Your senior dev onboarding is broken. Here's why. 🎯
The Problem: Most companies onboard seniors like they onboard juniors—tutorials, documentation, and hand-holding. But senior developers need different things.
What Seniors Need:
🎯 Context, Not Instructions ❌ "Follow this step-by-step guide" ✅ "Here's why we built it this way, the constraints we faced, and the trade-offs we made"
🏗️ Architecture Deep Dive • System boundaries and responsibilities • Data flow and dependencies • Scaling bottlenecks and future plans • Technical debt and why it exists
🤝 People & Process Context • Who makes technical decisions and how • Team dynamics and communication styles • Code review culture and standards • Deployment process and ownership model
💡 Problem Ownership Early Give them a real problem to solve in week 1, not busy work. They learn faster by contributing than by consuming documentation.
🚨 What NOT to Do: • Don't assign them a "buddy" (they're not in school) • Don't give them tickets labeled "good first issue" • Don't make them sit through junior-level training • Don't micromanage their first few weeks
The First 30 Days:
Week 1: Architecture overview + real problem to solve Week 2: Ship something small but meaningful Week 3: Lead a technical discussion or review Week 4: Propose an improvement to existing systems
Key Conversations: • "What's working well in our codebase?" • "What seems weird or concerning?" • "How would you approach [current challenge]?" • "What patterns from your previous experience might help us?"
Success Metrics: • Are they asking good questions? • Are they contributing to technical discussions? • Are they identifying improvements? • Do they feel like they're adding value?
Remember: Senior developers are evaluating you as much as you're evaluating them. A poor onboarding experience signals poor technical culture.
Make them feel valued from day one.
How do you onboard senior talent? 🚀