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Ask HN: What did onboarding training look like in OS kernel teams?

8•markus_zhang•13h ago
Context: I'm wondering how did OS kernel teams provide training to their new hires.

I'm mostly curious about:

- NT kernel / XNU kernel / Android kernel teams, or anything that is not OSS like Linux, e.g. some prop RTOS team would also count

- When teams still hired new graduates from targeted schools into kernel teams. Not sure whether your team is still doing this so I put up a past tense.

Questions:

- How much time do new hires work on the training? Do you give e.g. 3 months to catch up and start to work on small tickets, or it's a swim or die strategy?

- If there is any structured training, what material do you use? Is it mostly reading internal docs, or shadowing seniors, or published books about the kernel, or something else?

- How does the training address code quality? What kind of exercises/material does it lay on the new hires to work on code quality? What does code quality mean in the kernel team?

- How does the training address performance? How much do you care about memory footprint?

- Does the training use a minimal version of the production OS and ask the new hires to replicate existing features?

- What "subsystems"/"modules" (e.g. vm/boot/driver/scheduler/fs/etc.) do you expose to the new hires first?

- How does the training address internal tooling, especially kernel debugging?

Thanks for reading, and hopefully I get some answers :D

Comments

addaon•13h ago
I've worked on or adjacent to one of the kernels you mention, and multiple RTOS's, across twenty years. The onboarding process has been the same as other non-OS software projects I've been involved in. I've never been in an environment where formal training is used. Instead, the new hire is encouraged to read the code, read documentation (when available -- and update it while reading it), ask questions, and take on some smaller tickets; and direct mentorship from a more senior engineer is the main tool for getting them up to speed.
markus_zhang•13h ago
Thanks addaon, looks like exactly the same as the teams (neither is low level) I worked for.

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