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Unfold ItThink. Unfold. Move.Unfold ItThink. Unfold. Move.Every new engineer on my team takes about 8 weeks before they ship their first meaningful PR. I want to cut that in half with a structured technical onboarding plan -environment setup, codebase orientation, first-ticket assignment, code review norms, and a buddy system that actually works.
Plan for: Reduce New Engineer Onboarding Time from 8 Weeks to 4 Weeks
The automated environment setup script drifts from production or becomes outdated, causing the exact errors it was meant to prevent.
Add a checklist item for the new hire to update the setup documentation if they encounter and fix any discrepancies. Treat the setup script as production code.
The assigned buddy is pulled into an urgent production issue, leaving the new hire blocked.
Designate a 'secondary buddy' or ensure the new hire knows which Slack channel to ask for immediate unblocking. Ensure the primary buddy's sprint load is officially reduced.
'Good First Issues' get stale or are accidentally picked up by senior engineers before the new hire starts.
Create a specific label (e.g., 'reserved-for-onboarding') and communicate to the team not to touch these tickets.
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