First ~~day~~ week on a team

I’m going to tweak this months topic to cover my first week at my new company. Reflecting on a really busy week seemed like the thing to do.

Summary

Lots of support
Met different people from across the business
Had space to explore
Lucky timing to catch some company wide meetings and overviews
Facilitated some meetings
Contributed to some conversations. Nice to feel like you’re adding some value

First impressions

I started with a call to Lauren from HR. We went through some standard things to get me started: access to emails, pointed to internal guidance, and a pleasant chat. I’d already received my kit, and a minor access issue was sorted quickly. I had access to emails and other important stuff from the start. Unheard of!

More people

Following on with meeting my line manager, buddy, team, fellow SDETs … Names and faces overload. But great to meet people. Looking forward to building relationships. I’ve got some people on my list to reach out to next week and get talking.

Induction material

Now this is the sort of thing that can be really dry. But neccessary.

Much to my relief the variety of induction tasks meant I could balance my days. A bit of reading here, some team meetings there, overviews, and another sneaky read.

I feel like I’ve learned a lot already, and I’ve not spent it all looking at documents. Brownie points for whoever was involved in setting it up.

Next steps

I need a tea and a nap.

I’ve seen a few places I can add value, and maybe even be an Expert(one of the core values).

I’ve managed to pace the week well. I’ve not tried to do too much and end up get nothing done. Hard to slow down sometimes and not try do everything. Particularly when there’s so much to learn and experiment with.

I don’t know if this is the start of a week notes series. Which is something I’ve seen people do. If I don’t stick to weekly posts, I do plan to write fairly regularly over the coming weeks and months.