Ask HN: As a new hire how to deal with legacy codebase and introduce standards
Recently accepted an offer to join a small size company as a mid developer. From the internal scoop and the interview I already know the code base is not great. There is a lot of technical debt, legacy tooling, poor coding practices and a lot of junk. I don't want to give up and just write more cruft or throw tantrums and pester everyone to re-write stuff.
If you are in my position, How would you approach ? What are the methodologies you follow to get yourself comfortable to start contributing to the existing codebase ? How do you gain existing team's confidence so as to persuade them to make some changes instead of sounding bossy ?
I faced similar situation in previous position and find it really difficult to get started. Any pointers are welcome! How do you gain existing team's confidence so as to persuade them to make some changes instead of sounding bossy? A new hire lacks the contextual knowledge to hold an informed opinion about the way things ought to be done. The phrase "introduce standards" is insulting to the existing team. Approach things slowly. With your every PR send small improvements, make sure people do review your code.
Also brief it during stand-ups