How to Efficiently Onboard to New Technologies Before My Role Starts
In the team-matching phase, I connected with a team focused on a monolithic backend built in Django with GraphQL. My manager recommended I learn Datadog and Sentry, and I’d love some tips on onboarding to these technologies as efficiently as possible. This is for Nextdoor working on team that owns Feed, Events, Groups and Messaging.
I've been working through a course on CodeSignal that covers GraphQL and Apollo Server, but it’s primarily JavaScript-oriented, using Apollo with Express. Since I already have a Django side project, I’m interested in how to apply what I’m learning specifically to Django and Python environments.
Additionally, I’m aiming to streamline my onboarding with some guidance around these points from my manager:
- GraphQL basics – Use it with a simple Django web app to surface data.
- Datadog and Sentry – They use Datadog for real-time monitoring and Sentry for API error tracking. Any specific tips or resources to dive into these tools effectively?
For context, I am currently a Data Engineer who uses Python and SQL and am transitioning to a Backend SWE role. I do have experience building things, here is a side project I have built from scratch. www.tunemeld.com
Discussion
(2 comments)- 2
5 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroUnless you're joining a tiny startup, I feel like it's really hard to prepare on the technical side before starting a new job as everyone will do custom implementations of the technology that are very different from the vanilla tutorials you'll find online. Nextdoor is very much not a tiny startup. More thoughts here: "What's the best way to prepare 'before' joining the next team/company?"
If you haven't already, I would ask your manager if there are any resources that they recommend. Otherwise you are shooting in the dark a little bit.
In terms of shooting in the dark though, I feel like your plan is pretty good. The problem with setting up Datadog and Sentry is that they're for things that happen once you have users. If your side project has <10 users (as most side projects do), there's not much to monitor in real-time and there aren't too many errors to track.
On a side note, I'm working on my first side project course literally right now to help fix the <10 users problem. Stay tuned!
- 06 hours agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
I have a very different suggestion from the direction you're going: instead of focusing on the technology side, focus instead on the people and culture.
Read the recent earnings report for Nextdoor and write down what you think are the business's priorities. Then, talk to people and figure out what the focus is. What differences are there, and is this intentional?
I'd recommend going through this discussion: Checklist for entering a new company.
