Senior-engineer onboarding: understand the business before proposing rewrites
An architect with repeated change-management experience recommends learning from sales, managers, and teammates before changing systems.
The takeaway
Existing systems often encode business constraints and history.
The context
The commenter had repeatedly joined teams to support technical change. They caution that existing code may be generating revenue and should not be rewritten just to demonstrate expertise. Their practical suggestions include asking sales for a customer-style pitch, learning management goals, and taking small bugs to understand delivery.
Steps worth trying
Editorial suggestions, not promises made by the original author.
- 01
Meet sales, support, and engineering colleagues early and document customer value and system constraints.
- 02
Ship a small fix through the full process, then discuss evidence-backed improvements with affected colleagues.
Where this applies — and where it may not
The commenter’s 90-day waiting period is personal advice, not a rule; urgent incidents and explicitly scoped changes may require immediate action.
From the discussion
“What you call “legacy code” was done for a reason”
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