Your first week is coming to a close!

You made it to the back side of the week!  That's super exciting! You've likely met a few new people and are beginning to find your legs.  A few questions, for you to discuss with your manager:

• On a scale of 0-4, how is your comfort level so far?
• Any major blockers you're experiencing? (Parking passes, can't login to <that thing>, computer issues, having a hard time finding a lunch buddy, etc...)
• Anyone that you've been wondering "What do they do here?"?
• What is something that has gone really well?
• Finally, what's something we could do better in your onboarding process?

Architecting all the things

BWTC is a full service development shop (as you no doubt already know).  That means we need to be able to take a project from idea to delivery.  Part of that process involves architecting solutions for our clients from the technical side.  The Software Architecture team exists to help answer the  "How are we going to build this thing?" question for each project.

At the beginning of each project, usually after the kick off with the client, you will meet with the Software Architecture team to discuss your project and together plan how to build it, what the stack is going to look like and where it will inevitably be deployed to. That team is led by our very own Justin Schiff and you can reach anyone at that team by emailing [email protected].

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Here at BWTC we use Amazon Web Services (or AWS for short) for all things cloud.  Amazon provides over 150 services ranging from dedicated servers, cloud storage, DNS and much more all on one platform.  Using AWS we can create secure, scalable, highly available applications at a low cost to our clients.

Whether you’re using Node, Django, Ruby, .Net or Docker, AWS provides tooling for automated deployments and servers available around the globe.  It can be a little daunting at first, but once you get the hang of setting things up, it is a really powerful tool.  We have documentation and tips for using AWS in the S&P repo, and if you need any help don’t be afraid to ask!

Day 5 Checklist

Here is a list of things to try and get done today.  Anything your PM asks of you should take priority, of course, but we intentionally try to keep the workload light in the first few weeks so that you can get acclimated.

• [ ] Grab a virtual coffee with a developer. It's that time again! Find a developer who you haven't connected with yet and ask them to grab coffee with you.
• [ ] Work on a GitHub issue. Find an issue, address it, and submit a Pull Request.
• [ ] Make sure you are added to the PR Team. On GitHub, make sure you are a member of the PR Team for the Shift3 organization. If you are not a member, ask an organization owner to add you.
• [ ] Join the #bwtc-code-review Slack channel. This channel sends out regular notifications regarding PRs which are awaiting review. Use this channel to help give you reminders when a PR is assigned for you to review.
• [ ] Perform a code review for one of your colleagues. Now that you're on the PR Team and code review channel, you should have access to dozens of PRs. Submit a review. Try to find any friendly suggestions you can make, even if the code is passing review.