33 ms·

If they're senior they shouldn't require any on boardinag other than dev environment set up and account set up for ci, ticketing, etc.

afarrell 9y ago
Note in interpreting this: If someone graduated from uni less than 3 years ago, then they might not be senior even if the recruiter who called you about them said they were. They almost certainly need onboarding. At the very least, a project that they should start working on. If you want them to come up with their own project, at least intro them to the current strategic goals of the company and whom to talk to find and prioritize pain points. But your best bet is to give them onboarding and at least a first project. Folks with 7+ years experience: Is it true that you don't need an onboarding besides getting shown your machine and accounts? What is your approach to finding a project and deciding that it is what you should actually work on? Do you approach it as if you are basically a startup within the company?
- marktangotango 9y ago
  Generally when you're "truly" senior, it's pretty trivial to come in and start working tickets ie bugs and features so long as it's the tech stack you're used too. You've seen most of the bugs before, and implemented a lot of the same stuff (dashboard? KPI's? yawn). If it's a different stack, then sure there's some ramp up, but weeks not months. Like if I went from 15 years of java to .net, I'd be uncomfortable for a while, but basics are the same; version control, IDE's, building, deploying, etc. It's just a matter of learning the particulars. So far as projects to work on, generally managers and project/product owners have a back log of stuff they want done; some feature or other. Or maybe there's some crippling technical debt that needs to be resolved (example I saw recently; using ant for building deploying, and needing to move to maven). >> If you want them to come up with their own project, at least intro them to the current strategic goals of the company and whom to talk to find and prioritize pain points. Rereading; this is a bizarre statement. If I encountered a situation like this, I'd start looking immediately. This is a strong signal the org has no clue what they're doing ie leadership is incompetent.

afarrell 9y ago

Note in interpreting this: If someone graduated from uni less than 3 years ago, then they might not be senior even if the recruiter who called you about them said they were. They almost certainly need onboarding. At the very least, a project that they should start working on. If you want them to come up with their own project, at least intro them to the current strategic goals of the company and whom to talk to find and prioritize pain points. But your best bet is to give them onboarding and at least a first project. Folks with 7+ years experience: Is it true that you don't need an onboarding besides getting shown your machine and accounts? What is your approach to finding a project and deciding that it is what you should actually work on? Do you approach it as if you are basically a startup within the company?

marktangotango 9y ago
Generally when you're "truly" senior, it's pretty trivial to come in and start working tickets ie bugs and features so long as it's the tech stack you're used too. You've seen most of the bugs before, and implemented a lot of the same stuff (dashboard? KPI's? yawn). If it's a different stack, then sure there's some ramp up, but weeks not months. Like if I went from 15 years of java to .net, I'd be uncomfortable for a while, but basics are the same; version control, IDE's, building, deploying, etc. It's just a matter of learning the particulars. So far as projects to work on, generally managers and project/product owners have a back log of stuff they want done; some feature or other. Or maybe there's some crippling technical debt that needs to be resolved (example I saw recently; using ant for building deploying, and needing to move to maven). >> If you want them to come up with their own project, at least intro them to the current strategic goals of the company and whom to talk to find and prioritize pain points. Rereading; this is a bizarre statement. If I encountered a situation like this, I'd start looking immediately. This is a strong signal the org has no clue what they're doing ie leadership is incompetent.