The first person that will be in touch with you will be your mentor. He or she will guide you during your first weeks at freistil IT.
After getting acquainted, the first thing you’re going to do together will be to set up your workstation.
Every member of our distributed team gets a Macbook Pro as their workstation.
Your application landscape will depend on your job, of course. There are quite a few common applications you will need in any way, so let’s go through them!
Nowadays, many applications are web-based and the Safari browser that comes with your machine works well. A few web applications require special browser features, so installing Google Chrome will provide you with a good alternative.
You’re going to have to create accounts with a lot of cloud-based services, so it makes sense to set up a password manager first. We use 1Password for Teams; you can use the app for managing both your personal accounts and our shared company logins. (At the moment, 1Password for Teams is one of these web apps that don’t work with Safari.)
One of the web application you should get working first is Google Apps. We’re using many of its services and other applications will also use it for authentication. We’ve already set up an account for you. Use 1Password to set up 2-Factor Authentication to optimise its security.
Next, set up your Slack account and say “Hi!” in the #company channel! If you have any questions, just ask them there and the team will rush to your help.
Before you put any valuable data on your machine, let’s make sure it’ll be protected. In the Security settings in System Preferences, enable File Vault to encrypt your disk.
We’re using Backblaze as our offsite backup solution. To get a continuous backup running, visit the Backblaze for Business website. Click the “Start Backing Up” button which will download and install the client software on your computer. During the installation routine, you will be asked for an email address and a password. Use your company email address and your usage will automatically be licensed under the company account.
If you’re on the DevOps team, you’ll need a Github account (you can use your personal one or create a work account). Give us a shout in the #ops channel so we can add you to our organisation. You’ll then be able to use the laptop script and our dotfiles to easily set up your system toolbox.
Finally, you’re going to need Skype for internal and external voice and video calls.
We’re going to explain the use of all these applications in detail a bit later. For now, you’re ready to join our virtual office!
Your first official video call will be with our CEO. Jochen will give you an introduction to “freistil IT The Business”. You’ll find the appointment on your Google Calendar.
Meanwhile, join the Slack channels that interest you, and mingle!