A Letter to a New Joiner

As I start a new role, I would like to remind myself of a few things that might help me (and maybe you too) to make the adventure more fun. This is a letter that I personally wrote to myself. The you, me, and I generally refer to myself. Hope you can find it useful.

Dear, Me

As the week began, I scrambled to fetch all I needed into my bag and was ready to venture into the world with a wide smile and a spoon of hope. Everything is ready to greet new friends, breathe in the new office, and scramble new codebases.

But, O me, don’t forget these messages that you have been craving in your heart for as long as you can remember:

1. Get to know people

Don’t be shy, they will not eat you. Be friends with them. You’re here to make their life easier. To accomplish that, get to know their problems, understand their feelings, and give them a great solution, you need to reach out to them.

2. Listen more than you speak, ask more than you answer

You might forget these things sometimes, and that’s okay. But, always remember that you need to listen more than you speak and ask more than you answer.

3. Assume that the person you are listening to knows something that you don’t

You read this advice from Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life. It might sound simple, but sometimes you forget this. It’s so amazing what people will tell you if you actually listen. Keep this in mind.

Note: also remember the Chesterton’s Fence

4. Look at the Pull Requests first, not the whole codebase

You might feel the urge to wander around the codebase and want to understand what every function out there is doing. But, you have done this before and it’s not the best approach. Take a look at what your team members are up to lately.

5. Get on call

Or whatever terms your company is using, try to get on the call. Try to get your foot wet and help the users fix their issues. Trust me, it’ll give you a ton of advantages.

6. Have fun

I know, it’s a “professional work”. But, if you don’t enjoy it, it’ll just give you stress or boringness or both.

With care,

Yourself