Why Developer Onboarding is Broken—and What Needs to Change

After a marathon of interviews, tests, code challenges, and awkward small talk with people you’ll likely never see again, you finally land the job. You’re excited, ready to dive in and make an impact. But then reality hits: onboarding feels like an afterthought.

It’s like dating someone who showers you with attention—right up until you move in. Suddenly, they’re on the couch eating chips, and you’re left wondering, “Where do I put my stuff? Is this really what I signed up for?”

In tech, onboarding is often rushed—a box to check before new hires start coding. But poor onboarding isn’t just frustrating; it’s a silent productivity killer. It slows down the whole team, disrupts development cycles, and drives up turnover costs.

The bigger the team, the bigger this problem becomes

• Longer ramp-up times
• Higher turnover
• Reduced team productivity
• Knowledge silos

…And the list goes on. With so much at stake, isn’t it time to treat onboarding as a critical driver of team success and product momentum?

The Problem

For many developers, onboarding is like being thrown into a maze with a half-finished map and hoping they’ll figure it out. You’re handed a laptop, access to a few tools, and maybe a “buddy” to show you around. But without clear guidelines, expectations, or structure, it quickly becomes chaotic—especially in larger organizations. Instead of hitting the ground running, you’re left navigating a minefield of confusion and bottlenecks.

One of the biggest myths? That simply assigning a buddy solves everything. Sure, having a go-to person can help, but without clear goals and structure, this approach leaves gaps.

Why the Traditional Checklist Isn’t Enough

Many companies still treat onboarding as a checklist: grant tool access, set up emails, assign a few tasks, and call it a day. But this “transactional” approach misses the mark. Checklists are great for covering the basics—the “how” of a role—but rarely address the “why.” New developers need more than a tour of tools; they need a clear understanding of the mission, purpose, and impact of their work. Without that, engagement suffers, and new hires quickly feel like just another cog in the machine.

My take is that we need to approach onboarding with the same care and thoughtfulness we put into hiring. Rather than rushing through orientation and tool setup, onboarding should gradually integrate new developers through role-specific workflows and clear milestones that help them see both the technical and strategic context of their work.

A checklist is where passion goes to die. Onboarding needs to be dynamic, intentional, and empowering, giving developers a clear path to early wins and a strong sense of purpose from day one!

Breaking Down Knowledge Silos

One of the biggest onboarding headaches is knowledge silos. Developers constantly need info that’s scattered across teams, tools, and documents. Chasing down these details every week isn’t just a productivity drain; it’s frustrating.

Imagine flipping the process so it’s not just up to the stakeholder creating the onboarding journey to attach relevant knowledge. Instead, the system could actively surface the right information for new developers at the right time, reducing back-and-forth.

This is the direction I envision—starting with building a structured journey, integrating essential apps, attaching relevant knowledge, and automating its delivery. I also think community-generated templates are a great idea—a library that evolves and improves with real-world input. There’s a lot more to explore here, and it’s an exciting road ahead!

I asked Killian Dunne, CTO of Telepathic, "How do you think templates could support onboarding efficiency and consistency across teams?" His response:

It’s a huge hassle to keep making resources and then going through the same onboarding process every time with technical hires. If you're able to significantly cut down that setup and training time then that’d be huge!

Onboarding and Retention: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Onboarding and retention are intrinsically linked. A positive onboarding experience makes developers feel valued and supported, which is key to long-term satisfaction and engagement. Poor onboarding, by contrast, can be a red flag, signaling that the company lacks organization, which will lead developers to look for opportunities elsewhere. I see time and again that an investment in onboarding is an investment in retention. Developer onboarding isn’t just a step in the hiring process; it’s a long-term investment in your team.

Thank you so much for reading my first HackerNoon article! 😊 I'm Rasmus Stjernström, co-founder of Silo Team. Together with my sister and our small, passionate team, we're on a mission to make onboarding truly seamless. Why? Because when developers can hit the ground running, they ship products faster—and everyone benefits. If you're interested in exchanging ideas or trying out our beta, feel free to reach out!