How to pass probation and avoid being put on a PIP?
October 5, 2025
A question that pops up regularly from a reader: “I just joined a new company. What should I focus on so I don’t stumble during probation?”
We have previously covered how to build relationships and collaborate effectively with your new teammates, and our job search course dives into pre-boarding checklists. Beyond those resources, there are several practical themes worth highlighting for your first few months on the job.
Many companies formally run probation (or trial) periods. Others—especially those with a “hire fast, fire fast” mindset—skip probation but rely heavily on performance improvement plans (PIPs). Either way, the first 90 days set the tone. The same habits that help you pass probation also keep you safely away from a PIP culture.
Why probation often goes sideways
If you worry about falling short, start by evaluating the common failure patterns.
Top reasons probation decisions go poorly:
- Working on the wrong problems
- Failing to show tangible outcomes
- Struggling to collaborate with the team
Working on the wrong problems
It’s tempting to sprint through every task that lands in your inbox. But effort on the wrong bets rarely moves the needle.
Get clarity on how your performance will be judged. What does “meeting expectations” look like for someone at your level? If you can’t write it down clearly, schedule weekly one-on-ones with your manager early on and keep asking until you can.
Level expectations matter, too. Senior engineers, for example, are typically evaluated on system design and their ability to guide others. If you were hired as a senior but spend probation tackling only junior-level bug fixes, leadership will assume you’re not operating at the level they hired you for.
Failing to show tangible outcomes
Once you know the direction, you still need evidence that you can execute.
No one expects a brand-new hire to ship a moonshot feature in week one. Small wins still count. One former Meta engineer shared that they opened their first pull request on day two and got it merged on day three—an early signal to their manager that they could deliver (link).
To accelerate your ramp-up, deliberately model the habits of top performers on your team: how they write code, structure design docs, run meetings, and give feedback. Shadow them or suggest pair programming sessions so you can observe the details. Borrowing proven workflows is the fastest way to produce credible output when you’re still learning the codebase.
Struggling to collaborate with the team
Engineering managers care about individual output, but they care even more about the health of the entire team. You could be shipping relentlessly and still stumble if people don’t want to work with you.
Our guide on building trust with teammates covers the fundamentals. The extra nuance during probation is to earn trust before you try to reinvent anything.
Seasoned engineers often spot inefficiencies immediately and want to fix them. That instinct is great, but rolling out “the right way” in week two without understanding the context can alienate the people you need to partner with.
One real example: A senior hire from a big-name company noticed that the team’s on-call process didn’t match an industry best practice. Within weeks they proposed a brand-new rotation schedule. Legacy team members pushed back hard, frustrated that the newcomer hadn’t investigated why the previous experiment failed. Because trust wasn’t there, every future suggestion from that engineer received extra scrutiny.
It takes far more energy to recover from broken trust than to build it patiently from day one. When you understand the “why” behind current workflows, your improvement proposals land better, and teammates are more willing to back your ideas.
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Want to go deeper on probation strategies and staying clear of PIPs? We unpack this topic even further inside the E+ Growth Plan.
This article shares excerpts from the E+ Growth Plan playbook. Join the program to access the full version and additional resources (learn more about E+).