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Yes, it really is special. As you said, a few companies in tech do it. And they have a tremendous advantage. My overwhelming experience at companies ranging fr
by Denzel 9y ago
Yes, it really is special. As you said, a few companies in tech do it. And they have a tremendous advantage.
My overwhelming experience at companies ranging from small $1-5MM revenue shops to >$100MM startups has shown onboarding to be an ad-hoc afterthought. No conscious design.
Many of these companies don't understand how much it's hurting them.
As I've grown more senior, I've learned to onboard myself... seeking out knowledgeable individuals and teasing out the big picture. This is not the default for more junior developers. And thus they lag like an unspun turbo, whining as they try to spin up.
To have full-spectrum -- internal- and external-faced -- onboarding baked into the company culture is a tremendous advantage. It promotes a clear, razor-sharp, global context that allows individuals to move faster with greater alignment.
I love what MailChimp is doing.
- db48x 9y agoYou're not wrong, but a well-designed process for welcoming new employees to the company doesn't have to be a dog-and-pony show, or a week of meetings, or a nightmare specifically designed to torture introverts.
- Denzel 9y agoI'm open to hearing detailed alternatives. Company architecture -- specifically, ensuring autonomous strategic alignment while minimizing synchronous communication -- is close to my heart. It'd be especially helpful to hear how to do this is in a way that's comfortable and welcoming to someone like you.
- db48x 9y agoMost of the things listed in the schedule shown in the article would be better off as a wiki page. They've got a whole one-hour meeting for "Learn[ing] about parking and transportation options". This is information that cannot possibly change frequently, which not everyone will care about, and which you absolutely do not need to give a presentation about, and a wiki page is perfectly suited for communicating this information.
- Denzel 9y agoI agree that a lot of the information is perfectly suited for a wiki page. (And I bet Mailchimp has those too.) However, I feel that wiki pages should be treated as secondary sources in the case of onboarding, not primary sources. It feels like your discounting the benefits of building person-to-person rapport. Rapport is not built through wiki pages. And the easiest way to build rapport -- for both introverts and extroverts alike -- is through simple conversation about simple topics. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss face-to-face interaction just because it's uncomfortable or unnecessary. Not everything has to be comfortable or necessary to be useful. Sometimes a little inefficiency can go a long way towards a happy life. In other words: stop and smell the roses.
- db48x 9y agoNobody is going to build rapport with anyone at an hour-long presentation about parking and transit options. An hour-long meeting about anything is not a chance to stop and smell the roses; the roses are all outside.
- Denzel 9y agoI'm afraid you don't understand what rapport is with such a sweeping statement. But, I'm not here to convince you. Honestly, it appears this type of team wouldn't be a good fit for you and that's okay.