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Who should I ask questions to?

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Senior Software Engineer at Seed Stage Startup2 years ago

I'm new to my company, so I'm asking questions to bring myself up to speed. However, something I'm wary of is becoming a burden - I assume you don't want to ask the same person every time for help. Any tips on how to figure out who I should ask my question to minimize the chance of this happening? I want to make sure I get along well with my team.

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    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    2 years ago

    I think some amount of load balancing makes sense; you want to get to know as many members of your team as possible anyways. It's also always nice getting multiple engineering perspectives - It's very helpful for growth. I also recommend asking junior/mid-level engineers for help as they'll likely be excited to help a senior engineer, and there's a good chance you can teach them something in return due to your seniority.

    Another thing I want to add is how you thank people for answering your questions is really important. There's less of a chance that you'll feel like a burden if people really enjoy answering your questions due to your strong gratitude. People don't realize that thanking people well is a skill, and you can learn more about that in my video here: How To Build Work Relationships Faster - Giving Deeper Thanks

    Here's some quick thoughts from that video on how to properly thank great helpers:

    • Thank their manager and make sure that this is represented positively in their performance review
    • Write a heartfelt thank-you note to them (i.e. a paragraph or 2)
    • Tell them how much you appreciate them in person, ideally a 1 on 1 meeting

    I also recommend my Effective Communication for generally good advice on better interacting with people: Alex's Guide To Effective Communication

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