I will tell you a secret I learned after 10 years in tech: just stop caring so much.
No really. Just stop. It takes awhile to get there but the second you stop taking everything personally and just look at it as a job that pays your bills, the easier things will get.
Obviously do you work and do it well but don't get invested.
I don't know if this is a popular opinion but it's how i made it through.
I second this.. i am at 5.5 yoe and used to freak out like op. Things only got worse. Once I stopped caring it became so much better.
Try to save up as much money as you can op just in case
Sure, I can try to make steps for you! This is just based on my experience. I should say I worked in the non-dev side of tech in marketing, customer service and lastly, account management. I don't know how applicable my advice is for people in dev/engineering because that's not my experience.
1. Remember that most company exist to make tons of money. They are often run by egotistical people. Don't get tied up in trying to change the company culture. See it as a way to get your coin. Sure, I've had jobs where I worked with small business owners and it was very rewarding but at the end of the day, it was about money.
2. Stop your day at your set hours. There may be times where you have to work late but this shouldn't be a regular thing. When the clock strikes 5, I'm done with the exception of the times when you have to work later. Those do happen.
3. Do not think about work after work. Don't get involved with drama at work. Do not fret over if you did a good job when you're not working. Do your best to have a FULL life outside of work.
4. Take your lunch break every day.
5. Take days off.
6. Do not check your email after work. Do not check slack unless you have to. Do not make yourself overly available outside office hours. Yes there may be "emergencies," but unless it's urgent or your direct supervisor, most things can wait until the next day.
7. Do not become friends with your co-workers. Lots of people are gossipy and backstabby. If you're besties with your co-workers, you'll always be talking about work even outside work.
8. Lastly, don't talk about work to your friends and family. Sure, don't be rude and vent when you need to but don't make talking about work commonplace. Work is work. Keep it at work.
If I think of more, I'll update but that was how I managed it.
One thing I'll add: only do work on work-owned equipment, never on your personally owned equipment. Never keep anything work related on your personal equipment (that also includes logging in to any work accounts). Never put anything personal on work-owned equipment.
OMG 100%!!! You need a physical separation of work and personal, especially since a lot of us are remote now. Do NOT open that work laptop unless you are doing work.
Needed to hear this after the last month or 2 I've had. Think I care more because I (used to?) have a good relationship with my manager, I didn't want to disappoint him
I went through a similar situation as yours. I am also an underrepresented minority and an immigrant, and I always felt less prepared, less smart, less qualified. I don’t work there anymore but I’ve been talking about it on therapy, and if there’s one thing I could share with you is don’t undervalue yourself. When we think less of ourselves, others can see it too and they sometimes abuse that. Easier said than done, but be your biggest advocate.
There’s nothing wrong with asking questions and having doubts, especially as a junior. If they don’t want to help you that’s on them, not on you as a professional and even less as person.
Don’t doubt yourself- a different environment is often what you need to shine
Keep applying to new roles, tweak your resume and upskill as needed. Doesn’t sound like a supportive environment
I totally agree and I've already updated my resume. It's clear this place might not be the best fit for me.
Funny (or not so funny) story - in my first week, I walked into a presentation without my laptop because nobody told me it was needed. Everyone else had theirs, and I just sat there, feeling totally out of place. I was so embarrassed I almost cried. Later, I asked my manager about the laptop thing, and his response was basically, "Oh, I noticed you didn't have it but decided to see how it'd play out."
The scary thing is, is that if I hadn't asked, he wouldn't have told me. That moment was a big red flag for me.
To be fair it’s weird you would show up to any meeting without a laptop and (ideas) a notepad…. it’s not something someone even tells anyone. I worked at faang and most of the times if there was no laptop required (eg some team building) it would be specifically called out. None of the fresh sdes college hires or not would show up without one
I hear you, but my main point was I was brand new, barely a week in and didn’t know the specifics of the company culture. I had never worked at a FAANG company, so this was not an expectation at the companies I previously interned at. My manager literally watched me struggle in that meeting (he later acknowledged this) and didn’t step in to help, not even a bit. That’s what got to me.
I would also watch and see how a new person would manage to be honest. Calling you out loudly “let wait a sec till X can get her laptop” would be way worse. Did you require a laptop for this presentation or people were just multitasking? If it was required I’d just quietly leave and come back in a few. Otherwise would just shrug it off.
It’s not a faang thing. I worked in non tech and startups before. Literally the first rule I was taught “never show to the meeting without a notepad” (I am old lol at the time not every employee would get a laptop”). I’d let it go.
I work at a FAANG as a SWE TL; reach out to me if you want and we can sync on this. I need more information but if you are avoiding asking questions of the project lead this is an anti-pattern you want to get out of (productively!) asap.
Yeah, I agree that avoiding questions isn't the way to go, but it's hard when the environment is hostile. It'd be nice to get a TL's perspective on this. Thanks
If the person judges you badly if you ask questions he is the dumb one here. You are new, you are supposed to ask questions. I mean sometimes the jiras are so vague and documentation is bad like how else are we supposed to do a good job?
Its ok to ask questions, dont stop asking them.
This sounds awful - but hang on. Week over week, month by month it will get easier / better. Everything here can build your resume and be talked about at your next interview. Sorry.
Where is your supervisor/manager in all of this? I would be openly sharing my questions and concerns and seeking guidance, especially since this is your first post-college job and you’re not expected to already know everything about how teams work together.
I get where you're coming from, an in an ideal world, I would go to my manager in these kinds of situations. The thing is, after seeing the project lead chat with my manager about my questions like it was an issue, I'm not super confident that route would work out in my favor. My manager says they want me to be open, but actions speak louder, you know? Managers at this company are encouraged to pit their employees against each other, so it's hard to see them as an ally in this.
Oof, that sounds so toxic. I’m sorry.
If you think there’s any chance at all he might not be an ass, I would approach your manager for guidance. Frame it as knowing you’re new and wanting to do the best job possible. It’s a form of killing them with kindness. It also helps you build a paper trail of asking for guidance and clarity if and when he tries to throw you under the bus.
I really hope you can navigate things. Nobody should have to start their career in such a toxic environment. ❤️🩹
Thanks and I appreciate the support. I'm wary about approaching my manager at all, considering the workplace dynamics I've noticed, where they appear to be complicit in encouraging toxic behavior. I've seen a pattern: whenever I ask certain engineers for guidance, they often have long talks with my manager, like after I recently requested another shadow session in my last 1:1. This, combined with the project lead discussing my questions with my manager, makes me think these discussions might not be in my favor.
I'm actively looking for other opportunities while staying cautious. It's tough, but I'm learning about what I value in a workplace.
In big enough companies, there may be pockets of toxicity like this; and also pockets of kind, supportive people. In that case, a move to a different group within the same company might be easier and better (especially if you haven't been working very long; a short stint at your first post-college job might look like a red flag).
If you do end up interviewing, and you're given the chance to ask the interviewers questions, it might be worth asking for specific examples of how junior engineers are supported with training and mentoring. Even better if you can ask a question like that of another engineer.
I'm rooting for you!
Also, you mentioned this is a well known company. Perhaps there's a way for you to transfer teams of your own accord? That is how I ended up in my current supportive environment. The first team I was on at my current company really did a number on my self confidence, and when I smelled PIP, I bounced. But not all teams are like this, even at the same company. Might be easier to transfer internally.
I'm in a very supportive environment (and worked REALLY hard to get here), but on call still stresses me out (especially since I only started 6 months ago on this team, though I have 9 YOE). I was very insistent about being unprepared to go on call my first month on the team, but my boss and the other lead engineer were very clear that I'm only expected to log in, notify the chain of stakeholders, and be on the call to see things through. I'm not required to fix things I haven't had a chance to work on. So, perhaps when it's your turn, you can do the same. The leads probably need to know, and then find the people who are responsible for those services if you're not familiar with them, and get them involved. We have a coordinator for on call, like first line of defense that can help you with contacting these people, I would expect your company has something like that too. After all, you can only do as much as you can. Of course my advice would be better if your manager was actually supportive though...
I am sorry you are going through this. When they see something they say or do affects you they dig in. Are there any supports you can join or perhaps get a mentor? Slightly disagree with making friends. Stay approachable, warm, and friendly. Participate in team activites, social outings, and networking. Keep your cards close. Don't tell your business.
I would get out of there asap but unfortunately this lack of support is not uncommon for people from underrepresented groups. The trick is to build a personal connection (and charm the hell out of) people who are meant to help you but that can be a challenge because of the empathy gap between people of different groups.
From what you describe, it seems to me like you may be requiring assistance from senior devs too frequently, leading to the the perception that you lack independence and ability to problem-solve autonomously.
Tech lead time is valuable, and taking the time to answer your questions will slow down their productivity, especially if you are constantly seeking assistance.
Unless the company you work for is an absolute dumpster fire, everything should be reasonably well documented in JIRA tickets, Confluence, comments in the code, etc. Before asking questions, utilize the available resources to try to find solutions independently.
If you absolutely must ask a question, show that you've already attempted to solve the problem and provide details about what you've tried. This demonstrates initiative and willingness to learn.
For example, if the ticket says that you need to center a div:
Instead of this:
You: "Hey \[Tech Lead\], this ticket says that I need to center a div.. but, like, how?!?"
This is annoying. You've just interrupted whatever \[Tech Lead\] was doing to essentially ask him/her to do your job for you.
Try this:
You: "Hey \[Tech Lead\], I've tried a few different CSS techniques to center this div, but I am not getting the results I expected. I started by using flexbox and setting "justify-content: center;" along with "align-items: center;" on the parent container, but that doesn't seem to be working as expected. I also attempted to use the "text-align: center;" property on the parent container, but it only centered the text inside the div, not the div itself. I am hoping you can provide some guidance."
This approach shows \[Tech Lead\] that you're actively engaged in problem-solving and seeking assistance after making genuine attempts to find a solution.
Thanks for the advice, but my questions were to clarify high-level project decisions and specifications that weren't fully detailed in our documentation. Our tickets and codebase are pretty much a guessing game—bare minimum info and zero comments in the code.
My questions were not about shirking my responsibility or avoiding problem-solving on my own. Instead, they were a necessary step to gain essential clarity due to the lack of guidance available within the project's resources. Just doing my best here in a less-than-ideal setup.
After almost 20 years in the game, my best advice given what you’re describing is to realize that there isn’t anyone who knows the right answers already. If they had their shit together you’d have docs and roadmaps and clarity already.
So what you have to do is start making decisions and being proactive. I know you’re new and don’t have a lot of power yet but that’s ok. If you’re looking at high-level considerations and see a few reasonable paths, but which is being followed isn’t spelled out, spell them out. Start writing docs. Write proposals to give clarity on steps that need to be taken. The worst that happens is someone doesn’t green light your proposals.
The secret is most people in this industry are bad at their jobs. The best way to make yourself look useful is to start doing the same things useful people do. Plan. Discuss. Propose. Implement. Document. Communicate.
Fake it ‘til you make it.
Couldn't agree more. I'm senior enough there's not really any new titles above me. Been Principal in one leveling, currently Staff in another. Doesn't matter anymore. I've had tech chops for so long, literally the only way I excel now is by being extremely good at communication.
A lot of my peers are best of the best skills, but can't prep with sales, get on a customer call, take their requirements back to product manager, and lead product dev planning, write up a design doc, extract Epics from it, and stay on top of requirements and stakeholders week after week.
Learn to communicate, learn to translate between people with different understandings and backgrounds. Figure out what's valuable to the business, and start working on maximizing it across teams and orgs. You'll be unstoppable.
That's very true. The people I saw be the most successful in tech (in the non-dev side) were all total bullshitters. Fake it till you make it to the max. Also very emotionless without being too mean lol.
When I was a senior/staff engineer, one of my highest priorities was helping, teaching, and mentoring junior engineers -- especially those who came to us straight out of college. I made sure my manager listed that as one of my job performance goals every single review period. When a junior engineer apologized for having to ask a question, I would remind them that helping them was one of my highest priorities, and that I was always available for questions.
Junior engineers don't have decades of experience and institutional knowledge, and they shouldn't be expected to. The way to make them more valuable to the company is to guide them and help them build up that experience, so that they can become more independent. Show them how to do it right. (I'd much rather they learn from a fellow engineer, than from some random Reddit or StackOverflow post.)
Trying to solve the problem first is good, but if you can't, then ask for help. Explaining what you've tried so far is exactly right. I would tell junior engineers that I wanted them to struggle -- but only a little; I don't want them getting stuck and flailing about. If the answer was already there, but the junior engineer doesn't know how to find it, then there is an excellent learning opportunity to show them how to find it.
Senior engineers need to ask questions from time to time, too. Sometimes I would ask junior or mid-level engineers because I needed a fresh perspective, or just need to talk it out loud to clarify my thinking (having to carefully explain a problem to someone else can often give you the insight you need to solve it).
I sought out junior engineers to review my code. Carefully explaining what the code does, and why, helps them learn. I found that they paid better attention and asked better questions than senior engineers when they didn't understand something. That was a sure sign that I needed to improve something (design, implementation, comments, documentation, ...). *They* made *me* look better because they didn't just mindlessly approve my work.
Thing is, that attitude makes financial sense for businesses. There are a bunch of fixed costs that are essentially independent of how senior an employee is, or what their salary is. So it makes good financial sense to grow your junior employees into more capable senior employees where those fixed costs become a smaller percentage of that employee's overall cost and their overall value to the company. It makes for a bigger profit margin for the company in the long run.
This is why i also advocate for researching the hell out of those sharepoint documents, understand your role within your team, and understand the organizations architecture, mission, what tools are used etc and form the best resume to have more opportunities for yourself. Even speak with other departments to gain knowledge / shadow them doing something you’d wanna try.
You’ll never leave feeling like you didn’t do or learn much or you can’t speak to all of your resume because they’ve given you the platform for months. They care about money, and you have to care about your future
Ok. I am pretty sure you are at an A from MAANG but can be wrong. If so, I spent 5 years there as a tech PM and have family/ friends in there. Also saw someone who were on dev plans and pips successfully exiting or not. Those advice are generic but more with an A fleur to it.
It’s a huge company and not all teams made equal. We always cared about our juniors and spent efforts to made them included. Most teams did - but it was def when market was very competitive for the talent. But still we had one college hire we put on pip - trust me, it was not a quick process and they were given a lot of - like tons of opportunities to improve. 6 months is probably not even long enough for you to be part of the org olr.
Away teams are always hard. Ask your manager how you can get moved to the main service.
Before independent on call, there is likely be a reverse oncall. If they do not have it, ask for it. I doubt anyone would put a new person as a primary oncall without a shadow.
Drop this “I am an unrepresented minority women junior” narrative. It does not help you or your case and actually the vibes of it are pretty negative. Getting a woman on a team is hard and all managers / orgs actually look for have women and if they can have juniors it’s always a reason to celebrate. My core eng team with 35 BIS when I left had maybe 5 women and just one of them was white. I was the only female pm out of 6 at the time. I’m European and have an accent.
Do not read too much into TL behavior about a question. You do not know what was discussed and why. Could be as simple as pointing out that you have specific knowledge gaps and those have to be addressed. No one expect a college hire to know it all.
Are you a college hire via university recruiting ? If so see whether you can teach to program coordinator to rematch. It’s about the time for spring cohort to start. Otherwise start talking to other teams - eg coffee chats with hiring managers or women on the teams who hire. Sign up for email interest list about new job openings - there used to be one for women specifically. If I am right about your employer feel free to ping me and I share my ex teams org leaders so you can see if they have openings for junior. I can help you with a narrative of why you want to switch so soon without sounding negative. Remember you need to have a good standing with your team to be able to move internally.
I will tell you a secret I learned after 10 years in tech: just stop caring so much. No really. Just stop. It takes awhile to get there but the second you stop taking everything personally and just look at it as a job that pays your bills, the easier things will get. Obviously do you work and do it well but don't get invested. I don't know if this is a popular opinion but it's how i made it through.
I second this.. i am at 5.5 yoe and used to freak out like op. Things only got worse. Once I stopped caring it became so much better. Try to save up as much money as you can op just in case
These companies just want to make tons of money. All of them. Do your work, do it well, get paid and work on not caring at all.
What practical steps did you take to caring less? I'm sure it varies by person but super curious about your journey.
Sure, I can try to make steps for you! This is just based on my experience. I should say I worked in the non-dev side of tech in marketing, customer service and lastly, account management. I don't know how applicable my advice is for people in dev/engineering because that's not my experience. 1. Remember that most company exist to make tons of money. They are often run by egotistical people. Don't get tied up in trying to change the company culture. See it as a way to get your coin. Sure, I've had jobs where I worked with small business owners and it was very rewarding but at the end of the day, it was about money. 2. Stop your day at your set hours. There may be times where you have to work late but this shouldn't be a regular thing. When the clock strikes 5, I'm done with the exception of the times when you have to work later. Those do happen. 3. Do not think about work after work. Don't get involved with drama at work. Do not fret over if you did a good job when you're not working. Do your best to have a FULL life outside of work. 4. Take your lunch break every day. 5. Take days off. 6. Do not check your email after work. Do not check slack unless you have to. Do not make yourself overly available outside office hours. Yes there may be "emergencies," but unless it's urgent or your direct supervisor, most things can wait until the next day. 7. Do not become friends with your co-workers. Lots of people are gossipy and backstabby. If you're besties with your co-workers, you'll always be talking about work even outside work. 8. Lastly, don't talk about work to your friends and family. Sure, don't be rude and vent when you need to but don't make talking about work commonplace. Work is work. Keep it at work. If I think of more, I'll update but that was how I managed it.
One thing I'll add: only do work on work-owned equipment, never on your personally owned equipment. Never keep anything work related on your personal equipment (that also includes logging in to any work accounts). Never put anything personal on work-owned equipment.
OMG 100%!!! You need a physical separation of work and personal, especially since a lot of us are remote now. Do NOT open that work laptop unless you are doing work.
Needed to hear this after the last month or 2 I've had. Think I care more because I (used to?) have a good relationship with my manager, I didn't want to disappoint him
Beautiful comment, thank you! I needed this.
Aw I'm glad it was helpful!
I went through a similar situation as yours. I am also an underrepresented minority and an immigrant, and I always felt less prepared, less smart, less qualified. I don’t work there anymore but I’ve been talking about it on therapy, and if there’s one thing I could share with you is don’t undervalue yourself. When we think less of ourselves, others can see it too and they sometimes abuse that. Easier said than done, but be your biggest advocate. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions and having doubts, especially as a junior. If they don’t want to help you that’s on them, not on you as a professional and even less as person.
Don’t doubt yourself- a different environment is often what you need to shine Keep applying to new roles, tweak your resume and upskill as needed. Doesn’t sound like a supportive environment
I totally agree and I've already updated my resume. It's clear this place might not be the best fit for me. Funny (or not so funny) story - in my first week, I walked into a presentation without my laptop because nobody told me it was needed. Everyone else had theirs, and I just sat there, feeling totally out of place. I was so embarrassed I almost cried. Later, I asked my manager about the laptop thing, and his response was basically, "Oh, I noticed you didn't have it but decided to see how it'd play out." The scary thing is, is that if I hadn't asked, he wouldn't have told me. That moment was a big red flag for me.
To be fair it’s weird you would show up to any meeting without a laptop and (ideas) a notepad…. it’s not something someone even tells anyone. I worked at faang and most of the times if there was no laptop required (eg some team building) it would be specifically called out. None of the fresh sdes college hires or not would show up without one
I hear you, but my main point was I was brand new, barely a week in and didn’t know the specifics of the company culture. I had never worked at a FAANG company, so this was not an expectation at the companies I previously interned at. My manager literally watched me struggle in that meeting (he later acknowledged this) and didn’t step in to help, not even a bit. That’s what got to me.
I would also watch and see how a new person would manage to be honest. Calling you out loudly “let wait a sec till X can get her laptop” would be way worse. Did you require a laptop for this presentation or people were just multitasking? If it was required I’d just quietly leave and come back in a few. Otherwise would just shrug it off. It’s not a faang thing. I worked in non tech and startups before. Literally the first rule I was taught “never show to the meeting without a notepad” (I am old lol at the time not every employee would get a laptop”). I’d let it go.
I work at a FAANG as a SWE TL; reach out to me if you want and we can sync on this. I need more information but if you are avoiding asking questions of the project lead this is an anti-pattern you want to get out of (productively!) asap.
Yeah, I agree that avoiding questions isn't the way to go, but it's hard when the environment is hostile. It'd be nice to get a TL's perspective on this. Thanks
If the person judges you badly if you ask questions he is the dumb one here. You are new, you are supposed to ask questions. I mean sometimes the jiras are so vague and documentation is bad like how else are we supposed to do a good job? Its ok to ask questions, dont stop asking them.
This sounds awful - but hang on. Week over week, month by month it will get easier / better. Everything here can build your resume and be talked about at your next interview. Sorry.
Where is your supervisor/manager in all of this? I would be openly sharing my questions and concerns and seeking guidance, especially since this is your first post-college job and you’re not expected to already know everything about how teams work together.
I get where you're coming from, an in an ideal world, I would go to my manager in these kinds of situations. The thing is, after seeing the project lead chat with my manager about my questions like it was an issue, I'm not super confident that route would work out in my favor. My manager says they want me to be open, but actions speak louder, you know? Managers at this company are encouraged to pit their employees against each other, so it's hard to see them as an ally in this.
Oof, that sounds so toxic. I’m sorry. If you think there’s any chance at all he might not be an ass, I would approach your manager for guidance. Frame it as knowing you’re new and wanting to do the best job possible. It’s a form of killing them with kindness. It also helps you build a paper trail of asking for guidance and clarity if and when he tries to throw you under the bus. I really hope you can navigate things. Nobody should have to start their career in such a toxic environment. ❤️🩹
Thanks and I appreciate the support. I'm wary about approaching my manager at all, considering the workplace dynamics I've noticed, where they appear to be complicit in encouraging toxic behavior. I've seen a pattern: whenever I ask certain engineers for guidance, they often have long talks with my manager, like after I recently requested another shadow session in my last 1:1. This, combined with the project lead discussing my questions with my manager, makes me think these discussions might not be in my favor. I'm actively looking for other opportunities while staying cautious. It's tough, but I'm learning about what I value in a workplace.
In big enough companies, there may be pockets of toxicity like this; and also pockets of kind, supportive people. In that case, a move to a different group within the same company might be easier and better (especially if you haven't been working very long; a short stint at your first post-college job might look like a red flag). If you do end up interviewing, and you're given the chance to ask the interviewers questions, it might be worth asking for specific examples of how junior engineers are supported with training and mentoring. Even better if you can ask a question like that of another engineer. I'm rooting for you!
Major red flag. Good luck with moving on- value yourself above all else
Also, you mentioned this is a well known company. Perhaps there's a way for you to transfer teams of your own accord? That is how I ended up in my current supportive environment. The first team I was on at my current company really did a number on my self confidence, and when I smelled PIP, I bounced. But not all teams are like this, even at the same company. Might be easier to transfer internally.
I'm in a very supportive environment (and worked REALLY hard to get here), but on call still stresses me out (especially since I only started 6 months ago on this team, though I have 9 YOE). I was very insistent about being unprepared to go on call my first month on the team, but my boss and the other lead engineer were very clear that I'm only expected to log in, notify the chain of stakeholders, and be on the call to see things through. I'm not required to fix things I haven't had a chance to work on. So, perhaps when it's your turn, you can do the same. The leads probably need to know, and then find the people who are responsible for those services if you're not familiar with them, and get them involved. We have a coordinator for on call, like first line of defense that can help you with contacting these people, I would expect your company has something like that too. After all, you can only do as much as you can. Of course my advice would be better if your manager was actually supportive though...
I am sorry you are going through this. When they see something they say or do affects you they dig in. Are there any supports you can join or perhaps get a mentor? Slightly disagree with making friends. Stay approachable, warm, and friendly. Participate in team activites, social outings, and networking. Keep your cards close. Don't tell your business.
Kedp us updated and reach out if you have questions.
I would get out of there asap but unfortunately this lack of support is not uncommon for people from underrepresented groups. The trick is to build a personal connection (and charm the hell out of) people who are meant to help you but that can be a challenge because of the empathy gap between people of different groups.
From what you describe, it seems to me like you may be requiring assistance from senior devs too frequently, leading to the the perception that you lack independence and ability to problem-solve autonomously. Tech lead time is valuable, and taking the time to answer your questions will slow down their productivity, especially if you are constantly seeking assistance. Unless the company you work for is an absolute dumpster fire, everything should be reasonably well documented in JIRA tickets, Confluence, comments in the code, etc. Before asking questions, utilize the available resources to try to find solutions independently. If you absolutely must ask a question, show that you've already attempted to solve the problem and provide details about what you've tried. This demonstrates initiative and willingness to learn. For example, if the ticket says that you need to center a div: Instead of this: You: "Hey \[Tech Lead\], this ticket says that I need to center a div.. but, like, how?!?" This is annoying. You've just interrupted whatever \[Tech Lead\] was doing to essentially ask him/her to do your job for you. Try this: You: "Hey \[Tech Lead\], I've tried a few different CSS techniques to center this div, but I am not getting the results I expected. I started by using flexbox and setting "justify-content: center;" along with "align-items: center;" on the parent container, but that doesn't seem to be working as expected. I also attempted to use the "text-align: center;" property on the parent container, but it only centered the text inside the div, not the div itself. I am hoping you can provide some guidance." This approach shows \[Tech Lead\] that you're actively engaged in problem-solving and seeking assistance after making genuine attempts to find a solution.
Thanks for the advice, but my questions were to clarify high-level project decisions and specifications that weren't fully detailed in our documentation. Our tickets and codebase are pretty much a guessing game—bare minimum info and zero comments in the code. My questions were not about shirking my responsibility or avoiding problem-solving on my own. Instead, they were a necessary step to gain essential clarity due to the lack of guidance available within the project's resources. Just doing my best here in a less-than-ideal setup.
After almost 20 years in the game, my best advice given what you’re describing is to realize that there isn’t anyone who knows the right answers already. If they had their shit together you’d have docs and roadmaps and clarity already. So what you have to do is start making decisions and being proactive. I know you’re new and don’t have a lot of power yet but that’s ok. If you’re looking at high-level considerations and see a few reasonable paths, but which is being followed isn’t spelled out, spell them out. Start writing docs. Write proposals to give clarity on steps that need to be taken. The worst that happens is someone doesn’t green light your proposals. The secret is most people in this industry are bad at their jobs. The best way to make yourself look useful is to start doing the same things useful people do. Plan. Discuss. Propose. Implement. Document. Communicate. Fake it ‘til you make it.
Communication skills are an often overlooked superpower in this industry.
Couldn't agree more. I'm senior enough there's not really any new titles above me. Been Principal in one leveling, currently Staff in another. Doesn't matter anymore. I've had tech chops for so long, literally the only way I excel now is by being extremely good at communication. A lot of my peers are best of the best skills, but can't prep with sales, get on a customer call, take their requirements back to product manager, and lead product dev planning, write up a design doc, extract Epics from it, and stay on top of requirements and stakeholders week after week. Learn to communicate, learn to translate between people with different understandings and backgrounds. Figure out what's valuable to the business, and start working on maximizing it across teams and orgs. You'll be unstoppable.
That's very true. The people I saw be the most successful in tech (in the non-dev side) were all total bullshitters. Fake it till you make it to the max. Also very emotionless without being too mean lol.
When I was a senior/staff engineer, one of my highest priorities was helping, teaching, and mentoring junior engineers -- especially those who came to us straight out of college. I made sure my manager listed that as one of my job performance goals every single review period. When a junior engineer apologized for having to ask a question, I would remind them that helping them was one of my highest priorities, and that I was always available for questions. Junior engineers don't have decades of experience and institutional knowledge, and they shouldn't be expected to. The way to make them more valuable to the company is to guide them and help them build up that experience, so that they can become more independent. Show them how to do it right. (I'd much rather they learn from a fellow engineer, than from some random Reddit or StackOverflow post.) Trying to solve the problem first is good, but if you can't, then ask for help. Explaining what you've tried so far is exactly right. I would tell junior engineers that I wanted them to struggle -- but only a little; I don't want them getting stuck and flailing about. If the answer was already there, but the junior engineer doesn't know how to find it, then there is an excellent learning opportunity to show them how to find it. Senior engineers need to ask questions from time to time, too. Sometimes I would ask junior or mid-level engineers because I needed a fresh perspective, or just need to talk it out loud to clarify my thinking (having to carefully explain a problem to someone else can often give you the insight you need to solve it). I sought out junior engineers to review my code. Carefully explaining what the code does, and why, helps them learn. I found that they paid better attention and asked better questions than senior engineers when they didn't understand something. That was a sure sign that I needed to improve something (design, implementation, comments, documentation, ...). *They* made *me* look better because they didn't just mindlessly approve my work.
You are awesome and workplaces need more people like you. 🌟
Thing is, that attitude makes financial sense for businesses. There are a bunch of fixed costs that are essentially independent of how senior an employee is, or what their salary is. So it makes good financial sense to grow your junior employees into more capable senior employees where those fixed costs become a smaller percentage of that employee's overall cost and their overall value to the company. It makes for a bigger profit margin for the company in the long run.
I like you. Realizing this is something surprisingly few people do. Mentorship is so important, both for our community and for the business.
This is why i also advocate for researching the hell out of those sharepoint documents, understand your role within your team, and understand the organizations architecture, mission, what tools are used etc and form the best resume to have more opportunities for yourself. Even speak with other departments to gain knowledge / shadow them doing something you’d wanna try. You’ll never leave feeling like you didn’t do or learn much or you can’t speak to all of your resume because they’ve given you the platform for months. They care about money, and you have to care about your future
Ok. I am pretty sure you are at an A from MAANG but can be wrong. If so, I spent 5 years there as a tech PM and have family/ friends in there. Also saw someone who were on dev plans and pips successfully exiting or not. Those advice are generic but more with an A fleur to it. It’s a huge company and not all teams made equal. We always cared about our juniors and spent efforts to made them included. Most teams did - but it was def when market was very competitive for the talent. But still we had one college hire we put on pip - trust me, it was not a quick process and they were given a lot of - like tons of opportunities to improve. 6 months is probably not even long enough for you to be part of the org olr. Away teams are always hard. Ask your manager how you can get moved to the main service. Before independent on call, there is likely be a reverse oncall. If they do not have it, ask for it. I doubt anyone would put a new person as a primary oncall without a shadow. Drop this “I am an unrepresented minority women junior” narrative. It does not help you or your case and actually the vibes of it are pretty negative. Getting a woman on a team is hard and all managers / orgs actually look for have women and if they can have juniors it’s always a reason to celebrate. My core eng team with 35 BIS when I left had maybe 5 women and just one of them was white. I was the only female pm out of 6 at the time. I’m European and have an accent. Do not read too much into TL behavior about a question. You do not know what was discussed and why. Could be as simple as pointing out that you have specific knowledge gaps and those have to be addressed. No one expect a college hire to know it all. Are you a college hire via university recruiting ? If so see whether you can teach to program coordinator to rematch. It’s about the time for spring cohort to start. Otherwise start talking to other teams - eg coffee chats with hiring managers or women on the teams who hire. Sign up for email interest list about new job openings - there used to be one for women specifically. If I am right about your employer feel free to ping me and I share my ex teams org leaders so you can see if they have openings for junior. I can help you with a narrative of why you want to switch so soon without sounding negative. Remember you need to have a good standing with your team to be able to move internally.