My First Week @ Moovit
There is so much uncertainty as a new employee. I started working as senior backend developer at Moovit a couple of days ago. I am excited to share some of my experience
Day 0
Even though I am a software engineer, that is not the only reason I wanted to mention day 0. It was a very meaningful day in my on-boarding process. On the night before my first day, I got a phone call. “Hi, my name is Nick and I will be your buddy during your on-boarding process”. The call was quite short but that didn’t change the fact that I felt that the people in the office were waiting for me and excited almost as I am. Besides that, I knew that all of the employees were about to get an email with my picture and a short intro that I was asked to write about myself a couple of weeks earlier. They want to get to know me.
Day 1
On my first day I went physically to the office, even though I knew I was about to work in a hybrid model. In my email from the HR it said to come physically. Later on I understood that new employees are expected to show physically in the office for the first few weeks. The reason for that is that it is proved (by collected internal data) that on-boarding is better when the employees are in-office. They don’t have to think before they ask one of their teammates a question. When you have something in mind and someone is sitting right next to you, you just ask him.
My first day turned out to be a vacation day for most of the people in the company. That is how it is like when your first day is January 1st. But I found it to be a big advantage. I didn’t have to get to know a lot of people at once, and that made it a lot easier for me. When I get to know people, it takes me time to remember their name and who they are (and then I never forget). On my first day I got to know only one team member on my team, Aviad. My team lead Ishay made sure I won’t be at the office by myself, even though he himself couldn’t make it that day.
As a religious jew I pray every day at the beginning and the middle of the day. It is better to pray as a group, and I know there is a good chance there is a group praying together in the building or very close. It is called a Minyan. I asked some religious people in my team, and I found out when and where the Minyan will be held. For me, a Minyan is not only a group to pray with but also a community, people that I have a common denominator with. After the short prayer, I went back to join my teammate in our office.
This was the time for me to start some installations. Although I am a software developer, one of the things I don’t like the most is to install software on my computer. Almost every time there is something that is not perfectly installed. It is usually a messy process, and I am so happy that the IT team is doing at least some of it. Aviad was there to help me and guide me during the process.
Day 2
The first thing I did on my second day was meeting Ishay. We had our first one on one when we got to know each other better and also a short review on the team, the goals and what had been done in the past. One important thing that we talked about was actually a private personal thing. My younger daughter passed a year before I started to work in Moovit. I didn’t yet have an opportunity to mention it to Ishay. The HR interviewer informed him about it and it was important for him to tell me that he knows and that I will get any support that I need, any time. It was revealing because I knew I had to mention it at some point because it is a big part of who I am. It is always hard to find the right time for that kind of conversation.
On my second day I met almost all of the people in my team, Monday was the day they used to gather in the office, and often have lunch together. I had a nice time getting to know them, who they are and where they are from. They also got to know me, I have been asked questions that made me realize that they care and are interested in my story.
Nick and I went through some installation guides of the team that he updated recently. It turned out that all of my team went through the same process recently. They just moved from Windows laptops to macs. I was not the only one to struggle with it.
On my second day I also started to write an on-boarding document for our team. I was documenting my process in order to make it easy on the next future teammate. Beside that I heard that there is a team event planned for next week. The purpose of the event was to look back on the past year, and enjoy the major impact the team managed to achieve. I got to take part in organizing and offering my ideas of where we should go.
Day 3
That day was my first day working from home, ever. I didn’t have a full work station at home, but still, being home was so comfortable. Mostly because I got to be with my daughter on the time I spent on the train the other two days. And let me tell you, it was a long drive.
Working from home can be difficult in some aspects and a big advantage in other aspects. Luckily I had to complete watching videos from the day before. It was a very good task to complete from home. On that day I have been asked by Ishay to write some feedback about the internal on-boarding process in the team so he can improve that process.
One of the lectures I was watching was given by my interviewer, Amir. He mentioned an important document that I wanted to see, so I massaged him through the slack. It was a little bit embarrassing to me, I didn’t feel like I did great in my interview. I knew that usually interviewers have so many people to interview so they usually don’t remember you or your mistakes. At the end, that is what he wrote back to me:
Hey Dafna, welcome! Of course I remember, from all the people I interviewed, you are the only one that passed. I’m very happy to have you on the team. I will share the document with you.
From his message I got such a strong feeling of belonging, I understood that if he decided that he wants me to join the company, I deserve that.
Day 4
In Moovit there are a couple of New Employees’ Orientations. It is a series of lectures, given by senior managers from different departments in the company. On my fourth day I went to a couple of orientations. It was an opportunity to meet more new employees, another community for me. The people that joined the company about the same time as I did.
Later on I went back to my office and got a very cool mission from Ishay. I had to connect my phone to the PC in order to install a Moovit debug app. I opened the app, it was exactly like the Moovit app I use every day. I used it regularly to find the best route from home to work. But after that I could debug my own search request! I had so much fun playing with it. It is exciting to work for a company that owns an app you use day to day.
After that I had a technical one on one with Ishay, we went through the debugging process of the server. It is always good to see how things are done so I can get used to doing them right.
At lunch I discovered that there is a chess group in the company. It is a new hobby for me but I really want to keep it going. My teammate invited me to the group and to a league they will participate in, too. One more community for me!
I told Nick that he doesn’t have to come just for me the other day, I felt confident enough to ‘bother’ him or anyone else in the team in case I will need help. After I got to know them, I knew they would be there for me.
Day 5
My fifth day was another quiet day in the office, and I was able to summarize my intense week. I had some more orientations, two of them super inspiring, with the CMO Yovav and with the CFO Sarit . I spoke with both of them privately and I was amazed to see how kind and honest the C-level managers staff of Moovit. And the fact that it is making them only more professional is a relief.
Two interesting facts that I learned were the reason why Moovit has two websites, moovit.com and moovitapp.com. In addition Sarit told us the story behind the Intel buy of Moovit which was a huge step for Moovit.
Later that day there was a company meeting when I had to introduce myself in front of everyone. I felt stressed because public speaking is always hard for me. The fact that I only had to say a few words about myself didn’t change it. As Sarit recommended I tried to say something that will help people remember me. Beside my name and title I mentioned that blog that I am writing and a poetry book I am working on too. It was a nice trigger for people to come and introduce themselves. One woman asked me how I am managing to do all of the different kinds of activities I am involved in. I told her the truth, everything that I am doing beside family & work, is a therapy for me or dreams that I want to come true.
Summary
In conclusion, my first week was very efficient, I made a big progress with getting to know the people around me, the product. I had both calm and intense days, and mostly I had so much fun. I was welcomed in such a warm way that made me realize how nice and kind the people in my team and all over the company are. I feel that I got to be even more connected to the product I will be working on.
