I am a software engineer for 4 years, and I just changed my company for the first time.Company works with pair programming, and it's been 3 days, I couldn't even write a single line of code.It's so frustrating for me because I was very productive at my previous company.The codebase is large, they are using 5-6 languages/tools that I am not familiar with, like rspec, haml, jasmine and others. But still, I feel awful.This weekend I created UML to get better understanding of the application, but still I am guessing I'll not be able to write decent amount of code this week.Is this normal? What is your experience when you change your job, and dive into a large codebase written with languages/libraries you are not familiar with.Of course I am not asking for exact time required, but past experiences or things to make the process would be great.Btw, I've already read below questions&answers,How do you dive into large code bases?https://stackoverflow.com/questions/215076/whats-the-best-way-to-become-familiar-with-a-large-codebasehttps://stackoverflow.com/questions/214605/the-best-way-to-familiarize-yourself-with-an-inherited-codebaseUPDATEAll great suggestions! I just came from work, I've worked a lot!About pair programming:Generally they write code, and I am trying to not miss even a second!If I try to write the code, I know it's gonna take forever, because I don't even know which files should I edit, but beside that, as I said, they are using 6-7 languages/frameworks that I'm not familiar with, and learning all these syntaxes at one is not easy.How well the company prepared for engineers:I can't say they are well organized, they kind of expecting me to start writing code immediately.Taking notes, being proactive: I'm always taking notes when they write a new command/or anything about data models.My peers are very smart and kind people, and I'm trying to ask lots of questions, even lots of stupid questions sometimes.Is this common?:@Telastyn, thanks for your answers, it made me feel a little better. It seems like my problem is not that uncommon, but I was really productive before this job, and now I really feel useless and not smart.I hope I can start solving bugs/implementing issues very soon.About frameworks/languages they use:I was really honest about that, I didn't say I know something that I don't know actually.But I wasn't expecting that much different things, and since I started working at the day I accepted the offer, I didn't have time to prepare myself.@Southpaw Hare, thanks alot for sharing your experience. You are absolutely right. There is no guarantee that I'm going to learn all of these stuff, but I'm trying. At the end, it's is hard to learn all of the syntax at once, and I think that is the main problem too. Because I can navigate in ruby code well since I know that language, and I navigate in js codes thanks to browser inspectors, but the problem is writing the actual codes with the frameworks/languages I don't know.
Time required to start coding at a new company
source code;pair programming;knowledge transfer
This depends on things like the complexity of the system and how well the organization is prepared to onboard new programmers. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to multiple weeks. It's not necessarily anything you're doing wrong and you shouldn't feel bad about it.What you should do, however, is be proactive about fixing it for yourself and others. Tell your manager about your frustrations and work together to overcome them and to improve the process for other new hires.Write notes about the things that you are struggling with, brainstorm ways to fix them or get around them, and document your process. Keep other people who can help you up-to-date with your progress and reach out for help. There's nothing shameful in asking for help.