Onboarding as a Net Engineer @ Pinterest | by Pinterest Engineering | Pinterest Engineering Weblog | Aug, 2024
Jordan Cutler; Sr. Sofware Engineer | Rebecca Yi; Sr. Sofware Engineer |
Hello there! 👋 We’re Rebecca and Jordan, two Senior engineers who onboarded to Pinterest the identical day as Net Engineers. We’ll share with you what onboarding at Pinterest is like, from the learning-packed first week to launching our first undertaking two months later. Plus, we promise to incorporate a wholesome dose of our favourite Pinterest puns 😃
Rebecca right here 👋
My first week at Pinterest was a wealthy mix of standard onboarding data with a pleasant contact of social features to assist me really feel onboarded.
We kicked off orientation with “Pintro” periods (we warned you that there can be puns!), which knowledgeable us not solely about what we’d be working in direction of, but additionally the “why.” Pintro included periods like “Three 12 months Imaginative and prescient” and “Your Life at Pinterest.”
One session that stood out to me was “Pinner Tales,” which shared tales created by Product Analysis of how Pinners (what we internally name Pinterest customers) the world over had been utilizing Pinterest. There have been so many inspirational tales, however one clear recurring theme was how Pinterest was a spot individuals went to for themselves, not for anybody else. It was a spot they went to for inspiration. I cherished what Yelitza, one of many Pinners, mentioned, “Having an area that feels prefer it’s made for dreaming, helps me dream larger.”
To be trustworthy, I wasn’t an avid Pinner earlier than becoming a member of, however after listening to tales concerning the other ways Pinterest was making a “more positive internet,” I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I didn’t change into extra keen about working right here. (As a result of let’s be trustworthy, social media could be draining.)
I additionally prioritized attending to know my teammates throughout the first week by scheduling one-on-one conferences with them. One factor that stood out to me throughout the scheduling course of was how senior management held recurring workplace hours. I hadn’t seen this in my earlier corporations, so it felt like a real “open door coverage,” which Jordan and I took as a possibility to introduce ourselves and begin constructing a connection.
My first few days had been off to an incredible begin — I felt supported by my supervisor and onboarding buddy, who each supplied me with an in depth onboarding plan. I obtained my setting setup and had a transparent(er) imaginative and prescient of my group (Net Platform) and Pinterest as an entire. Plus, I genuinely loved attending to know everybody. Oh, I nearly forgot to say that I additionally shipped my first pull request on the second day! How may the primary week presumably get any higher?
It may. With…magic ✨. Our group had booked an Airbnb on-line expertise with a MAGICIAN (please excuse my use of all caps) for a group social and truthfully, it actually tied the week collectively. It was an opportunity to unwind, snigger, and be amazed with my teammates in a extra informal setting.
And identical to that, abracadabra 🪄, my first week was over.
Jordan right here 👋
Week 2–4 was distinctive as a result of we had three ranges of curriculum:
Basecamp is Pinterest’s engineering onboarding program. In Basecamp, we realized concerning the broad set of instruments obtainable at Pinterest and a excessive degree overview of how the app works. As a Net Engineer, my supervisor booked me for essentially the most related ones:
- Git & GitHub Setup
- Safe code at Pinterest
- Progress & Experimentation
- Performant code at Pinterest
- Automated testing at Pinterest
- Incident Administration
- Accessibility 101
I used to be in a position to skip periods that had been much less relevant to me, however was inspired to attend any I used to be keen on.
On prime of this, our group constructed a curriculum particular to Net engineers with a day-by-day breakdown. Right here’s what it appears to be like like:
The day-by-day breakdown is:
- Day 1: Be part of Slack channels and arrange machine for net growth
- Day 2: WebApp structure
- Day 3: Gestalt, our inner design system
- Day 4: Information fetching with Relay and GraphQL
- Day 5: Accessibility, localization, and internationalization
- Day 6: Metrics, context logs, and experiment outcomes
- Day 7: Linters, testing instruments, and alerts
- Day 8: Webpack builds and deployments
- Day 9: Pinterest Net Server and Server Aspect Rendering (SSR)
- Day 10: Analyzing and enhancing net efficiency
It was good that Pinterest leans closely on open-source and fashionable frameworks like React, Node, GraphQL, React Testing Library, Jest, Cypress, and others. Due to that, I used to be already conversant in our tech stack earlier than becoming a member of, so I solely needed to give attention to how they’re used at Pinterest.
I additionally cherished how every day was damaged into key takeaways and actionable steps to be taught extra.
Right here’s what the Day 10 motion steps appear to be:
Day 10 covers our customized efficiency metric, Pinner Wait Time (PWT), Google’s Core Net Vitals, and our Efficiency group. To be taught extra about how we use PWT and observe efficiency, try Employees Engineer Michelle Vu’s weblog put up right here.
Though the onboarding steps had been clear, one problem was getting every little thing achieved. I additionally had our broader curriculum periods from Basecamp, together with our weekly group conferences, retros, and social occasions. The excellent news is every little thing was recorded and obtainable at any time. I used to be in a position to catch up async and my supervisor was understanding.
Towards the top of this curriculum, I began to speak with my supervisor about my first undertaking. The principle undertaking we had in thoughts was a efficiency audit on our Search floor areas, which the Search group requested from our group (Net Platform).
We thought it was an excellent undertaking for a number of causes:
- It was comparatively quick and non-urgent
- I’d meet individuals outdoors the group
- I’d have individuals contained in the group I may lean on for assist
- It was impactful as a result of the alternatives we’d discover may feed into H2 planning
- It was an excellent alternative to find out about completely different areas of the code and inner instruments
Because the upcoming undertaking would require efficiency data, I requested my supervisor if I may spend per week ramping up on efficiency at Pinterest, and he inspired me to take the time I wanted. I requested our efficiency material consultants to advocate one of the best sources for me to discover, they usually curated a set of recordings to observe and paperwork to learn. Thanks, Edar Liu!
I spent per week on:
- Recordings of previous efficiency analyses, wins, and regressions
- Studying docs on our logging and metrics frameworks
- Understanding present efficiency dashboards
That preparation set me up for fulfillment in weeks 4–8 whereas tackling my first undertaking.
Beginning the undertaking was a bit intimidating, however I had nice assist programs all through the method. I created a kickoff doc with my supervisor and teammates to align us on undertaking targets. We agreed on a last artifact to ship: an audit evaluation with alternatives and suggestions to enhance efficiency. We additionally arrange a RACI (Accountable, Accountable, Consulted, Knowledgeable) chart to make every stakeholder’s duty clear.
From there, I arrange a weekly sync with the important thing stakeholders. In every sync, we shared progress and blockers. Sharing progress iteratively allowed for quick suggestions to maintain us headed in the suitable path.
Right here’s what our Weekly sync doc regarded like:
This went on for 4 weeks till we completed the evaluation and delivered the ultimate artifact: a abstract of our suggestions and evaluation. These suggestions had been prioritized for H2, and the entire group realized so much about what we’re doing nicely and the place we will enhance 🎉
Rebecca’s undertaking met the standards we talked about earlier than of an excellent starter undertaking. Whereas mine was extra platform-focused, hers was product-focused. She labored with product managers to enhance the Pin video expertise by implementing an “autoplay on hover” characteristic for A/B testing. It was an incredible alternative for prime affect, improved metrics, and studying.
Regardless that the initiatives had been completely different, they had been an incredible studying expertise for each of us. Engaged on these and succeeding made us assured contributors on the group.
Rebecca right here, once more 👋
We love having a development mindset right here, so we wished to spotlight some alternatives and tradeoffs, which we had an opportunity to share by means of surveys we acquired on the 30, 60, and 90-day marks.
Alternatives:
- Making Issues Simpler to Discover: It was a bit troublesome to search out related data as a result of data was scattered throughout numerous mediums like Google Docs, Slack, our inner tech documentation, and somebody’s mind. This problem is nothing new to bigger corporations, however it could be nice to consider how we will streamline these sources and make it simpler to search out the suitable reply, faster.
- Session Relevance: I felt that some periods may very well be marked non-obligatory for people with expertise within the matter. For instance, the GitHub session appeared useful for engineers new to GitHub, however was redundant for people already conversant in utilizing the platform.
Commerce-offs:
- Common vs. Self-discipline-Particular Coaching: Though I like the thought of Basecamp periods laying a normal basis for all engineers, I felt it may very well be streamlined by having separate tracks like a Basecamp “Net” observe and Basecamp “Backend” observe. This is able to take away the necessity for our managers to tell us which periods we will skip and stop data overload by permitting us to give attention to one onboarding plan. Having discipline-specific tracks would additionally assist skilled Pinterest engineers change into extra “T-shaped” by permitting them to take a observe that’s completely different from their main self-discipline.
We additionally met with the Basecamp group to share our suggestions, and it was thrilling to find that all the factors listed above had been actively being addressed and labored on. We realized about new AI tooling for inner productiveness meant to assist get the solutions we’d like, quicker. We realized that Basecamp can be restructured to begin with foundational periods relevant to all engineers, whereas the next weeks can be discipline-specific content material.
We had been inspired to see how groups throughout Engineering are actively working in direction of rising developer velocity primarily based on suggestions they acquired from earlier new rent cohorts and tenured engineers.
We hope you loved a peek into our onboarding expertise as net engineers at Pinterest! Jordan and I appreciated the structured course of and infinite assist from our supervisor and teammates all through our onboarding. Wanting forward, we really feel assured about being impactful contributors to the group and are excited to make Pinterest higher for our Pinners (final pun use, we promise!). If you happen to’d like to affix us on this journey, we’d like to encourage you to apply. We’re positive the onboarding expertise shall be even higher for you.
Reviewers: Vasa Krishnamoorthy, Jenny Steele, Tess Stairiker, Abby Wolfgang, Mark Cerqueira, Roger Wang
To be taught extra about engineering at Pinterest, try the remainder of our Engineering Weblog and go to our Pinterest Labs web site. To discover and apply to open roles, go to our Careers web page.
