Starting a New Job in the Age of Plague
To begin with: I’m sorry about this.
I know everyone is sick of hearing about how everything is different in these challenging and unprecedented times. I am too. Unfortunately, things really are different, and while we’re basically drowning in advice about working from home, one thing I haven’t seen people really talking about is how to start a completely new job when you — and all your new teammates — are working from home. Which is a bummer, because that’s a thing I did, and I would have loved some advice! So I’m going to share what I figured out by trial and error in the hopes that it might help someone else.
I’m going to try to keep this advice as broadly applicable as I can, but there are definitely going to be parts that are very specific to software development. Also, my own history will naturally influence everything I say, so here’s some background about me: I’m a software engineer with eight years in the industry. I joined Indigo in late August, and my team at my previous job had switched to full-time remote in March. I had worked full-time remote before COVID, but only for a company where I’d started in-person and then kept my position after relocating for personal reasons.
Anyway, here’s all the advice I could come up with based on my experience switching jobs. I hope at least some of it is helpful!
Take some time off (if you can)
Job hunting is seriously stressful, even during the best of times, which this definitely isn’t. If you had a job during your hunt, you were doing a ton of extra work on top of it. If you didn’t, you were probably dealing with a ton of emotional and financial stress.
But you did it! You got the new job! Congratulations! Take some time to rest and recharge. Going from one tough situation right into another one without a pause will make any transition harder. You deserve some time to decompress, care for yourself, and prepare for your next chapter. Plus, if you’re like me and need to justify everything based on your productivity and how useful you are to others (to be clear, this is not healthy, and I’m working on it), you’ll ramp up at your new job faster if you’re refreshed and ready.
If you can, I recommend giving yourself at least a week between the first day of your new job and the last day of whatever came before, whether that was another job or a full-time job hunt. Longer is better, if you can swing it.
Unfortunately, the reality of our world means you might not be able to take a break. Maybe you don’t have the savings to pull it off for whatever reason, or you’re in the US and need to consider how health insurance is so tightly coupled with employment. (If this is you, please try to stay insured if at all possible — the middle of a pandemic is not the time to take risks! COBRA is complicated and pricey, but if there was ever a time to spring for it, it’s now.) Don’t feel bad if that’s you! You’re doing your best and this stuff is hard even during “normal” times. Even if you can’t take a week off, try to take a weekend, or at least one day, where you only do things you enjoy. You did a hard thing! Reward yourself!
Refresh your workspace
If you were already working from home before your new job, sitting down with your new laptop in the same old chair with the same old surroundings is going to make it feel like nothing has changed. One of the signature COVID Experiences is how everything feels the same and time barely feels like it’s passing — and it sucks! Updating the place where you spend your work time is a great way to make things feel new and exciting. If things weren’t Like This, a new job would mean a new office — you might as well replicate that experience as best you can.
Have you been wanting to dramatically update your workspace? Do it! Paint the walls that color you love, convert that underused closet into a mini-office, get the sit-stand desk you’ve been dreaming of, arrange the artsiest bookcase ever for your video call backdrop. Especially for us software types, doing something with tangible, physical results can be amazingly satisfying: that wall used to be beige, and now it’s blue, and you did that! You can see the difference, right in front of you, and not just on as lines on a dashboard or a slightly less crowded ticket queue.
Even if you don’t care much about decor, or you’re working with limitations like limited space, sharing space with other people, or not violating your lease, try to change up something. A cute desk lamp, pencil cup, or mouse pad can make things feel new. Move any art and knicknacks you already have around to different spots. Even sitting on the other side of the kitchen table can make things feel different, and that’s all you’re after here.
Check out WFH advice and ignore it as necessary
There are a million “rules” out there for working from home. You’ve seen them, so I don’t need to repeat them here. Most of them are very rigid and prescriptive: always do this and never do that. There’s often a good reason behind these rules, but everyone’s lives are different. The common wisdom might actually be terrible advice for you personally, and that’s okay!
If you’re having trouble with something, then sure, try reading up on advice and experiment with what people seem to be recommending. If it doesn’t work for you, though? Forget about it. You’re the expert on your life and on yourself. If what you’re doing works, you’re not doing it wrong. If it isn’t working, try something else, even if it’s something you should “never” do.
Also, don’t discount the benefits of selective rule breaking. One of the “rules” that actually works for me is to always wear “real” clothes during the work day — it helps me switch my brain to Work Mode, and changing into something soft and cozy at the end of the day helps me switch back out. But on those days when I just can’t even, rebelliously wearing my penguin pajama pants is an evil little treat that helps me get out of bed.
Ask for things
Now, this might be obvious to a lot of folks, but if you’re fresh out of school or otherwise new to salaried white collar work, people might not think to tell you about this, because it’s one of those things “everyone knows.” So, in case that’s you, your employer will often pay for stuff that you need, or even just want, to do your job.
Do you want a second monitor? A more ergonomic chair? A book on a topic that you need to learn about? Ask your employer before buying it yourself. They might be willing to reimburse you, or for some office supplies they may even let you borrow stuff from the office. The answer probably won’t always be yes, but it won’t always be no, either, and you might be able to save yourself some time and cash. And if you do wind up paying for something, save the receipts anyway, in case they change their minds in the future! A lot of companies are continuously iterating on their policies right now, and there’s always a chance they’ll adjust them in your favor.
Ask questions
I feel a bit hypocritical writing this section, because I am the absolute worst at asking questions. I’m not sure if the problem is that I don’t like being a burden on others, or if I don’t like admitting I don’t know something and am therefore not perfect and flawless, but it’s something I’ve been struggling with my whole life.
However, this does mean I have literally lost count of the number of times I’ve spent hours or even days on something, finally given up and asked someone for help, and watched them solve the problem or answer the question in ten minutes. Don’t repeat my mistakes. Two people spending half an hour on something is way more efficient than one person spending three days on it. Ask! For! Help!
Even beyond asking for help as you need it, though, make a point of proactively reaching out to your teammates and learning from them. Is someone on your team an expert on something you don’t know much about? Ask if they can give you a quick overview or recommend resources so you can teach yourself. Do you know you’re going to be working on a specific product? Find out who knows the most about it and ask them to tell you about it.
For a software-specific tip, one of my favorite things to do is this: before even checking out a repository, dig through the commit history, pick someone who seems to be responsible for a good chunk of it, and ask them to spend half an hour going over the code with you. Not only will you get a huge head start on learning the codebase, you’ll also learn a lot of the context around it — why things were done a certain way, what patterns the team tends to use, and things they tried in the past that didn’t work out. This deeper knowledge will only help you write better code!
Connect with your team
Get to know each other as humans, not just coworkers! This would happen organically if you weren’t remote, just by nature of being in the same physical space. You’d make small talk in the elevator, waiting for the coffee to brew, on the way to and from meetings — it just happens.
Human connection doesn’t just happen now that we’re all hiding in our own plague bunkers. You have to work at it. It’s annoying as heck, especially if you’re a natural hermit like I am, but that’s where we are.
One easy shortcut for this? Faces. Not to get all pop psychology, but many humans respond well to faces. If you’re comfortable doing so, turn on your camera in video calls whenever possible. Use a photo of yourself as your icon in email clients, chat clients, and in any other service you can customize. Just plaster your face everywhere you can. I promise, it helps — I really do feel closer with the coworkers whose faces I see more often.
On a deeper level, you have to talk to people about things that aren’t work. A lot of workplaces have been experimenting with remote informal social interaction. I’m sure we’ve all heard of virtual happy hours and game nights, but even a “random” text chat channel can be a big help. If your team has something like that, make an effort to participate. If your team doesn’t have something like that, suggest one! Even one or two game nights can make a big difference — you can learn a lot about your teammates by playing games with them. For example, if one of them can kill you, report your dead body themselves, and act convincingly upset while they accuse others of your murder, that’s a good thing to know. (No, Isaac, I haven’t forgotten, and I will have my revenge.)
You can only connect so much in a group setting though, especially over a video call where smaller groups can’t naturally break off to have their own conversations. One of the best things I did was to have half-hour casual chats with each of my teammates over my first few weeks. Take advantage of whatever calendar system your team uses and send meeting invites. I did at least two a week at first, and I’m actually still trying to do one every couple weeks with people on other teams. Thanks to these meetings, I found out that one teammate and I were considering the same home improvement project, and that another one had gone to the same college as me and we actually had acquaintances in common. If you’re not sure what to talk about, start with asking for their professional history — how long have they been at the company? Have they always been on this team? Where were they before? It’s pretty easy to fill half an hour with career chat if you need to, but there’s also a good chance you’ll see an opportunity to bring up hobbies or favorite TV shows or something else more personal as well.
Have fun with it
Things are awful right now, and sometimes you just need a reason to smile, no matter how small. Silly virtual video backgrounds almost always go over well in less-formal meetings. So do pets. Life is short, so wear that fuzzy onesie that makes you look like a penguin.
I’ve informed my teammates that I’m a mermaid. They can’t prove otherwise because they’ve only ever seen me from the shoulders up. I’d never be able to pull this off if we were actually going to the office. (For one thing, the kiddie pool I sit in would never fit on the train.) Might as well take advantage of the opportunity for a little harmless mischief.
Be kind to yourself
A new job means completely new projects, in a completely new team, with new tools and new processes and new everything. Starting a new position is tough enough in perfect circumstances, but here you are, trying to do it during a deadly global crisis that’s already lasted almost a year. You’re probably scared for yourself and your loved ones. There’s a good chance you’ve lost someone, and if that’s the case, I’m so sorry for your loss.
Stress and grief, especially when prolonged, do some truly gnarly things to the human brain and body. This is a biological fact. Physiologically speaking, you are simply not going to be at your best right now.
And that’s okay.
It took me a long time to believe this, and I still have bad days where I don’t. I have very high standards for myself, and I take pride in my work, and I’m betting you do too. If you’re at all like me, you’re going to get frustrated with yourself, because you’re going to struggle with things you’ve never struggled with before. Focusing on work will be hard. You’ll tell yourself you should be better than this. Why can’t you do something this easy? If you struggle with imposter syndrome at all, it will likely be worse than usual. Many people are probably having similar problems, but it’s even worse if you’ve just started a new job, because literally everything is new and confusing.
But since sometimes it’s easier to believe something if it comes from someone else, I’m going to say it: You’re fine! You’re trying, and that’s all anyone can ever expect. Even if it doesn’t feel like you’re trying your “best,” I would bet money that you are! You’re doing the absolute best you can do right now. You’re just used to your best being better, because you’re usually not also dealing with all of this. You’re working as well as you can. You’re reading this. You’re here. You’re doing what you need to do to survive — and yeah, sometimes that’s going to involve binge watching a TV show, eating a quart of ice cream, or sitting and staring at a wall, because rest and recuperation are absolutely vital to surviving.
One thing that helps me is to look at myself and pretend I’m my own friend or family member. If I saw someone I cared about exhausted, scared, and beating themself up because they aren’t doing everything perfect at work, would I tell them that yes, they’re right, they are awful? Heck no! I’d make them some tea, give them a hug, and gently tell them that they’re being ridiculous. Try to be at least as nice to yourself as you would be to your loved ones.
If you’re really struggling, I strongly encourage you to ask for help. I did, and it made a huge difference. There are a lot of options available — many employers have assistance programs, and a lot of therapists and mental health professionals are seeing clients remotely. If it’s urgent, crisis lines for both phone calls and text chat are available around the world — a quick search should let you find options. Please take care of yourself. ❤️
You got this
I know that by writing a blog post about this, I’m sort of positioning myself as an authority here. The truth is I’ve been at my “new” job for about five months now, and it’s still not easy — but it has gotten easier. It’s happened so slowly that I almost didn’t notice, but if I make a point to pay attention, I’ll realize that I don’t have to refer to my list of acronyms as much, and that I often don’t need to ask someone where the code that does X thing is anymore. It will get easier for you too, I promise!
All we can do is keep learning, and keep trying our best, whatever our “best” looks like on any given day. But we’ve got this! I know you can figure it out, and that means I can too.
Congrats again on the new job, and good luck!
