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Meeting everyone on a new team

annashipman.co.uk

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Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#41

Post by websap »

jan_g wrote: post #40

> This is confidential. If you say something about someone else I’m not going to go and tell them. Warning to all of you in non-managerial position: be very wary of confidentiality proclamations. It happened to me that my manager ran immediately to the CEO, when I said I'm going to start looking for a new job in 3-6 months time. I told him that I specifically don't want this information to leak, but yeah, everybody k…

Very true. For me saying this conversation is confidential has a negative connotation. It raises some flags like:

1. Are we going to talk about something which we can't broadly address? 2. How do I trust someone new on the team to actually keep things confidential, what have they done to earn my trust? 3. I'm going to be more guarded about what I say, because now I'm thinking this person will probably want to misconstrue what I'm saying to their benefit.

Talking about career conversations. I wouldn't tell anyone about my career plans until the day I have to. In my experience telling people early has no tangible benefit.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#43

Post by orf »

ShroudedNight wrote: post #27
dv35z wrote: post #11

Perfect timing. I just joined a company this past week as a software engineer. Day one, I knew 5 people, only topically. By the end of week 1, I have introductions/1:1s scheduled for 30+ top-notch people at the organization. Here's the method I used to do this: I created a really comprehensive intro email about myself (work stuff, personal stuff, passions, etc). I wrote this in Google Docs, so it would be easy to pas…

As this currently reads, this evokes intense feelings of vitriol at the mere hypothetical of a peer attempting to coerce me to engage in a pathologically transactional relationship I would want zero part of. In the most satisfying job roles, I would expect to endure hardship for the sake of others' success, and this would immediately put me on notice that such endurance would likely be wasteful and painful in its lac…

Yeah, I’m just imagining receiving this demanding message out of the blue on a typical busy day from a new joiner in a different team.

Most of these questions seem more suited for your direct colleagues or team lead.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#44

Post by silveroriole »

dv35z wrote: post #11

Perfect timing. I just joined a company this past week as a software engineer. Day one, I knew 5 people, only topically. By the end of week 1, I have introductions/1:1s scheduled for 30+ top-notch people at the organization. Here's the method I used to do this: I created a really comprehensive intro email about myself (work stuff, personal stuff, passions, etc). I wrote this in Google Docs, so it would be easy to pas…

You joined as an engineer, not a manager. Why are you asking people how you can help with their challenges when it’s very unlikely you have the power to do so? I’d find this entire email process very bizarre, demanding and power-seeking (you want me to tell you who the bigshots are so you can meet them and what you should do to get promoted, and you’re pretending it’s for my benefit? Who are you trying to kid?). I’d certainly end up with a very negative view of you. Just so you know.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#45

Post by rubidium »

randycupertino wrote: post #28
ShroudedNight wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As this currently reads, this evokes intense feelings of vitriol at the mere hypothetical of a peer attempting to coerce me to engage in a pathologically transactional relationship I would want zero part of. In the most satisfying job roles, I would expect to endure hardship for the sake of others' success, and this would immediately put me on notice that such endurance would likely be wasteful and painful in its lac…

It's certainly... a lot. Kind of reminding me of a coworker who kept a secret tracker of everyone in the office's dogs and kids. She considered herself a networking genius, but imo it was kind of creepy.

Sounds like it wasn’t very secret...

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#46

Post by rubidium »

Aeolun wrote: post #26
nfm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the exec level, a good 70-80% of your time is probably unable to budge, so 25 hours of discretionary time _is_ a big investment - probably most of your discretionary time for a calendar month. It sounds like it was well worth it though.

Uh, why would your time not budge? As I’ve become more senior I’ve also been left more and more alone to determine what is important to be doing at any given time.

Senior IC or senior manager side? IC you usually are left alone. Senior manager side and your times fills fast.

That said, the 1-1’s in the article are totally worth the time.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#47

Post by rootsofallevil »

jan_g wrote: post #40

> This is confidential. If you say something about someone else I’m not going to go and tell them. Warning to all of you in non-managerial position: be very wary of confidentiality proclamations. It happened to me that my manager ran immediately to the CEO, when I said I'm going to start looking for a new job in 3-6 months time. I told him that I specifically don't want this information to leak, but yeah, everybody k…

would you say that you trusted your manager enough not say anything or were you just venting and maybe revealed too much?

For me, potential job changes is the only thing I will lie about to a current manager.

I appreciate that a manager might be concerned about losing staff but if half the team have gone due to very clear changes in the way things are run (dictated from above), why would I be any different?

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#48

Post by watwut »

tehjoker wrote: post #33
brnt wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once worked with an exec who had an interesting solution to this: he accepted meetings of 30minutes max. Hard limit (which is a good idea regardless of length ofc). He was quite senior, so most people wanted to meet him rather than vice versa, so he could 'afford it', which someone in a more junior position probably couldn't pull off. These meeting were the most effective I've ever experienced. No smalltalk no beat…

That works sometimes, but only if it makes sense for one side of the meeting spending the necessary time to make such a presentation. If the meeting takes 2x as long unprepared, but it took you longer to make materials it can be more of a toss up. I wouldn't look at such prep as the hallmark of a good meeting, but more as an adaptation to a particular constraint. Of course, difficult to communicate ideas (such as in…

"Preparation for meeting" and "presentation" are two different things. Preparation means you know what you want, you know what to say and that you dont use time during meeting to figure it out. It means we are all not waiting while you are struggling with words or go to tangents or are going through jira figuring out which issues are relevant.

It does nor have to be polished presentation.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#49

Post by photonios »

dv35z wrote: post #11

Perfect timing. I just joined a company this past week as a software engineer. Day one, I knew 5 people, only topically. By the end of week 1, I have introductions/1:1s scheduled for 30+ top-notch people at the organization. Here's the method I used to do this: I created a really comprehensive intro email about myself (work stuff, personal stuff, passions, etc). I wrote this in Google Docs, so it would be easy to pas…

Maybe I am too European for this, but I'd be very wary if I received such emails. I'd shrug and throw it in the bin. You come across as a try hard that is more concerned with "chit chatting" than performing actual work.

My 2 cents for starting a new job: shut up and work. Contribute, show what you can do. Teams are often overworked. Start closing tickets, making small improvements. Don't step on anyone's toes. Observe and contribute first.

Re: Meeting everyone on a new team

#50

Post by jan_g »

websap wrote: post #41
jan_g wrote: post #40

> This is confidential. If you say something about someone else I’m not going to go and tell them. Warning to all of you in non-managerial position: be very wary of confidentiality proclamations. It happened to me that my manager ran immediately to the CEO, when I said I'm going to start looking for a new job in 3-6 months time. I told him that I specifically don't want this information to leak, but yeah, everybody k…

Very true. For me saying this conversation is confidential has a negative connotation. It raises some flags like: 1. Are we going to talk about something which we can't broadly address? 2. How do I trust someone new on the team to actually keep things confidential, what have they done to earn my trust? 3. I'm going to be more guarded about what I say, because now I'm thinking this person will probably want to miscons…

It's stupid in hindsight, but I just wanted to give him a chance to better prepare for me leaving, like start looking for new developer(s) or shift plans, etc.
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