Onboarding Q&A and Videos

I'm in the first few weeks of onboarding and I'm hearing I'm expected to lead a new project initiative because the lead engineer decided to leave the company.

The project is barely off the ground lacking resources, technical design, requirements etc. and I'm afraid I have to produce something meaningful within a tight deadline over the course of the next few months.

What do I do? On one hand, this seems like a good opportunity to deliver. But on the other hand, it doesn't seem like a successful onboarding path. I'm extremely new to the company, and executing on a multi team / scope initiative like this seems like a big ask.

Should I ask to be placed somewhere where I'll have more support?

What are the best practices for onboarding and being successful at meta MLE ads rankings team (E4)? Please share your thoughts on office culture/how to go along well with manager? tips for successful E4-->E5 track? how to ensure getting projects with Impact (team dominated by members from 1 country)?

Note, I will go through the on-boarding course by Rahul, but was looking for some tailored suggestions, thanks

As a new hire, I want to make a strong first impression.

On the other hand, if I go the extra mile and overachieve early, will I be setting a bar for future expectations so that when I return to normal effort I might be perceived as not as effective as initially thought, or decreasing in performance?

That's the main question. More generally, should we ever over-exert? If the answer is "sometimes," then how do select the cases?

I am moving teams for the first time in my three-year long career and the team I am moving to is full of very experienced folks(15-20) with the least experienced person with 10 YoE. Some of these folks have also been in the same team for years. I will be new in the team as well as tech stack.

How do I create impact, learn from these people, be able to create my own identity and not be shrugged off as a "junior engineer" who is not given important tasks?

Any additional tips on how can I leverage this move as a fresh start? Like relationship with manager, team and my attitude towards the work?

I've recently joined a new company, and I got up-levelled to be a senior swe through the interview process. This would be my first senior engineering role at a large tech company (where tech is a profit center) relative to some of my other experiences.

• What mindset shifts do I need to have?
• How do I go about creating impact?

I'm halfway through and am wondering if his advice in the course changes given that I'm on a contract 6-months to start. What triggered this thought was he says in the video that you should consider yourself "Fully Onboarded" by Month 6 (and therefore take more time before asking questions). Since my contract is 6-months to start, I imagine I should strive especially hard to onboard quickly, but that the advice in the course doesn't really change. There are, after all, human limits to how quickly you can onboard and those don't change whether you're FTE or on contract to start. I believe my situation might be closer to that of an intern. So maybe I should go through ?

Appreciate the feedback!

I just had my last date at my (now former) job. I'm set to start at Instacart next week. Whoot!

I'm wondering if I can/should ask to push back my start date by a week. The reasons to do so are:

1. I get 2 weeks of vacation to relax before I start my job. I'd like to do a bit of travel before I start and the extra week would be huge. I won't have 2 weeks of vacation for a long time, so it's a lot.
2. I get more time to beef up on stuff I should know coming into my job.

While I would very much like to ask, I'm inclined not to. Here's why:

1. I'm starting on contract with a fellow contractor and I believe that peer just started today. One week behind him is prob better than 2
2. The contract I signed goes until late December, so I'm not sure they can push back that date even if my start date is pushed back.
3. I kinda already agreed to the start date.

When it comes to negotiating pay, the rule is it doesn't hurt to ask. I know that and benefited from it! But in this case, I'm concerned it does hurt to ask as I don't want to seem unenthusiastic about the job or not looking forward to starting or someone whose word is unreliable.

What do people think? Should I ask or just chin up and bear it?

Thanks!

Heard this phrase many times, but would appreciate some elaboration/insights. Let's say I don't have ANY frontend experience in the past, but somehow get hired at a FAANG as a frontend dev. We know onboarding is already tough - meeting new people, understanding new codebase, etc. In the first few weeks especially, how do you manage so many things? You have to go through the onboarding challenges, and on top of that also ramp up on frontend. Isn't that too much to take on?

How to make sure I am performing well and learning new things quickly?

So I have worked in codebases where there’s one repo per microservice or maybe at most 7-8 services in 1 repo with good CI/CD that’s isolated. Those repos we just develop independently of one another. I’ve seen this throughout my career of 4 YOE. Is it a fair statement to say that “I don’t know what real onboarding is”?

I usually have gotten away with knowing

• the structure of spring boot microservice,
• maven gradle dependency downloading,
• how kafka consumer works in spring
• how rest api typically gets exposed in spring
• high level knowledge of spring bean creation
• how db interactions have been done.
• reading the arch diagram and learning where the infra is to connect dots.

This has made me able to ramp up fast and get productive within 2 weeks and follow discussions.

I don’t know if I just have “had it easy my whole career and I need to step my game up”

I'll be starting at Instacart in a couple weeks as an L4 Data Engineer on contract for 6 months to start. I'm coming from a finance company where things move slowly. I was a high performer in my department while regularly working 3 hours a day or less. Much of my time spent at my old job was dedicated towards finding my new job - applying, interviewing, taking courses, etc.

I know I will encounter a culture shock when I start at IC and want to prepare myself as much as possible for it. Mentally, I am taking the approach that I will put in a solid full-day, 8 hours of work every day and perhaps work some weeknights and weekends as well, although I'd like to minimize the need to do that by being effective and prioritizing work during my regular work hours.

In terms of preparation, from Taro I have gleaned that there are 2 main areas I should be focusing on:

1. Code Quality and Velocity

2. Communication

For 1), I have bookmarked on the topic and plan on doing it before I start working. For 2), I have bookmarked and likewise plan on finishing the course before starting work. I actually plan on doing Rahul's Onboarding Course before Alex's Code Course.

Is there anything else I should be aware of? I have gone through already as well as looked over these threads:

I imagine the advice for me is virtually identical to the above threads, but if there's anything I'm missing, please fill me in!

Thanks!!

Hi Taro Community,

I joined Microsoft in February, and interestingly, my manager started just a month later in March. As we’re both relatively new and navigating uncharted areas, I felt the need for more structured technical guidance. During a recent one-on-one, I suggested the idea of having a mentor or a designated technical point of contact. Initially, my manager acknowledged this need and planned to discuss it further up the chain.

However, the feedback I received later was that since we are in the process of building a new team here in India, we should first attempt to resolve issues internally. Subsequently, for additional insights, I’m advised to engage with the chat group, which includes around 100 members.

Here’s where I find myself in a predicament:

• My manager, being new himself, sometimes faces similar uncertainties, which complicates our internal resolution approach.
• Posting in a large group specific guidance doesn’t always yield practical advice due to its broad focus.

Any insights on managing these dynamics or personal experiences would be incredibly helpful as I look to establish myself and contribute effectively in my new role.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences.

I just signed an offer with one of my dream tech companies that significantly increases my comp. I'm excited to be starting, but nervous about hitting the ground running. Will be making liberal use of Taro courses to guide me!

I have 3 questions:

1. should I tell people on my team where I'm going? I don't see how I get around this. My concern is I don't want people to be envious that I'm leaving for a better opportunity that pays a lot more. I think it's unavoidable, and I imagine this just comes down to being as considerate and professional as I can be.

2. This is about balancing finishing up at my old job and preparing for my new one. I know good practice is to prep an offboarding plan and try and tie up as many loose ends as possible. Regardless, there are simply things I won't be able to do in the 2 weeks I have left. Then there's prepping for my new job. I don't have familiarity with a bunch of the tools we're using and want to do anything I can to prep for it since I want to make a good impression when I start and I know the pace of my new job will be at least 2x what it is in my current one. Basically, this comes down to should I take time out of my remaining 2 weeks to prep for my new job the way I did when I was interviewing and trying to get my new job? I feel like there's no right answer here, just a spectrum. What I'm thinking right now is I'll try working with my current manager and getting a reasonable amount done in my old/current job for every day I have left, but no more than that. All other time will go to prep.

3. Should I post that I got my new job on LinkedIn? Similar to my first question, I'm sensitive to how others may feel. Equally important, I don't feel secure in my job and feel like I only want to post about it or switch my status after I feel a certain level of comfort there (if it ever comes) or time spent there (more deterministic). If I were not to list it on LI, I would either need to have myself still working at my old job or appear to be unemployed.

Thanks!

I am looking forward to grow as senior engineer soon. I realised one of the improve my areas as I become senior is to be more independent and onboard to new projects effectively.

As someone who likes to understand things deeply, I am taking more time to get started and contribute to new projects when introduced to new frameworks/languages/tools. How should I become more effective?

I recently landed the role of a senior ML scientist at a well-known company. My previous experience has been mostly in software engineering with a few ML-related projects. I was expecting to be evaluated at IC3 or lower, but the hiring team evaluated me at a senior level. I want to make sure that I deliver at the level I was hired for. To that end, it would be greatly appreciated if anyone has any recommendations about what can I do to prepare myself for the job.

Edit: The role is going to be mostly R&D related but also take scalability, deployment, and monitoring into consideration.

Just finished the whole onboarding phase, but my team's product is supposedly very close to a quarterly release. Therefore, my manager/onboarding buddy are planning to just have me start off with test cases. What do y'all think about this? Would this be normal due to the timing, or is this a hidden sign of a lack of confidence on their end?

Hi everyone,

I recently joined a new company and am in the process of onboarding with a new team. After a week, I’ve noticed several challenges stemming from our team lead’s transition back to an individual contributor role. Currently, there’s no clear roadmap, sprint retrospectives haven’t been conducted for a while, and regular 1:1s with engineers are missing.

While the company is trying to hire a new engineering manager, which might take at least three months, I’m considering stepping up to fill in some of the management gaps. I’ve always been interested in moving into a management role, and this situation seems like it could be a good opportunity.

Do you think this is a good idea? If so, how should I go about offering myself for these responsibilities, or should I wait to be approached? Any advice or experiences shared would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Taro Community,

I’ve often come across the term ‘Pair Programming’ within discussions here and in the broader tech community. However, I realize that I may not fully grasp the various contexts in which this practice is applied. Could anyone shed light on what Pair Programming entails and how it might differ across different settings or scenarios?

Specifically, I’m curious about:

• The essential elements that define Pair Programming
• Variations in approach when it comes to Pair Programming in a remote vs. in-person environment
• The benefits and potential drawbacks of this method from your personal experiences
• Situations or types of tasks where Pair Programming is particularly effective or, conversely, not recommended.

Understanding this could greatly influence how I collaborate with my team and contribute to our projects. Any insights or personal anecdotes on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

I recently joined Meta, with over a decade of experience in software product development from various companies.

Currently, I'm working as a system generalist, but I have a growing interest in transitioning into a machine learning engineer role by next year.

This interest stems from both a desire to explore that sector and the recognition of the high demand for ML skills. I'm eager to invest the necessary effort to learn and adapt.

Could anyone share insights on the feasibility of this transition within Meta? Additionally, what specific skill set should I focus on developing to align with the expectations for a machine learning engineer role here at Meta?

Your guidance and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Most people spend a tone of time prepping for FAANG interview but once you have the job, you need a different set of skill to be competitive and exceed the job expectations as a SDE. It would have be nice if we had also took the time to build up the skills to do the job better before joining the company. Any recommendation on material to skill up for FAANG job

What strategies can I employ to excel in my new role as a senior software engineer at a tier 1 tech company, coming as a mid level engineer.