{"id":"doc_LLAMlNT5O0NJBKx4lffZZdHwELdh","version":1,"filename":"onboarding.md","description":"Welcome. We're glad you're here. The last developer left 4 months ago and we've been holding it together with duct tape and optimism.","title":"New Developer Onboarding","content":"# New Developer Onboarding\n\n## Welcome to TomlTech\n\nWelcome. We're glad you're here. The last developer left 4 months ago and we've been holding it together with duct tape and optimism.\n\n## First Day\n\n1. Get your laptop from IT. IT is Kevin. Kevin is also the office manager, the facilities coordinator, and the person who waters the plants. The plants are not doing well.\n2. Clone the repos. We have 14 repos. 3 of them are active. The rest are \"archived\" which means nobody has deleted them because nobody is sure they're safe to delete.\n3. Set up your development environment. Follow the README. If the README doesn't work (it won't), ask Sarah. Sarah knows things that are not written down anywhere.\n4. Read the [code review guidelines](code-review-guidelines.md). Then read them again. Then read the \"Gary Rule\" section one more time.\n\n## First Week\n\n- Shadow a senior developer on their current project\n- Get access to all the things (GitHub, Heroku, Slack, the shared Google Drive that we know we shouldn't be using but here we are)\n- Review at least 3 active projects\n- Ask questions. We mean it. The worst thing you can do is not ask questions and then deploy something that breaks the [client portal](../client-portal/spec.md) because you didn't know about the fax integration\n\n## First Month\n\n- Complete at least one feature on a client project\n- Understand our deployment process (see: `git push heroku master`, that's it, that's the process)\n- Attend at least one client meeting (bring a notepad, you'll need it for the fax questions)\n- Set up your own TomlTech email signature. It must include \"Software Consultant\" as your title. Kevin will argue that his title should be \"Director of Operations.\" Kevin's title is \"Kevin.\"\n\n## Culture\n\n- We do standups. They're 15 minutes. See [standup format](standup-format.md).\n- We do code reviews. They're required. See [code review guidelines](code-review-guidelines.md).\n- We do not do pair programming, not because we don't believe in it, but because we only have 4 developers and 6 active projects and the math doesn't work.\n- We break for lunch at noon. Kevin orders pizza on Fridays. It is always pepperoni. Do not ask for a different topping. Kevin has opinions about pizza.\n","url":"/tomltech/internal-processes/onboarding.md.json","account":{"id":"acct_Xt3PcFnov6BzMDisOIF8U7jQL7ue","name":"TomlTech Consulting Group","url":"/tomltech.json","slug":"tomltech"},"tags":[],"urls":{"diff":"/api/tomltech/internal-processes/onboarding.md/diff","versions":"/api/tomltech/internal-processes/onboarding.md/versions"},"project":{"id":"proj_QDHlxfH0sFcc9jHG71v1LU1Dm3D6","name":"Internal Processes","url":"/tomltech/internal-processes.json","slug":"internal-processes"},"version_count":1,"locked_at":null,"locked_by":null,"uploaded_by":{"id":"user_hQp38LQMwmY6pwukXbVDUbc9ePHp","username":"tom_tomltech","display_name":"Tom Vance"},"uploaded_at":"2026-01-13T00:00:00Z"}