
Ask HN: How long before new developer starts contributing code in your company? - gtirloni
Or is expected to start contributing meaningfully.
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sheepmullet
It would be good if people started adding team size, project size, codebase
size, complexity of assigned work, etc to their answers to provide a bit more
context.

I'm currently working in a team of roughly 60 developers on a 2-3 million loc
system.

First contribution is usually within 2 weeks. We tend to start new developers
on straightforward feature work.

We used to start new developers on bugs but found there was far too much
tribal knowledge required. We couldn't use bugs to gauge if there was a skills
gap.

For senior developers it usually takes around 12 months for them to be
performing at a senior level.

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greyostrich
I was expected to implement production code (features for the main product,
not bug fixes) from day 1, as a new grad. It was a horrible experience.

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hkarthik
Generally within the first two weeks. The variance here is usually based on
familiarity and affinity for our technology stack, as well as experience
level. I also try to make sure all new engineers have a team mentor available
to ask questions and help them along with their tasks, code review, and first
deployments. I make it clear to the mentor about my expectations around their
time investment in making their new teammate successful.

More than two weeks suggests the dev environment is suboptimal and requires
too much tribal knowledge to get things done. It also suggests the new
developer isn't being setup for success by their mentor or the tasks aren't
well thought out.

More than four weeks, and you have to look at the new developer and see if
they are the right fit. Getting signals from their mentor is really important
in gauging this.

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amcrouch
Very quickly.

Minor bug fixes and tweaks, inside the first week.

Substantial features are usually deployed within the first month. This is
limited by our development process.

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BurningFrog
I usually work where pairing is the norm, and people start pairing and writing
code from day 1.

Of course, there is more learning than contributing on day 1, but even though
you don't know anything specific about the system then, you can help with
writing or changing when your pair has explained/figured out what it should
do.

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AlexAMEEE
We are soooo small, usually the first week, but we also never hire juniors and
our stack is pretty common and therefore new developers don't have much to
learn besides the usual technical debt.

