Nine weeks into my summer internship at Microsoft, I wrote up these lessons I'd learned so far.  Though I originally conceived of it as a document specific to the process of starting a job as a program manager at Microsoft—specifically in the Office Graphics team—I took a step back and realized that it might have something to say about the process of starting any new job.  Its content and focus were substantially inspired by Tantek's thoughts on his next startup: http://tantek.pbwiki.com/MyNextStartup  It is, however, more focused on the emergent reality I've experienced in an established organization, rather than the reality deliberately created in a startup.

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One of your first projects, as a new hire, will be to acclimate to team culture.  Every team has slightly different norms and values.  These norms and values will shift over time; as a new hire, your task is to be an anthropologist, ask questions, make observations, and construct an up-to-the-minute picture of the implied value system espoused by your team.  Across Microsoft, the core emergent values seem to include: openness, respectfulness, willingness to share ideas with others, self-motivation, self-criticism, and preference for acuity of thought over formality of conduct.  These values are adhered to in varying degrees by different teams across the company, even though in an ideal world they would be adhered to by all.  [Ed. note: I'm guessing that these are core emergent values at many tech companies.]  However, there are a few hints worth articulating up front. 

1)      Flex time is real.  No one is watching the clock.  No one is looking over your shoulder.  Your task is to get your work done in whatever way you work best.  Core hours are important; there are all sorts of casual and serendipitous interactions that take place when everyone's in the office simultaneously.  Endeavor to be at work at least between 10am-2pm.  [Or whenever the core hours happen to be at your particular company.]  As a new hire, it's tempting to want to "prove" your dedication by arriving early and spending long hours.  The impulse is honorable, but the behavior is unnecessary.  Instead, prove your dedication through your engagement, curiosity, and regular production of deliverables. 

2)      Skip justifying your existence; instead, articulate your work habits.  Anxiety over whether or not you belong, or are performing at the appropriate level, is a logical response to observing the excellence of your colleagues.  That anxiety, though, is better turned toward action than fretting.  This is not high school, and again, it's important to remember: no one is looking over your shoulder.  When talking with others on the team and elsewhere, you will gain their respect much more rapidly if you project thoughtful, self-critical self-confidence in your work habits, diligence, and creativity.  "Self-critical self-confidence" may seem like an oxymoron, but if you're lucky, it will not be.  Take ownership of your own working style, consistently strive to improve it, and articulate to your team members your own process of self-improvement.  Everyone enjoys, and benefits from, conversations about best practices.  Start those conversations. 

3)      Contributing to the team is a priority.  When a team member calls a brainstorming session, or asks for help, or gives a presentation on his or her work, it is important to try your best to attend and contribute.  Though everyone works on different projects, our biggest resource and source of inspiration will always be each other.  Likewise, if you go off on your own to gather information, or attend presentations, or read interesting books, make an effort to transmit that knowledge back to your team in an appealing and compact way.  Though flex time is real, it is always worth going out of your way to participate in group brainstorms, morale events, and other moments of shared experience.  If you feel they are in any way a waste of time, try thinking about how to improve them rather than deciding to avoid them altogether.  If brainstorm sessions are proving unhelpful, introduce a conversation about brainstorming best practices.  If morale events aren't improving your morale, start a conversation about how better to use everyone's time toward fun and encouraging ends.

4)      Spontaneity and mischief are excellent.  Work will be fun as long as you make it fun.

5)      Iteration is more important than perfection.  Conversation is crucial at every step along the way.  One of the most difficult lessons to learn, as a new hire, is that perfection is unproductive.  You will learn more and deliver better if you expose your ideas to feedback early and often.  When putting together mockups, resist the urge to mock up an entire scenario end-to-end in the first iteration.  Instead, deliberately explore multiple ideas in representative ways.  Loop in your feature crew and people outside your feature crew early on.  Schedule half-hour sessions with members of other teams.  Work on improving the idea rather than perfecting the way the idea looks.  In order to improve, you will need to iterate.  In the post-college world, this is almost impossible to fathom.  I know I'm incredibly accustomed to writing 15-page papers overnight, turning them in, and never returning to the result.  That is, fortunately, not how building software works.  [Or accomplishing almost anything worthwhile.]  The "finished product" cannot possibly be accomplished in one night.  As a result, you have a responsibility to assign it regular and thorough creative consideration.  Iterate; step back; seek feedback; iterate again.  Remain open to conflicting ideas as you get a sense for the landscape in which you're operating.  (Technical hurdles, political tensions, and usability dilemmas will emerge in conversations along the way.)  As the owner of a project, your task is to aggregate, filter, synthesize, and articulate a consistent and inclusive vision.  Feedback is only feedback, but I can guarantee that you will get further and have an easier time collecting buy-off if you incorporate and address the concerns of others early on.

6)      The resources exist to help you learn.  Take advantage of them, considerately. Conferences, books, lectures, meetings with distant departments: all of these things are accessible to you, as long as you can clearly articulate their value to you personally and their subsequent value to the team.  Seek out learning opportunities and propose them to your manager and others.  Be generous with your knowledge.