When you join a new org or switch teams in the same, it is quite an unsettling and borderline anxious experience. Here are a few things that I did to ramp up faster.
- I consciously made an effort to remain unblocked
- I read a ton of code and its history, sometimes even unrelated
- I asked questions about the past, the present, and the future
- I took up relatively mundane tasks - cross-team work, tests, and docs
- I extended a helping hand in whatever capacity I could
- I proactively met skip-level leaders and managers to understand the vision
Some companies do have a culture of pairing up with someone existing in the team, but even if you do not get a mentor, it is important that you still navigate the situation and ramp up as quickly as you can.
The above list is not exhaustive, by any means, and hence you can always add things that you find helpful in your context. but the lowest common denominator is to show extreme intent and interest to get output and drive outcomes.