How to start a new job from home: Rise above the noise
A series of stories from recent USDS hires on starting from home.
By: John Hashimoto, USDS at VA
1 of 4 articles in this series.
Let your coworkers be your guide
Collaboration tools like Slack are an indispensable tool in The New Normal. But don’t make the mistake I made: my first request when joining the VA team in March was “tell me which Slack channels to join to get up to speed.” Within two days, I was drowning in conversations — many without context. What was the signal, what was the noise?
No doubt: Slack overload is in a neck-to-neck competition with Zoom fatigue. What to do?
For one, don’t turn on the firehose. Ask a peer or two this question: What are the top five Slack channels — in rank order — that will help me get my job done and make me wiser about the culture, the team norms and express myself more fully.
My recommendation: Slack in moderation to start. Then, as your channel list inevitably grows, practice good remote hygiene by muting or leaving a few every week.
Keep your “Starred” list to the precious few channels that really matter. You’ll thank yourself for your ruthless discipline.
Tips from some of the USDS Spring 2020 Cohort on starting at USDS in an all-remote world.
In the midst of a pandemic, we’re very privileged:
- To have a job at all in this environment
- To be able to start and continue working from home
- And to have an amazing welcome from coworkers at USDS and our partner agencies
We’re not experts at teleworking, but now that we’ve been on the job for ~100 days, we wanted to share tips from our experience in case you find yourself in a similar situation. We’re also hiring at USDS; come join us!
If you need help during the pandemic, there may be federal resources available — anything from checking if you can get health insurance outside of open enrollment, to advice on how to handle bills if you’ve lost income, to ideas on how to help others during the crisis. A full list of resources by agency is listed at usa.gov/coronavirus.
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And we want you.
We’re looking for the most tenacious designers, software engineers, product managers, and more, who are committed to untangling, rewiring and redesigning critical government services. You’ll join a team of the most talented technologists from across the private sector and government.
If you have questions regarding employment with the U.S. Digital Service, please contact us at usds@omb.eop.gov or visit our Hiring FAQ.
