The Ruby on Rails Podcast Episode 316: 316: MongoDB and Onboarding Junior Developers with Emily Giurleo
Apr 29, 2020
Emily Giurleo, a Software Engineer at MongoDB, shares insights on effectively onboarding junior developers. She discusses a three-step approach to build trust, boost confidence, and promote autonomy among newcomers. Emily highlights the importance of mentorship and structured feedback in cultivating an inclusive environment. Additionally, she touches on the significance of community in tech and her involvement with the nonprofit Free From, which supports domestic violence victims, showcasing the rewarding impact of tech on social issues.
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From Learner To Engineer
- Emily learned to code after a high-school mechanical engineering camp and then used Codecademy to keep learning over that summer.
- She later joined Codecademy as an engineer, closing the loop from learner to employee.
Pairing Helped Early Growth
- At Codecademy Emily both mentored and was mentored and often fixed bugs with senior engineers pairing over lunch.
- Senior teammates stepped in to work with her during hard bugs instead of leaving her to struggle alone.
Coding Plus Community Work
- Emily's work on drivers mixes coding with community support, like answering Stack Overflow and triaging user tickets.
- That combination strengthens product quality and keeps maintainers close to real user problems.