Perhaps I wasn't clear, so I'll restate what I was saying.
One day one, of the last half dozen jobs I've taken, I've been handed a project and told to run with it. And I ran. Without any assistance from anybody except a couple quick chats with whoever's in charge over the course of the project, and QA when it was ready to push.
No hand holding, no coaching, no taking up anybody's time asking silly questions. You just figure things out for yourself and get up to speed. Inside of a few hours.
That's how you work if you're good, and I can't imagine anybody getting in the door at a shop like Google that couldn't.
The type of drain you describe is what happens when you bring a junior dev onto a team. It's a lot less when you bring in more senior people, and by the time you get to the big leages it's pretty much just background noise. That's why I questioned the great-grandparent's "20% throughput for an entire year" number.
My guess, based on experience, would be closer to 100% throughput, given an entire year to absorb the first few days.
One day one, of the last half dozen jobs I've taken, I've been handed a project and told to run with it. And I ran. Without any assistance from anybody except a couple quick chats with whoever's in charge over the course of the project, and QA when it was ready to push.
No hand holding, no coaching, no taking up anybody's time asking silly questions. You just figure things out for yourself and get up to speed. Inside of a few hours.
That's how you work if you're good, and I can't imagine anybody getting in the door at a shop like Google that couldn't.
The type of drain you describe is what happens when you bring a junior dev onto a team. It's a lot less when you bring in more senior people, and by the time you get to the big leages it's pretty much just background noise. That's why I questioned the great-grandparent's "20% throughput for an entire year" number.
My guess, based on experience, would be closer to 100% throughput, given an entire year to absorb the first few days.