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What questions to ask recent new grads

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Software Engineering Intern at Taro Community12 days ago

My company is a mid-sized unicorn and they’ll be hosting an in-person gathering with some recent new grad SWEs (they have only worked at the company for 6 months) to talk with incoming NG SWEs such as myself. I’m wondering what questions I should prepare? I’ve thought of the following:

  • Logistics (living situation, commute, etc.) - it’s boring but I think it’s fair to ask since most new grads will be relocating for the first time
  • What would you have done differently in your first 6 months here?
  • What’s the most important thing you think everyone should know?
  • What does feedback with your manager look like? How is your relationship with your manager?
  • What are some things you think we should do beforehand to best prepare us for the job?
  • I know that the company has a very customer-centric engineering culture. Do you recommend us to spend more time prioritizing talking to customers or spending time doing engineering work?
  • (Company prides itself on fast career growth but also doesn’t have leveling) How has your ownership grown over the time you’ve worked here? Have you had the chance to demonstrate leadership? What metrics do you use to measure career growth?

Is there anything else that I’m missing? The company promotes SWEs directly to tech leads/managers and doesn’t have leveling. Ideally I’d like to ask questions to get a better understanding of how to get to these positions fast. What types of questions would give me an understanding of how to "play the game"?

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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    9 days ago

    Those questions seem good. They are fairly practical, e.g. where to live, how promotion works, etc.

    I feel like the most interesting discussions are often the ones that are higher-level and open-ended, e.g. "What are your long-term career goals?" and "What were the other companies you were considering and why did you decide to work here?"