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I hired my first programmer – I'm not freaking out. any tips on onboarding?

17 points by saddington ↗ HN
just wanted to share some good and positive news... i hired my first full-time programmer!

i know this is pretty self-serving post, but, as you all know, hiring talented technical staff is... ... hard.

it can be really hard when you're an early-stage startup trying to compete against much larger compensation packages.

the only solution that i know is to be authentic... these posts were helpful:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19493206 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19493206

so, that's what i've tried to do.

part of my solution has been just more transparent with who we are as a project... like creating a very simple open source handbook and describing what the first day / week looks like:

https://github.com/yenio/handbook/blob/master/1-employment.md#onboarding-your-first-day--week

so grateful for this community because i learn things every day.

16 comments

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aogl
Congratulations, making the first steps towards something like this is usually the hardest part.
saddington
thanks friend! i was telling someone the other day that this decision was one of the most important ones of the year... if not THE most important.

deciding WHO i want to work with is more important than WHAT sometimes... maybe, all the time. ️

aogl
This decision will also influence the direction your business takes in many respects as well.
saddington
you're right. one the more exciting things is to simply... listen.

i have an idea of where i'd like to go, but, i know that the bigger part is just the journey together. so excited to get started!

oh, the places we will go...!

saddington
oh, and any suggestions on how to continue to create "onboarding magic" for my new employee... i'd love to hear your thoughts!

how do i create THE BEST working environment possible? tips / tricks / insights?

aogl
Don't micro-manage. Focus on output delivery.
new_guy
What the above comment says. Don't micro-manage, and LISTEN. If your programmer tells you something listen to them and trust their judgement, it's why they're there.

Also don't fall for any tech 'buzzwords', just go with what gets the job done.

AnimalMuppet
Don't take vacation the week your new hire shows up.

I've been on the receiving end of that. It went... badly.

aliswe
Listen to the employees. Anything hampering their work needs to be gotten out of their way, even if it's you.

Everything you can do to optimize their job is valuable. Do they have a trash bin nearby? Is there a draft annoying them? Is there noise coming from somewhere, perhaps a door that never gets closed? Is it annoying when you take phone calls? Bad seat? Password policy?

One guy was amazed when, at one time, his two founders came and said they wanted to apologize to him. They had been running past him way too often, and they felt they mist have been annoying him. He hadn't even noticed though...

Listen to silence, try to interpret queues. Ask them to elaborate when going silent, please, speak your mind.

Often employees won't say something verbally, but can be inferred somehow. Goes silent? Gaze drops? Tiny mouth? Learn to interpret body language. They may not be that telling, but indicative that ypu need to dig out something.

muzani
My rule of thumb:

happy programmer = productive programmer

productive programmer = happy programmer

Lots of managers somewhat assume that a developer is trying to do as little as possible, but it's quite the opposite. Many have pride in their work, and enjoy getting into flow.

Very often they can get frustrated, with processes, with equipment, and often with themselves.

Sometimes they end up in an unproductivity-depression spiral too, and need a little help out of that. Often the best solution here is not to be hard on them when things go slow, and make it clear that they're encouraged to bring up problems as it happens.

The easiest way to find out is to just listen - regularly schedule 1-on-1s. Well, if you have one programmer, there's going to be a lot of 1 on 1, but keep it a habit.

I'd say don't worry too much about onboarding.

Start them off with a little goal, that's not too time dependent and have someone they can fully interrupt in the first few days. The process of the tech team can change very rapidly in just a few months, based on team size, managers, DevOps, etc.

zhte415
This might sound obvious, but make sure they have a computer. Only in one job have I have had a computer on the first day, two of which I wouldn't call it computer because it might have been a machine but had no OS and/or email, and that's in 7 positions (companies/departments) over 20 years including (because of?) government and F500s, in one case it took 2 weeks and that was an internal transfer, no checks needed. Preferably with the OS and overall environment that you and they are OK with.
quickthrower2
What the? Every job I’ve had a computer on the first day since 2000!
kzisme
My last job I didn't receive my machine for well over a month. I was told to use my personal machine until the provided one arrived.
marapuru
This. Very valuable advise. I've been in this situation often as well. Although I personally don't make a big deal about using my own laptop, network administrators within the company often did.

It's a pain not having the necessary tools there. And most of all, it makes it look as if the company doesn't know what to prepare for the new employee.

marapuru
Be honest and open about the questions you have about onboarding. This should show the new employee that their ideas are valued and also starts open and transparent communication.