Five onboarding tips for new hires
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
After months of searching, you have landed a job in tech. Whether this is your first job or the next step of your career, you want to ramp up as quickly as possible and start making an impact on your team.
Through Changing the Story, I’ve interviewed early and mid-career women to learn about their early experiences in tech. Read their stories and learn how to apply these five techniques to your onboarding journey.
1. Practice Patience
The hardest days of onboarding will be your first two weeks. You need nearly constant support, you have so much to learn, and you are still setting everything up. It can feel very overwhelming and frustrating.
Remember that everyone on your team was once in your position. Recognize that every day and every week, you are getting just a bit better.
“When you’re starting out don’t beat yourself up for not knowing stuff. You will always not know things. As you go through your career you will know more and what to look for, and you’ll have a growing knowledge base. Everything we do moves extremely fast. You always know things.”
-MM, Software Engineers for 7 years at large companies and startups
This is especially true when this is your first job in tech. It is easy to be hard on yourself, but practice patience. At the end of each week, take a moment to jot down what you’ve learned. The following week you can review the list and remind yourself of your progress. Ramping up is a journey.
“Have humility and compassion for yourself. The magnitude that you think you need to learn, you’re not going to learn in a year or two. You don’t just turn on programmer mode. It takes practice.”
- SC, Bootcamp Grad, Software Engineer for the last 4 years
2. Ask Questions, strategically
As a new hire, you will have so many questions and it can be challenging to balance getting the help you need with avoiding annoying your team.
First, recognize that the goal of onboarding is to ramp you up to the team so you can effectively contribute in the long-term. This means it’s better to invest in asking the right questions now, so you are better prepared for the future. But it’s also important to recognize that you don’t need to understand the answer to everything right away. Over time, you’ll identify what’s most important. When in doubt your manager or mentor can provide guidance.
“Ask as many questions as you can. A lot of people ask questions but then don’t probe further. The most productive conversations are when the mentee is as curious as possible. Ask “why” for everything.”
-MV, Software Engineer for 2 years
Tips for asking questions:
Ensure you’ve done your due diligence. If the answer can be easily searched for in your email, in the documentation, or in your past messages, it’s better to spend a few minutes searching.
Set appropriate context by sharing what you’ve tried already, what you know, and what you don’t, but avoid sending someone multiple paragraphs at once.
Bucket a few questions together around a particular topic rather than asking a new question every five minutes.
Identify the right person or team for your questions. If you’re not sure who that is, ask your manager or mentor . When in doubt, you can always ask: “I have a question about X, are you the right person to talk to?”
Seek to understand “why” not just “what” for topics related to your job. (ex: “why does the build system work this way” verses “what command should I run in this specific instance”)
Express gratitude for the support and jot down a few notes for yourself. This way you can apply the advice again in the future and maybe even help someone else.
“Keep asking questions and do the work before going to others expecting that they’ll help you. Pursue understanding and teaching yourself. Tap into the knowledge that is around you.”
-EQ, Customer Success and Product Manager at startups for 4 years
3. Avoid Comparisons
Everyone ramps up at their own pace. Work with your manager to understand whether you are meeting expectations, but avoid comparing yourself to others on the team especially if they have more experience. Although someone may be better than you at a certain skill, you can improve and get better. You are already bringing value to your team.
“Often times, people you think may be ‘wizards’, don’t actually know a lot. They know how to use the tools, but they don’t know much deeper. Don’t have idols. It’s important to not look at people as too impressive. Trust your senses, especially if you’ve worked on other industries.”
— SC, Bootcamp Grad, Software Engineer for the last 4 years
If someone stands out on the team as ‘knowing everything’ ask yourself what you can learn from them, but avoid putting them on a pedestal. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Focus on what you can learn.
4. Remember Your Value
“Being a new person is a super power. You see their blindspots even if they don’t see them. Your intuition is usually right. Try to take notes about the things you think are wrong or amiss or weird. Keep an eye on them. You might be identifying actual problems in the org. You can surface that.”
—SC, Bootcamp Grad, Software Engineer for the last 4 years
You were hired into this position for a reason: the hiring team saw the value you would bring to your team. Whether this is your first job or your tenth job, this still applies.
“Remember that you have value and an important perspective. If the person you’re with makes you anything less than good don’t assume you’re at fault. If someone is explaining something to you repeatedly and it doesn’t make sense, at a certain point it just doesn’t make sense.”
-EQ, Customer Success and Product Manager at startups for 4 years
Teaching someone a new concept takes two people, if you’re open to learning and it’s just not sinking in, it may not be you. Over time you’ll find the people whose teaching styles work best for you. Ask your manager or mentor for additional suggestions for anything you’re still struggling with.
5. Take Initiative
Onboarding is a very directed process. There are trainings to take and structured tasks to complete. After a month or two, you’ll start to find your way and see opportunities. Early contributions to your team will make you stand out as a team-player. Easy ways to get started include: editing wikis, writing new documentation, and answering questions in the team chats.
“Learn as much as you can about what different people are doing. Have initiative and find projects that you’re interested in working on.”
-MV, Software Engineer for 2 years
As you get to know your team, identify areas that you are most interested in and share these with your manager. Volunteer to take on a challenging project, lead an initiative, or research something new. This is especially helpful for projects or tasks that less people are interested in. Through these opportunities you will learn and grow and soon enough, you’ll be done with the onboarding phase and onto growing into your role.
