When I started a full-time remote job, I was frustrated a bit. I do not like the feeling that I am missing something. So I was doing my best to understand every tiny bit in the project and the workflow. Suddenly I started suggesting solutions and proposing enhancements to the process and the daily work and that was a big mistake.
During my first onboarding month, I took generous feedback that helped me a lot and facilitated my onboarding and understanding of the project and the team
That is why I am writing the top 4 things I learned from that feedback so anyone starting a new role, especially remote ones can avoid mistakes I fall into.
1- Be patient.
We -developers- tend to try to understand stuff fast, we hate that feeling that you do not know what's going on and how things work.
and that inner-feeling pushes us to take actions trying to understand the process and figuring out what is done and how it is done and this is a good thing but it also can be bad if done carelessly.
So, the first thing you need to do is to slow down your steps, take more time to understand, ask questions, collect information, and prioritize what needs to be understood first.
Doing so will leave a good impression with your colleagues as well as your manager.
2- Be more mature in accepting the process.
Some people when joining a new process try hard to make it like the one they are familiar with, and this -sometimes- causes conflicts between team members and leads to a lot of frustration for the person himself and his teammates.
So, the idea here is trying to ask why, why it is done that way. Break complexities to understand them. Be comfortable unlearning things and relearning them again.
This will indicate that you are mature enough to handle ambiguity and you are taking steps to fit into the process, not adjusting it.
3- Understand that people are different, not everyone is like you.
When joining a new team especially a remote one, you will meet new people with different mindsets and different attitudes. Sometimes communication can be challenging and your role here is to handle this challenge by accepting that not everyone is like you, not everyone is thinking like you and not everyone is behaving like you.
Understanding this helps a lot in breaking the ice between team members and leads to more collaboration and homogeneity in the team.
4- Do not have a quick solution, have quick questions.
Listen, understand, and ask questions.
Sometimes being the one who has a fast solution to everything is not a good indication.
Matching problem patterns and applying the same solution you are familiar with does not work.
So, ask questions quickly, understand requirements, think before proposing a solution, and question yourself 2 things:
1- Do I fully understand the problem?
2- Will this solution solve the problem?
Conclusion
Starting a new job is a challenging task and starting a remote one is more challenging. So do your best to fit in, hold good communications channels with team members, and respect the current process.
This will facilitate the whole process from onboarding to fitting in the day to day work.
Thanks.
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