
Ask HN: How do I onboard at a big firm remotely? - shry4ns
I&#x27;m beginning an internship at a big tech company (think FAANG). I&#x27;m still getting to know people, but its hard to make organic conversations. Any suggestions?
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CyberFonic
I'm struggling with your question, yet intrigued by the problem.

When you are new in an organisation, it is very common to feel awkward in
making smalltalk and being remote would make it even more so. What technology
are you conducting your conversations with? With Zoom you can read body
language, etc. Using messaging alone provides far less clues.

I presume that you have been assigned a mentor and some tasks to perform. In
which case, I would expect that your conversations pertain to the work you are
doing and not shooting the breeze by the water cooler. Perhaps a good starting
step would be to talk about aspects of the tasks at hand and then expand from
there, asking about the decisions that led to the design / architecture / tool
choices and from there the roles and personalities involved.

