My first full week at New Relic is in the bag. I can safely say that making the leap was a great choice.
First day, upon being shown to my desk, I was confronted with this shadow from the past:
The other devs started in on a whole spiel about how it’s a first day tradition to use the old Apple II, although they were vague about what precisely you had to accomplish. After the better part of 5-10 minutes, someone suggested you had to commit to the git repo from it. The awkwardness finally peaked, and everyone laughed. We packed up the Apple II, and I received my actual hardware, a brand spanking new Macbook Pro, huge monitor, and Mighty Mouse.
There are first day traditions beyond the purported Apple II, including committing a bug fix before the day is done. We had that finished up before lunch, which felt good.
Both of those experiences–the prank(s) and the getting-things-done of a first day commit–set the tone for my experience so far. I have felt welcomed and included, with folks introducing themselves left and right, good-natured fun and joking from the get-go, and lots of help whenever I need it. But that all comes along with a sharp focus on building great stuff.
One of my favorite small touches was the whiteboard in the main entry. On the first day it had a message welcoming me. I thought “That’s nice,” and didn’t think about it again. Then on Tuesday I showed up to this:
Each day a new message showed up, ending on Friday with:
That hints at the climate at New Relic. We’re growing quickly, with lots of new faces, and lots of excitement.
I’ll post more technical bits later, but the transition to OS X from a lifetime of Windows has been smoother than I expected. My first day it felt like all thumbs, but already I’m amassing new shortcuts and muscle-memory, customizing my tools bit by bit, and getting notably faster every day. Every day brings a pile of new things, large and small, to cram into my brain. From the intricate beauty of Ruby, to the Might Mouse’s touch gestures, to Vim addons… every day this week has stretched me exactly how I’ve been itching for.