it repeatedly, you’ll start to see a pattern as the same names come up frequently. These individuals are the trusted, influential people who are likely to be critical to your future projects.
If you’re joining a larger company, I recommend scheduling at least ten one-on-one conversations within your first two weeks. Take advantage of the fact that everyone wants to meet the new person! This list should include your direct manager, their manager, and every member of your immediate team.
Talk & Observe
Talking to colleagues is valuable, but actions speak louder than words. When you’re new, observe how your teammates spend their time. This should be fairly easy because engineering work will naturally create byproducts that reveal priorities and goals.
If you’re a software engineer, for example, look at the code or design documents a colleague has contributed to get a sense of the pace of the team and their priorities. What they document is a direct reflection of what they value.
Or, if possible, look at your teammates’ schedules to see how they allocate their time. Are they in back-to-back meetings, or do they have significant blocks of focus time for deep work? This simple act provides a wealth of information about team norms and individual working styles.
This combination of talking and observing has immediate benefits. You can ask more thoughtful questions in meetings, identify opportunities in existing projects, and most importantly, onboard culturally. As you understand your new team’s norms around meetings, code review, or product launches, you will quickly adapt to your new environment.
Implementing the “Talk and Observe” framework will make you confident and impactful in your new role. Good luck!
—Rahul
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