Engineering Blog

Place and Position the Fridge

My onboarding started with a one on one session with the Team Lead and included a mix of setup activities:

• Unboxing my personal hardware, basic MacBook and Backup setup
• Create accounts for internal systems like LDAP, VPN, SSH, etc., according to the password policy
• Reading and signing papers and more

While commuting from Biel to Zürich and in the home office I could individualize my setup and familiarize myself with company tools and workflows. I also got time to start working through the cloud exercises available on GitHub, which gave me a better understanding how the API is working and how the customers are interacting with our system.

Let the Fridge Settle

Once I had everything set up, I was introduced to the software projects I would be working on at cloudscale. In one of the next daily standups I was also assigned my first small task: Include Server Name in Extra Traffic Transaction Description. Soon after, I was introduced into the code review / QA process, which enabled me to review and test the work of my teammates.

One by one I attended the companies different meeting formats:

• One-on-One: Weekly retrospective with my team lead
• Sprint planing: Every two weeks the team discusses and decides the scope of the next sprint
• Dev Team Insights: Each month our team presents an interesting insight, the last one was about how we use end-to-end testing in current projects
• All-Hands Retrospective: A workshop where the whole company sits together to identify road blocks and proposes solutions for resolving them
• Brownbag: A voluntary format in which an employee presents a topic (e.g.: Cloud Native Days), which usually takes place over lunchtime, hence the name

Set the Temperature

A key experience for understanding the company was the introduction day with Mänu, the CEO of cloudscale. We took a dive into the company’s history, structure, and where we are located in the market and the cloud pyramid, covering everything from our server centers to the networks and topologies that support our infrastructure. Alongside historical and technical insights, I learned about cloudscale's core values:

• Quality - go the extra mile
• 360° Transparency - Internally and externally
• Privacy / Security - From software to communication channels
• Swissness - Location, reliability and Secrecy
• Simplicity / Approachability - Being on eye level with customers, business partners and coworkers

Load Beverages Gradually

To not overload a fridge, the beverages should not be filled all at once. Analogous, I was gradually introduced in further important topics and given more responsibility/autonomy:

• Further sessions about implementation details in our projects
• Working on bigger tasks
• Writing this blog post
• Information Security Management System (ISMS) and ISO/IEC 27002
• Introduction to the system engineering team and which technologies they are using

Once the above topics are cooled down, the fridge can be loaded further:

• Visiting the server centers
• Introduction to Support
• Holding the next Dev Team Insights Presentation
• Organizing All-Hands Retrospective Meeting

Enjoy a cold one

For me, switching Jobs triggered some insecurities, but thanks to a well-structured onboarding process and a very supportive team, the transitioning to cloudscale has been a smooth experience. Cheers!

Disclaimer: We just got a shiny new fridge with tasty beverages. I was not involved in the actual fridge project, and it was filled by the CEO himself.

If you have comments or corrections to share, you can reach our engineers at engineering-blog@cloudscale.ch.