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Starting a New Developer Job

Starting a new engineering job is exciting and terrifying. You want to prove yourself quickly, but you're surrounded by unfamiliar code, people, and processes.

This guide will help you navigate the first 6 months successfully.

Quick Answer​

The average time to full productivity at a new job is 3-6 months. With the right approach, you can cut this to 6-12 weeks.

PhaseTimelineFocus
OnboardingWeek 1-2Setup, meet people, first commits
LearningMonth 1-2Understand systems, ship small things
ContributingMonth 2-4Independent work, larger projects
ThrivingMonth 4-6Leadership, mentoring, innovation

Before Day 1​

Research​

  • Read the company's engineering blog
  • Explore public repos on GitHub
  • Review the tech stack on StackShare or LinkedIn
  • Understand the product from a user perspective

Prepare Your Mind​

New jobs are cognitively expensive. For your first week:

  • Get extra sleep
  • Clear your calendar of non-work obligations
  • Accept that you'll feel uncomfortable

Week 1: The Critical First Days​

Day 1​

Goals:

  1. Complete HR paperwork
  2. Set up your laptop and accounts
  3. Join Slack/Teams channels
  4. Meet your manager and team
  5. Get access to the codebase

Don't worry about:

  • Understanding the architecture
  • Being productive
  • Impressing anyone

Days 2-5​

Primary goal: Get the main application running locally.

# The most important thing you'll do this week
git clone <main-repo>
cd <main-repo>
npm install
npm start

If you can't get it running, ask for help on Day 2. This is expected and normal.

Secondary goals:

  • Complete any required training
  • Schedule 1:1s with key team members
  • Review team documentation
  • Make your first commit (even if trivial)

Month 1: Building Foundation​

What to Focus On​

WeekFocus
Week 2Complete 2-3 small tasks, learn the PR workflow
Week 3Understand one core system deeply
Week 4Ship your first feature, write your first design doc

Relationship Building​

Engineering is a team sport. Schedule 30-minute 1:1s with:

  • Your manager
  • Each team member
  • Key stakeholders from other teams
  • Someone who's been there 2+ years (for context)

Questions to ask:

  • "What do you wish you knew when you started?"
  • "What's the most important thing I should understand about this codebase?"
  • "What's a mistake new engineers commonly make?"

Documentation​

Keep a personal "onboarding journal":

  • New terms and acronyms
  • Architecture decisions and their rationale
  • Who knows what
  • Common commands and workflows

This will be invaluable at month 3 when you've forgotten month 1.

Months 2-3: Accelerating​

Signs You're on Track​

By the end of Month 2:

  • You can navigate the codebase without help
  • You've shipped 5+ PRs
  • You can estimate how long tasks will take
  • You know who to ask for different topics

By the end of Month 3:

  • You're working independently on features
  • You're reviewing others' PRs with useful feedback
  • You're contributing to technical discussions
  • You could onboard the next new hire

Common Challenges​

Imposter Syndrome Everyone feels this. The cure is shipping code, not ruminating.

Information Overload You can't learn everything. Focus on what you need for your current task.

Fear of Breaking Things That's what tests, code review, and staging environments are for. Ship it.

Struggling in Silence If you're stuck for more than 30 minutes, ask for help. This isn't weakness—it's efficiency.

Months 4-6: Thriving​

You've Successfully Ramped Up When:​

  • You can explain the system architecture to a new hire
  • You identify and propose technical improvements
  • You're trusted with critical projects
  • You mentor other team members
  • You contribute to team process improvements

What's Next​

  • Start thinking about specialization
  • Build relationships outside your immediate team
  • Consider proposing a larger initiative
  • Document what you've learned for the next person

How Ramp Accelerates Job Transitions​

Traditional onboarding relies on:

  • Outdated documentation
  • Busy senior engineers who don't have time
  • Trial and error

Ramp provides:

  • Instant answers to codebase questions
  • Context about why code was written
  • 24/7 availability without social friction
# Ask questions without interrupting anyone
ramp voice
> "How does our authentication system work?"
> "What's the process for deploying to production?"
> "Where is the code for the checkout flow?"

Starting a new job? Try Ramp free →