Onboarding remote engineers in two weeks, not two months

A short, written onboarding plan gets new engineers shipping in their first sprint.

New engineers rarely struggle with the code itself. They struggle with everything around it: access requests, unwritten conventions, and not knowing who to ask. Each blocker costs a day, and a dozen of them cost a month.

Write a one-page onboarding checklist and keep it in the repository. Include every account they need, how to run the project locally, how code review works, and the names of two people they can ask anything.

Give each new engineer a small, real ticket on day two. Shipping something to production in the first week builds confidence and exposes gaps in the setup instructions while they are still fresh.

Pair them with a buddy for the first two weeks, and schedule a short check-in at the end of each week. Ask what slowed them down, then fix the checklist so the next person moves faster.