Starting a new job will always bring its own set of anxieties along with excitement. What about starting a new job in the middle of a global pandemic? A completely different ball game. Covid-19 and the lockdown that came along with it posed many new challenges. Being just over a month into my new job here at Zensurance presents a great opportunity to reflect on the experience of joining a company remotely.
The Week Before
Leading into the first week, my mind was racing with many questions, I had never joined a company remotely before, I really didn't know what to expect. Luckily, this first wave of questions and general nerves were addressed when I received a phone call from the VP of Operations Trevor the week before I started. He gave me a very warm welcome, asked about equipment needs, and provided a bit of a rundown for the first day/week.
Like many companies Zensurance leverages apps such as Zoom, Slack, and Confluence to ensure business continuity. Being a few months into the covid lockdown I was familiar with these apps which helped make the transition easier. We're off to the races!
The First Week - The Journey Begins!
In the first few days we went through a fantastic onboarding program created by our Learning and Development Manager Irene. This gave us insight into the business and culture of Zensurance. Outside of that, the week was jam packed with meetings where we met with all the various departments and employees. This was something I appreciated because not only did it give us a better understanding of the overall structure of the company it also provided an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other better.
Looking at the schedule for the week my eyes lit up when I saw "Pair Programming"... "AWESOME!" I mean I'm a Developer, how can I not get excited!
Pair Programming
The remainder of the week consisted of pair programming sessions with other members of my team which was really cool. In these sessions I was able to get an introduction to the codebase as well as an understanding of what is generally seen in tickets assigned to our team. There were also some tickets already assigned to myself! This was exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time.
I'm a firm believer that one of the best ways of learning is by "doing", so it wasn't all that bad. Even though it was under the guidance of a fellow team member I really enjoyed getting my hands dirty and digging into the codebase. By the end of the week we even had one of my pull requests merged into master! After approvals of course 😜
Final Thoughts
Heading into it all I was fairly nervous about the first few days and joining a company remotely but there really was nothing to worry about and the experience was great overall. I personally think this is a testament to the work and focus Zensurance has done with onboarding employees in this new world we're in. I'm extremely grateful to be working for a company that puts such a large focus on their employees and looking forward to the journey ahead!
