After popping the IBM stack frame off my call stack the next step is to push a new Nimbula frame onto the stack. Today is the end of my first week working at a startup and, as expected, the experience is dramatically different from working at IBM.
I will need to come up to speed before I can talk intelligently about what Nimbula is doing and my role in the company. Right now, after a week I can only comment on the simplicity of the on-boarding process.
- Mon 9:30am good morning…
- Arrive and shown to my desk.
Monitor, Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and 13″ MacBook Pro already hooked up.
Laptop is wired for ethernet and also already connected to company WiFi.- 9:35am passwords changed, email working
- Logged in.
OS X password changed.
Logged in to email.
Changed email password.
A bunch of applications are already installed… Chrome set as default browser, SIP softphone, Skype, Adium, DropBox, Evernote, VirtualBox, OpenOffice, TunnelBlick and others. Company-specific settings such as VPN and SIP are already configured.- 10:10am
- I have DropBox syncing with my personal account and 1Password installed waiting for DropBox to finish syncing my password vault.
- 10:30am more passwords changed
- IT guy comes over and points me to a wiki page with a list of new hire setup instructions and starts walking me through the handful of password changes I need to make. He realizes that I have already changed my OS X and Google Apps passwords so we run through the remaining company-specific passwords.
- 10:45am hr paperwork
- Our office admin comes by to point me at the HR web portal. Two screens later and I have completed my I-9 form by verifying the pre-populated data, entering my Alien number, typing name and the date for an esignature. Our admin hands me the 401k plan documents and points me to the benefits signup pages and some other online HR documents I should read.
- 11:10am making lists
- I start putting together a list of account passwords to save into 1Password when DropBox finishes syncing. The list expands to other cascading setup tasks: install Office2011, extract old contacts from previous Outlook identity, investigate iCal or Outlook with Google Calendars, install XCode, setup Fink, etc, etc.
- 11:18am continue through the list
- I paste a copy of the New Hire wiki page into TextEdit and strike off the completed tasks. Roughly 50% of tasks are already done.
- 12:05pm access bug tracking
- I skim the current bug list after my new hire task list directs me to login to bug tracking site and verify my account is working.
- 12:20 lunch
- Recruiter reminds me that lunch is brought in four days a week and there is a picnic table outside with a cafe umbrella in the sun.
By lunch I was largely done with the on-boarding process and had access to all the systems in use other than the development cluster. It was predominantly self-directed without the baggage of other “self-directed” training I have experienced. Throughout the morning a number of people came by to say hello and ask if I need anything.
Early afternoon my mentor, who I had met during my interviews, walked me around the office to introduce me to the people in the office. Without fail, everyone dropped what they were doing for a few minutes to say hello to the new guy.
By the end of day Friday I had finished the HR paperwork, read the Employee Handbook, largely finished configuring my laptop, arranged my desk, and have started getting up to speed on the product.