Connect your email and calendar and Attio instantly builds your CRM. Every contact, every company, every conversation — organized in one place. Then ask it anything. No more digging, no more data entry. Just answers.

Start your free trial →

Unlock a focused set of AI strategies built to streamline your work and maximize impact. This guide delivers the practical tactics and tools marketers need to start seeing results right away:

Stay ahead of the curve with these top strategies AI helped develop for marketers, built for real-world results.

Download the Free Report

Hey Junior Engineers! Starting your first on-call rotation can feel overwhelming, but with the right preparation and mindset, you can handle it confidently while protecting your well-being.

Your first on-call rotation isn't about being a hero—it's about being prepared and knowing when to escalate. Most production incidents follow predictable patterns, and your team has procedures in place for a reason.

Key preparation strategies:
• Create a personal runbook with common commands, access links, and escalation contacts
• Practice incident response scenarios during normal hours with your team
• Set up your monitoring tools and alerts before your rotation starts
• Understand your company's escalation policy—when and how to call for help
• Prepare your workspace with good lighting, backup power, and reliable internet

Remember: Your job isn't to fix everything yourself. It's to assess, stabilize when possible, communicate clearly, and escalate appropriately. Senior engineers expect you to ask questions and escalate when needed.

Keep a detailed log of every incident during your on-call rotation. Note what happened, what you learned, and what you'd do differently. This documentation becomes invaluable for:
• Post-incident reviews and learning discussions
• Building confidence for future rotations
• Demonstrating growth and reliability to your team
• Creating your own knowledge base of common issues

Your incident notes show thoughtfulness and commitment to improvement—qualities that accelerate career growth.

Here are essential resources to prepare for on-call success:

• The On-Call Handbook - Comprehensive guide covering incident response, escalation procedures, and maintaining work-life balance during rotations

• Being On-Call - Practical advice from Increment Magazine on managing the psychological aspects of on-call responsibility

• PagerDuty On-Call Best Practices - Industry-standard practices for effective incident management and team communication

Q: I'm terrified I'll break something worse during an incident. How do I overcome this fear?

A: This fear is completely normal and actually shows good judgment. Start by following your team's incident response playbook exactly—don't improvise fixes under pressure. When in doubt, focus on gathering information and communicating the situation clearly rather than attempting complex fixes. Remember that production systems are designed with safeguards, and your team has rollback procedures for a reason. The worst thing you can do is suffer in silence. Your seniors would much rather be woken up early than discover a prolonged outage in the morning. Trust the process, ask questions, and remember that every senior engineer has been exactly where you are now.

Ready to tackle your first on-call rotation with confidence? Reply and tell me what specific aspect of on-call duty worries you most—I'd love to address your concerns in upcoming newsletters.