Before you start
What to Ask Before Your First Day
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.
What the people on this page had to find out, and where from
Which repository is the real one
you asked1Four days of reading the wrong one first
The holiday booking process
written down1The one thing properly documented
That your manager prefers a written update on Mondays
told3Said in passing, in week three
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.
For remote onboarding, remote staff productivity software adds a practical reference for time, activity, projects, and reports when the team reviews early progress.
The wider workplace question can also be checked against resources from Udemy.
Four of the first week's delays, every one of which a question beforehand would have removed
Waiting for a laptop that had not been ordered
7 hanswer: 5 minYou waited because you assumed somebody was dealing with it. Ordered on your second day and arrived on your sixth
No access to the code repository
4 hanswer: 3 minYou waited because you did not know who grants it. The request form existed and nobody had sent you the link
Not knowing which of three calls on the first morning you were expected at
2 hanswer: 2 minYou waited because you did not want to admit you had not understood the invitations. All three, as it turned out, and you missed the first
Not knowing what to do between induction sessions
6 hanswer: 4 minYou waited because it felt like something you should be able to work out. Six hours over three days, spent re-reading the handbook
four occasions · 19 hours spent stuck · 14 minutes of answers · the longest single wait was 7 hours
Nineteen hours of a first week, spent waiting on four things that one message in the week beforehand would have settled. The message takes four minutes to write. One person's own first week.
Four questions, sent once, two weeks before you start. Each of them is answerable off the top of somebody's head, and between them they remove most of the first week's dead time.
The four
What happens on my first morning, and who will I be with?
This sounds like small talk and is the most load-bearing of the four. A first morning with a named person and a stated plan is a different experience from a first morning with an empty calendar, and the answer tells you which one you are getting.
Will I have accounts and equipment on day one, and is there anything I need to do at my end?
The answer is frequently no, and knowing that in advance converts a frustrating first week into an expected one. It also, occasionally, causes somebody to go and order the laptop.
Is there anything you would like me to read beforehand?
Usually the answer is "nothing, don't worry about it", which is itself useful: it means nobody expects you to arrive informed. Sometimes it produces a document that saves you a week.
Who should I go to with small questions in the first few weeks?
The most valuable of the four and the least often asked. A named person is worth more than any amount of documentation, and asking for one before you start is much easier than asking for one in week three, when it sounds like you are struggling.
Why ask now rather than then
Because the same questions asked in week one are read differently.
Before you start you are an organised new joiner getting ready. In week one you are a new person who does not know what is going on. The content is identical; the reading is not, and you only get the first version once.
The form
Keep it to one message, keep it short, and make every question answerable in a line.
Looking forward to starting on the 14th. Four quick things, no rush:
- What does the first morning look like, and who will I be with?
- Will I have a laptop and accounts on day one, or should I expect that to take a few days?
- Anything worth reading beforehand?
- Who is the best person to bother with small questions in the first couple of weeks?
Numbered, because a numbered list gets answered as a numbered list, and a paragraph gets answered with a paragraph that addresses the first question only.
What the answers tell you
Beyond their content, the shape of the reply is information.
| What comes back | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| A detailed plan for the first week | Somebody has done this before and prepared |
| "We'll sort it on the day" | Expect to arrange your own first week |
| A named buddy, unprompted | Unusually good; use them |
| Nothing for a fortnight | Nothing is prepared; plan accordingly |
None of these is a verdict on the company. A disorganised first week is extremely common and says more about how busy your manager is than about anything else. What it changes is how you spend your first two days, and knowing in advance is worth a week.
The question not to ask
Do not ask what your objectives are, or what success looks like at ninety days, before you start.
It is a sensible question and it is the wrong moment: nobody has thought about it yet, and asking forces an answer that will be invented on the spot and then remembered as a commitment. That conversation belongs in week two or three, when there is something real to attach it to, and it has a note of its own later in this collection.
If you are joining a very small company
The four questions still apply and the answers change shape.
In a company of eight people there is frequently no induction, no handbook and no process for granting access, because none of those has been needed yet. The first morning will be a conversation and then work.
That is not worse. It removes most of the first week's waiting and it puts the burden somewhere else: there is nothing to read, so everything has to be asked, and the person to ask is busy founding a company.
The question to add, in that case, is about rhythm rather than logistics:
What does a normal week look like for the team at the moment?
In a small company the honest answer to that question tells you more than anything else you could ask, and it is the only one that will still be useful in month three.