Before you start

The weeks between signing and your first day are yours, and almost nothing you can do with them requires anybody's cooperation.

What the people on this page had to find out, and where from

What you had to knowWhere it came fromWeek

Which repository is the real one

you asked1

Four days of reading the wrong one first

The holiday booking process

written down1

The one thing properly documented

That your manager prefers a written update on Mondays

told3

Said in passing, in week three

Somebody told you, unprompted: 1You found it written down: 1You asked for it: 1

three things you had to know · one of them somebody told you · the median arrived in week 1 · the other two you went and got

Three of the things this page is about. Two of the three were answerable in a message sent the week before you started.

The Weeks That Are Already Yours

The weeks between a signed offer and a first day belong to nobody, which means they belong to you, and almost nothing needs anybody's help.

Four questions sent two weeks before you start remove most of the first week's waiting, and all four are answerable off the top of a head.

A company's public surface tells you more than its induction will, and the hour spent reading it is the cheapest preparation available.

Equipment and access are the most predictable failure of a remote first week, and the only person with an interest in preventing it is you.

The weeks before a first day can be spent badly in three specific ways, and all three feel productive at the time.

The questions you have before you start are the clearest ones you will ever have, and most of them stop occurring to you within a month.

One conversation before you start is worth three days afterwards, and the person most worth talking to is somebody who joined a few months ago.

A contract settles pay, notice and hours, and says nothing about any of the things that determine what the job is actually like.