Rethinking Our Engineering Intern Onboarding Process to Accelerate Productivity
Hiver offers internships in Software Engineering to fresh university graduates. However, interns are not familiar with our workplace and its operations. Neither do interns possess the technical skills and soft skills required to better understand the system and contribute effectively. Generally, interns lack the experience to learn and adapt quickly and confidently. Therefore, they need the support of a well-organized and structured onboarding process to contribute positively to the team — and avoid being micromanaged. This was our main motivation to rethink the onboarding process for interns in software development.
Pre-joining Learning
We divide the pool of interns hired by different skill areas (e.g., frontend, backend, mobile, etc.) long before their start date. We provide them with a few selected video tutorials (e.g. React development course for beginners, Docker basics, etc.) from MOOC platforms and expect them to complete them before starting. They are also encouraged to visit Hiver’s FAQ page for some basic information about what we do and our expectations of the quality of every release.
Joining Formalities
We determine the team of interns before they come to Hiver. All technical leaders and mentors receive the same information simultaneously. The HR team welcomes the interns with welcome packages, laptops, and other needed hardware and software. Hiver also organizes a special welcome event for them to visit the office, familiarize themselves with the workplace and meet their team and managers.
Mentorship
A mentor is someone who provides advice and support to someone with less experience. At Hiver, we provide interns with two types of mentors -
- Mentor — Generally, mentors are experts in their respective fields. They guide the interns to gain the potential, skills, and confidence to contribute effectively. Mentors also play an important role in shaping the onboarding process. Mentors hold regular meetings to clarify doubts with interns and provide them with constructive feedback
- Buddy — A junior engineer who just transitioned from internship to full-time employment at Hiver. Buddies play a crucial role in solving interns’ daily problems and clarifying their doubts. Besides, buddies influence interns to excel and meet or exceed expectations. They also provide feedback to mentors regularly.
We provide a dedicated Slack channel where interns can communicate with their mentors, managers, and HR.
Training Program
We equip interns with a comprehensive understanding of their duties and job-specific knowledge and skills with a training program. This training program is divided into three parts -
- Common training program for all technical interns — In this phase, we provide interns with product knowledge and an overview of Hiver’s architecture. Interns are also encouraged to repeat the courses they were taught. They also learn about the technical principles, SDLC, etc. that we use at Hiver
- Domain-oriented training — We form groups of interns based on their technical background (e.g. frontend, backend, mobile) and provide them with detailed and helpful knowledge. This training is applicable to all interns regardless of their joining dates. It includes product vision of the selected modules, HLD, LLD, and code walkthrough at a very high level, followed by a Q&A session.
- Team-Specific Training — The EMs of each team organize the team-specific training, required to get specific knowledge for the team projects.
Practical Projects
Hiver offers interns hands-on projects where they can apply their knowledge. All projects are team assignments where we expect a single solution from the entire group. Interns will be given two project assignments
- The first focuses on the learning they received prior to onboarding. No specific knowledge of Hiver is required to solve this task. The first task aims to understand their current competencies, which will help their mentor guide them properly
- The second task is performed after the training is completed. In this task, we simulate a problem that is closely related to daily execution by other team members. The task’s goal is to give participants an insight into our daily operations, how Hiver works under the hood, and instill confidence to work on real projects
The following items will be assessed in these tasks -
- Understanding of the problem
- Breakdown of tasks
- Code quality
- Manage Git
- Pull request and peer review
- Understanding code was written by others
- Challenges of developing something from scratch vs. developing on an existing project
- Working as part of a team
We organize appropriate training sessions before the assignment is given. Upon completion. participants share their experiences with their mentors and receive feedback.
Cultural Training
At Hiver, we expect openness from our employees, reportees, and supervisors. We do not hesitate to express our thoughts, even if it is the only dissenting voice in the room. At the same time, we are always respectful and do not confuse directness with brusqueness. We also ensure all interns are on the same page and work synergically.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a work environment where remote and hybrid work has become the norm. The sudden change further complicated communication strategies and introduced new challenges. Hence, we organized special training for trainees to learn how to communicate effectively in a hybrid workplace.
Constructive feedback
Feedback boosts learners’ confidence, motivation to learn, and ultimately their performance. Hiver promotes a constructive feedback culture for mutual growth where interns receive feedback from their mentors at each stage. Besides, supervisors also receive summary feedback so that they are aware of the intern’s strengths and areas for development.
At Hiver, we welcome feedback in both directions. We also listen to the interns, understand their perspectives and problems with empathy, and, most importantly, resolve them. This also helps us make the onboarding process more flexible and robust. On the 30th, 60th, and 90th day of the internship, we conduct a review process for the interns.
Joining the team
After completing the 4–5 weeks of training, we assimilate interns with their respective teams. There, they begin by fixing minor bugs before proceeding to more complicated ones. As they gain confidence, interns can develop new features with skills honed via the training.
