Kickstarting Your Dev Career at Light-it! 🚀

by Michelle Alborés

At Light-it, we strive to make a real impact in everything we do, from crafting game-changing healthcare solutions to empowering the next generation of developers with the best onboarding practices. Everything is designed and thought to bring excellence to the table. So Welcome to Light-it, where we're passionate about nurturing and developing up-and-coming devs! 

Particularly, our onboarding process is designed not only to help aspiring engineers kickstart their careers in healthtech but also to provide a clear roadmap for their professional growth. From day one, we set clear expectations and offer continuous guidance, ensuring that every team member understands their career path and has the support they need to reach their full potential at Light-it. 

We've broken down our process into steps, and we've also developed a checklist so you can replicate it with your own team!

Let's dive in!

Step 1: A Warm Welcome to the Light-it Family

We begin by welcoming new thunders with an introduction to our company culture, values, and expectations.

Curious how everything goes down on someone's first day?

During their first few weeks, trainee developers will have several welcome meetings to help them integrate into the team, get to know different projects and developers, and introduce themselves.

They will also have a few pair programming sessions with different developers on various projects. This will give them the opportunity to meet other developers and gain insight into our development practices across different projects.

Additionally, new developers will be invited to observe various daily meetings and other agile ritual meetings in different projects. This will help them understand our way of working across multiple projects and give them a broad perspective on our workflow.

We believe in the power of mentorship, which is why we pair trainee developers with experienced developers. This allows them to observe best practices, receive personalized guidance, and learn from the expertise of our more senior developers.

Step 2: Level Up Your Skills Through Immersive Training

Our boot camp equips new hires with the essential skills they need to excel in their roles, providing a comprehensive guide on the way of working and using backend and frontend technologies within Light-it. Throughout this immersive training, new developers will learn about React and Laravel, how it is used within the company, and how the architecture is organized. The training will also delve into essential topics such as API creation, documentation, and how to set up their development environment. Since we specialize in healthtech, we ensure our team is well-versed in HIPAA policies and security best practices, giving our clients confidence that their projects meet the highest standards of compliance. Additionally, we introduce coding standards, best practices, Git, version control, and Agile methodologies. 

Step 3: Putting Knowledge into Practice with Real-World Challenges

To apply their newfound skills, we provide internal challenges that simulate real-world scenarios and projects, mimicking the same workflows that are later on used with our clients. This allows new team members to gain practical experience, build confidence, and receive support and feedback from experienced developers throughout the process.

Step 4: Joining Projects and Causing an Impact

After completing their training and development, new developers often begin by working on internal projects, allowing them to gain hands-on experience and apply what they’ve learned during onboarding. This step helps build confidence and technical skills before transitioning to real client projects.

Once ready, they become part of project teams, receiving continued support and guidance as they take on real-world challenges and make meaningful contributions to our projects.

Key takeaways: We have a checklist  😉

Joining any company requires effort from a lot of teams but it definitely pays off. According to SHRM, a  good onboarding process helps boost employee retention rate by 52% and employee productivity up to 60%. Plus, with a poor onboarding process, compliance and culture are severely impacted. For all these reasons, we developed and perfected a process that works for us. If you’d like to replicate it, we’ve put together a checklist to ensure you’re considering everything.

Pre-Onboarding

  • Gather necessary documents
  • Set up workspace and equipment
  • Assign a mentor and buddy
  • Create the onboarding plan
  • Provide access to company communication tools (Slack, email, calendar)
  • Set up necessary accounts (GitHub, project management tools, internal platforms)

Day One

  • Welcome and orientation
  • Introduce key people and areas
  • Review company overview, mission, and policies
  • Walkthrough of internal documentation and coding standards
  • Share onboarding schedule and key contacts
  • Complete essential paperwork (benefits, emergency contacts, compliance documents?)
  • Set up system access and equipment

Week One

  • Complete required training (e.g., HIPAA)
  • Complete first internal challenge to simulate real-world development
  • Receive mentor feedback on initial tasks
  • Introduction to Agile methodologies and workflows
  • Hands-on Git and version control training

Month One

  • Check in on progress and address concerns
  • Gather feedback on onboarding
  • Conduct satisfaction surveys
  • Work on internal projects for hands-on experience
  • Participate in more pair programming sessions with different developers
  • Get feedback on code quality and development practices
  • Regular check-ins with mentor and team lead
  • Reflect on progress and set goals for the next months

Final thoughts

Our team is made up of passionate and talented techies guided by the values of creativity, business, synergy, and innovation.

At Light-it, we believe that every developer has the potential to thrive with the right support, guidance, and hands-on experience. Our structured onboarding process is designed to set you up for success, helping you grow your skills, collaborate with talented peers, and make a real impact from day one. If you're ready to kickstart your dev career in an environment that values learning, innovation, and teamwork, Light-it is the place for you.

Let's build the future of healthcare together! 🚀