How do you onboard new engineers effectively?

Question

Accepted Answer

A good onboarding gets a new engineer **productive and confident quickly**, while making them feel welcome. Poor onboarding wastes weeks and signals "you're on your own." A little structure pays off hugely.

## An onboarding checklist

```text
WEEK 1  — environment runs, first tiny PR merged, knows who's who
WEEK 2-3 — owns a small real task end to end
MONTH 1 — comfortable in the core codebase and workflow
MONTH 2-3 — contributing independently on normal work

Provide: a buddy, a written setup guide, a starter task list,
and a clear "who to ask about what" map.
```

## A concrete example

Assign a small, real, low-risk bug for day one or two, not a big feature, not busywork. Shipping something real in week one builds confidence and teaches the whole pipeline (build, review, deploy) in miniature.

## Assign a buddy

Pair every newcomer with a buddy who answers "dumb" questions without judgment. It offloads you and gives the new person a safe person to ask, which dramatically speeds the ramp.

## A pitfall

Don't throw them at the hardest part of the system first, and don't leave the docs to rot. Each new hire is a free audit of your onboarding, fix what tripped them up.

## Why it matters

The first weeks shape how a person feels about the team and how fast they contribute.

Good onboarding turns a hire into a contributor in weeks instead of months, and the docs you build help everyone after them.