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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> onboarding a new college grad has got to be challenging when there's not a group of experienced team members around them to be able to see when they're struggling or headed off the wrong path without realizing it

Has anyone figured this one out? It’s inhibiting hiring quite significantly at our firm. I can’t imagine we’re the only ones.

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We elect a senior/experienced team member to provide most on-boarding, and continued assistance/training/mentorship during the new hire's probation period (usually 3 months). We then interview the new hire at the end of their probation period to get feedback on the training they received from the senior member they were paired with, and the on-boarding process in general.

We rotate between the senior members for each new hire, where it makes sense. The senior member in return receives a $ bonus during this time, and their effort also contributes towards their performance review. I've also noticed it helps the new hire integrate with our culture.

For fresh grads: x2 Manager checkins daily for first 2 months

For the 2-5 yr expirence: x1 checkin daily for the first month

For the 5+ yr experience engineer: x1 checkin daily first week.

For all: reduce checkins as appropriate for each, case-by-case.

2x Daily Checkin’s for 2 months.... sounds like a recipe for micro management.

Also given most managers schedules are packed, I’m not sure how feasible this advice is. Especially if they onboard 2 or 3 new hires.

This is fresh college grads, and it’s literally a “you have things to do? Are you stuck at all?” The checkins reduce in proportion to the positive check on things.

People don’t understand the massive amount of time new hires can spend stuck (be it HR, software license issues, unfamiliarity with the process, etc).

I would say there still needs to be more regular checkins, even for experienced engineers. The onboarding stage is almost always way longer than anyone wants to be stuck onboarding, and direction is very important, especially on teams that own way too many features.

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