Starting a new engineering role has its own vocabulary. Collocations like ramp up quickly and pick up context are what managers and new hires use to talk about the first weeks at a company.
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New engineers are expected to ___ quickly by completing structured first-week tasks.
Ramp up quickly is the standard engineering onboarding collocation for accelerating a new hire's productivity. 'Learn' is the outcome, not the process. 'Speed up' is informal and doesn't imply structured growth. 'Settle in' is too passive. Ramp up is universally used in onboarding plans and job descriptions.
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During the first week, new developers ___ senior colleagues to understand how the team works.
Shadow colleagues is the professional collocation for learning by closely watching an experienced person work. 'Follow' is informal. 'Observe' is too passive and clinical. 'Join' only means to participate. Shadow specifically implies structured, intentional learning by watching another person's workflow.
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Reading documentation and attending standups helps new developers ___ context about the codebase.
Pick up context is the idiomatic engineering collocation for informally absorbing background knowledge about systems, team culture, and business domain. 'Gain' and 'build' are grammatically fine but less natural in spoken IT English. 'Gather' is for data. Pick up context is the most natural phrase used by developers.
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Managers work with new hires to ___ 30-60-90 day milestones early in onboarding.
Set milestones is the standard collocation for establishing measurable checkpoints in a development plan. 'Define' is close but more analytical. 'Create' is too broad. 'Establish' is formal. Set milestones is the natural phrase in onboarding conversations and performance management documentation.
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New developers are encouraged to actively ___ feedback from peers and managers in their first month.
Seek feedback is the professional collocation implying a proactive, ongoing effort to solicit input for growth. 'Ask for' is informal. 'Request' sounds too transactional. 'Get' is vague. Seek feedback is the phrase found in performance frameworks, career ladders, and onboarding guides.