I wrote this as part of my “journal” for the Mayfield Fellows Program a while back, and I thought I would include it here:
I am coming up on my fourth week at Topsy, and at this point I am very comfortable with the company’s processes / organizational structure. For the most part, my orientation has been fairly informal but effective. When I came initially, I was instructed to simply explore the Topsy product in great detail for two days while also documenting the metrics I wanted to measure (bounce rate for certain pages, visitor duration, referrals, etc…). For me, this time was very productive, and it really helped me to fully understand the product’s strengths and weaknesses. I was also instructed on the company’s internal wiki system, email, and I was given access to modify our beta product.
The rest of my orientaiton has been in the form of conversations with fellow employees. These conversations have allowed me to understand the culture, company mission, and facilities. I would say that all of my orientation has been spontaneous.
My company is in its nascent stages (they’ve never had an intern or a nondeveloper), so training has been very informal. I actually liked it because I got to spend my own time trying to understand the product, and I was able to meet all the employees through asking them questions about the company. While I enjoyed this form of orientation, some formal guidance or documentation could have been helpful just for some direction. As it was, the amount and quality of orientation was pretty much left up to me.
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