Obviously, no one expects a newly graduated hire to know everything during their first week, but early impressions stick. Question for the managers and senior engineers on here: What can a new grad do in those first few days to make you incredibly glad you hired them? What sets them apart early on?

What’s the biggest productivity killer in your typical workday? For me, it’s usually constant context switching between unrelated tasks. It feels like losing momentum over and over again. What’s the biggest distraction where you work?

If you could permanently eliminate one workplace meeting from your calendar, which type would it be and why? I’d probably choose status meetings where everyone simply reads updates that could have been sent in an email. Curious what everyone else would remove.

How do you handle disagreements with your manager about technical decisions? I’ve learned to pick my battles and always come with data instead of opinions when I do push back. It doesn’t always work, but it at least keeps the conversation productive. How do you approach it?

What’s something that seemed critically important early in your career but matters much less to you now? For me, being the smartest person in the room has become a lot less important than being part of a strong team.