I worked at two companies, one being small startup where I had to set up my environment and push working code into production by the end of day on my first week, which was a success. In contrast, my first week at Courier coincided with Covid-19 lockdowns in San Francisco and I had borrowed an Apple Air laptop to set up my environment, which also worked out well despite some challenges. Both companies promoted engagement and focus through setting up a body of work that could fit in the remaining hours, having a demo day every week, choosing a tech stack that was easy to learn, and being remote or in-office first setups, with the latter helping me feel more connected to the company during my early days.