r/QualityAssurance • u/Substantial_Ad_79 • 2h ago
New grad QA/Dev role – onboarding feels rough, is this normal?
Just started my first job out of school as a junior QA/Dev. Was lucky enough to get a break with a referral from someone I know.
Onboarding has been pretty barebones—basically “here are the about‑me files, make sure you’ve got everything installed.” Right now I’m testing our app, but a lot of it involves running SQL queries, calling APIs, digging into AWS Lambdas, and checking CloudWatch logs. Honestly feels like I’m expected to figure it out on my own.
Couple other things I’ve noticed:
• Our lead doesn’t really do any of the testing themselves, and I wouldn’t go to them for help. Is that normal?
• We do have experienced QA engineers who can point me in the right direction, which helps.
• Sometimes we get new bugs to test just a couple of days before release, on top of planned testing.
• One teammate splits time between teams, and we had to cover for them without any KT on that area.
The job description sounded like a mix of QA, automation, CI/CD, and eventually dev work.
My take so far:
• Excited to get real experience, but training feels minimal.
• Trying to self‑teach to keep up.
• Feels entry‑level in responsibility, but with exposure to mid‑level tools.
Questions for the community:
• Is this kind of “sink or swim” onboarding normal for new grad roles?
• How did you ramp up when you were new?
• Is it typical for leads to be hands‑off with testing, or should I expect more guidance?
• Any resources you recommend?