How should an intern or new grad best approach a senior member of the team?

Question

Hi Taro Community,

I will be joining Meta as an intern this summer. This is a very exciting opportunity, but one thing that concerns me is building good relationships with senior members of the team.

I have heard of stories of people new to Meta whose team was unwilling to help them ramp up. As a result, this made it difficult to onboard and get started. I believe it may be due to the competitive environment, as many senior employees are worried about their job security and may not be as welcoming to newcomers.

In the face of such a competitive workplace, how would you recommend I best approach more senior members of my team and gain their trust?

I was thinking of trying the following actions, but not sure:

Show deep "thanks" - make people feel appreciated
Trust by default - give more of my trust to others
Make small talk during 1 on 1
Use self deprecation to show humility

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

We made an entire course about this - Check it out here: Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly

We have a networking/relationship building course in the works too which will give more advice on how to approach these conversations.

Another thing I'll say is that there will always be people who just don't get along with you (that's life). That percentage will be much higher at Meta now given the current climate. There will be many more senior+ engineers who are just so, so, so stressed out right now that they simply don't want to help the intern where if it was 2019 or something, they definitely would have.

The good news is that since you're a Meta intern, you by definition have at least 1 person that cares: Your intern manager. Use them as a gateway to unlock other mentors in the team since they can use their social capital to convince others to help you.

How should an intern or new grad best approach a senior member of the team?

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