Building Great Rapport

In my first couple of weeks as a software engineer transitioning to a new team, I was handed a big ticket that required touching nearly every service we had. It was overwhelming — tons of new codebases, processes, and tools to learn all at once.

As I navigated through it, I asked a lot of questions in different Slack channels. One support person really stood out. He not only answered my questions in the channel but also DMed me to help debug issues. He was consistently helpful, patient, and made understanding their service much easier.

After finishing the task, I wanted to thank him publicly and looked him up — turns out, he’s an intern. That really stuck with me. Despite being early in his career, he showed strong communication, initiative, and technical skills.

I gave him a shoutout and messaged his manager, because honestly, he earned it. I learned how to make an early impression from him. If you’re an intern or early in your career, this is how you make a strong impression.