RDEL #41: What causes new engineers to “sink or swim”?

This week we will evaluate research on what factors are considered part of a "sink or swim" onboarding experience.

Welcome back to Research-Driven Engineering Leadership. Each week, we pose an interesting topic in engineering leadership, and apply the latest research in the field to drive to an answer.

When onboarding new engineers, a common phrase used to describe the process is “sink or swim”. This week we ask: what factors contribute most to the success or failure of a new software engineer?

The context

Engineering onboarding is the process through which new software engineers are integrated into a company and its technical and social systems. It typically includes orientations, training sessions, and introductory projects that help new engineers understand the organization's codebase, tools, practices, and culture. The process is unique to each company, and can take anywhere from 30 to 180 day for an engineer to feel independently productive.

The term "sink or swim" describes a common engineering onboarding environments where new hires receive minimal guidance and support as they begin their roles. This metaphor captures the pressure on newcomers to independently navigate complex tasks and organizational cultures, effectively having to prove their competence without structured assistance. While it can highlight an individual’s ability to adapt and succeed with minimal resources, more often it leads to slow ramp-up, redundant knowledge sharing, reduced productivity, and increased turnover risk.

The research

Researchers at Seattle University employed a methodology consisting of distributing an online questionnaire to 104 early-career software engineers who had recently gone through onboarding. They focused their questions on job assignment, managerial support, job satisfaction, and reported ways to improve onboarding success. They analyzed the data to determine factors contributing to either a successful or challenging start in their careers, as well as impacts and actions on their overall onboarding experience.

The results showed that:

• Clarity in role or job assignment was critical to early engineer experience.

  • 38.5% of engineers did not know what to work on during onboarding. The highest-reported impact of this was distress and decreased productivity.

• Management and team support was a top factor for onboarding success.

  • 74.3% of engineers felt their manager was invested in their development, and 85.71% of engineers felt their team was invested.

  • 19.8% of engineers were not paired with a manager when onboarding.

• The top areas of improvement recommended by new engineers were training and work distribution and planning methods.

The application

This paper reflects on numerous areas where engineers can feel they are “sinking or swimming” as it relates to role clarity, support, and training. While independent learning is a valuable skill on any engineering team, research shows that these types of onboarding experiences tend to lead to frustration, lost productivity, and higher turnover risk. To address the top concerns from this paper, consider these tips to more effectively ramp up new teammates:

1. Structure early learning opportunities. With a structured learning environment, new engineers can more quickly ramp up to the context and domain knowledge required to do their work. Without this, teams are likely to spend more time on redundant knowledge sharing and see decreased productivity from both the new engineer and the team more broadly. Ways to do this are through weekly roadmaps for new engineers, a structured 30/60/90 day plan, and frequent check-ins with their manager or buddy for ask questions.

2. Be clear about role expectations. As straight-forward as it seems, establishing clear expectations for the role is often overlooked in the chaos of growing a team. By clarifying - and repeating! - the goals of this role, engineers know what skillset to focus on building and can gain more independence on their tasks over time.

3. Prepare the first few tasks ahead of time. Give engineers a series of tasks that build on organizational and system context so they can apply their knowledge more directly, and build confidence along the way.

Note: To go deeper on engineer onboarding, researchers at Microsoft also reviewed the top challenges and opportunities of remotely onboarding software engineers.

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Wishing everyone a great week,

Lizzie

From the Quotient team