Starting a New Job? Take Ownership It’s always an interesting dynamic when a new hire engineer joins a team. As a peer, the first instinct is to judge them. How does this person fit in? Are they going to cause problems? Are they competent? It sounds a little harsh and scary for new hires, but that’s human nature.
There are a lot of factors that go into how to evaluate a new team member, like experience level, current team needs, or what they are experts in. Those first couple months are important to see where they settle in. Opinions can certainly change over time, but early impressions can certainly stick. What can new hires do that sets them apart and fit in with a good team?
The most important quality that shapes my early opinion of new hires is simple, taking ownership. This can be a vague concept, and could mean different things to different people. Instead of trying to define it, I’ll explain with some examples.
Asking for help. Starting a new job is always a little scary. It’s tough to interrupt people who are working with their giant noise canceling headphones on. You might not know the right person to ask, or the right questions to ask. You might just be generally confused about everything. It’s important to realize that is okay, and even expected.
Go ask if you’re confused. People understand you are a new hire. They realize there are a lot of things you are not going to know right away. They’ve been there before, they get it. You are not going to be judged for needing help. People like helping other people. If you are confused, speak up. Be the new person as long as you possibly can. There will be things that you can only learn by taking the initiative of asking others.
Can this be abused? Sure, you shouldn’t be asking for help every 5 minutes. If you start feeling stuck, set a reasonable amount of time to try and figure it out before seeking help. If you got the job, that means at some level you know what you are doing. Have confidence in your judgment in what is a reasonable amount of time to spend on a problem. Just don’t be afraid to ask if you need it.
Take ownership on getting up to speed as fast as you can.
Show pride in your work. Eventually, you are going to do work that your co-workers will see and evaluate. Take the time to do things right and complete. Demonstrate that you care about quality. Your peers will look closely at that first work you do. They will gauge your capability and competence, so make sure it’s your best. Don’t be sloppy. Show that you take pride in your job and set the tone early on with high quality work.
This also includes the little things. Don’t send emails or messages riddled with spelling errors. Don’t show up late to meetings. Be professional.
Take ownership in showing that you are serious about this job.
Recognize that being a new hire means you have a unique perspective that is valuable. Every company has its own unique terminology, acronyms and overall style. It’s easy to take these kinds of things for granted when you’ve been at the same place for a while. Don’t hesitate to ask what things mean. It’s good to raise flags with your co-workers on terminology or instructions that might be confusing. It shows you are thinking of the big picture.
It’s common for there to be a new hire setup process. Maybe it’s a document with instructions to set up your computer, or something similar. When going through this, if there is something you do not understand, ask for help, then update the documentation to make it clear for future new hires. Those first few months you have the best perspective on what is confusing or does not make sense on how things are being done. Find ways to make it easier for new hires after you.
Take ownership of making your team better.
Follow through and finish. Don’t let things linger. Be someone who’s known for getting things done. If something is blocking you from getting a task finished, communicate this to get it resolved. Be political and don’t blame others. Engineering is a team game, it’s ok and normal to be gated by other teams or people. Not everyone knows what you are working on as well as you do. If you need support to finish, do what needs to get it done.
Take ownership of bringing things across the finish line so you can move on to what’s next.
Go out of your way to understand as much as you can, even if it isn’t related to what you are working on. On your first real work assignment, you’ll get a high level explanation to get you started. There probably won’t be much more than that. There will be tons you do not know. It’s impossible to understand all the intricacies of a new system from talking and reading documentation alone. You are going to need to get your hands dirty actually working with the system.
Go out of the way to understand the full context of what you are working on. Make sure you know why you are doing it. Know how it fits in the big picture. If there’s other systems you need to know before you can understand the full context, take initiative to go understand. Go look at other code so you really know how it works at a low level. Go talk to other people, or other engineering teams if needed. One of the big separators when judging engineering talent, is the ability to understand a system holistically.
Take ownership on knowing how the pieces stick together.
Summary This all ties back to truly taking ownership and pride in what you do for a living. Good engineers don’t view engineering as a job. It’s more than that. It’s what you do. It’s your craft. It’s part of your identity. If you take pride in that, you are taking ownership of your career. Always be improving to be the best engineer you can be, hone your craft. That’s someone I want on my team.