I am new to being a SWE and to the corporate world. I feel unenthusiastic and don't want to work at all. Some context: At this moment, I have no good guidance/lead at work. And, my team usually WFH and I'm the only one who comes to office daily. This makes it so much harder to have a good relationship with the team members. School was so much better, we as team members used to talk, work together, have lunch, go out. None of that happens at work. I finish the tasks assigned, but, I don't have any motivation to do them. I also feel large portion of the work which I do is monotonous on legacy systems. I feel like I'm not learning anything. When I'm stuck at work, I'm stuck, as my lead hardly knows how to guide me. And, everything is tribal knowledge amongst team members. Zero documentation and bare minimum automated testing. I don't know what I'm doing with my life and at work. I feel I should change companies. But, cannot as I'm waiting for my work visa. Am I a bad fit for SWE career? Or is it just my team?
I don’t think you’ll be happy anywhere
Why? Is it me? Or is this reality for all engineers?
It’s up to you to make the best of the situation
Its the same everywhere
Hmmm. Is there any solution to this? Is it even possible for me to get out of this depressing spiral?
It’s definitely not the same everywhere. I’ve had great relationships with my coworkers in the past and some of them are amongst my best friends now. I’ve also tried something similar to you where it just didn’t vibe as much (could be due to age differences or remote work) but you can just find another job where the culture suits you better
I was just gonna post something like this.
Damn, I'm not alone.
I already post the same 2 days back, just got 2 comments and one of them was depressing from that guy from the oath.
You are mentioning things that don’t gel well with your personality and a lack of a quidance as a new developer and you re thinking that you are not a good software engineer? Why would you put that burden on yourself? 1, don’t expect co workers to be friends but also find co workers u can have lunch with. Find your own fun outside of work 2. Sounds like bad culture at your job 3. Find a job with better team culture and then ask the question again
Thanks, ADP. That's good advice. 1. How to find co workers with whom you can talk/have lunch/share ideas? At school it was easy, we all were together for four years. At work, my team is of size five and no one talks to each other. And, we only interact with Sr PMs/Managers. And, our beer bash is useless and no activities to being employees together :/ 2. I agree that the culture is somewhat weird and I don't think I can thrive in such an environment. 3. Yes, I do want to find another job. But I cannot until October atleast, as I'm hoping to get my work visa.
This is good advice. I once had a team that never did anything together, not even lunch. I tried setting up team lunches, themed board games, a team bar, smash bros tournaments, etc. Compete lack of response. It was more soul crushing than the job itself. I don't give more than I get anymore. Don't try to change people. Find your own crowd.
Sounds like you should find a job where the team doesn't WFH
We have the same shit in NVIDIA without WFH.
Yes. This is one of the thing which I've learnt about myself. It could be just a female thing. I miss having relationships at work. During my internship, I had not only had good work but made good friends too. At my current company, I just come to work try to finish my tasks, go home and repeat the same next day.
Try to find a project you can work on that is fun for you and still shows some positive impact to your company. Go to work with a positive attitude. Try to talk to your coworkers with a smile. Happiness is contagious. Be the light at the end of the tunnel. I know. I sound like a silly self help book. But hey maybe go buy one of those and read. Just find something positive or at least something you can improve because fixating on immutable structures will surely bring you dread.
Love it
You're right about everything what you said. I think I can do this at a new job but not at my current workplace. Here's why: 1. I'm extremely exhausted trying to be positive with my team/work 2. I feel like my legacy projects aren't as interesting as FB/G/AMZN/Uber who are directly adding value to customers 3. My co workers hardly come to work as they WFH, have no one to talk to with a smile I really appreciate your advice, but, I generally feel low and doing the above things are extremely hard.
Do leet code and get out when you can. Sitting around and sulking won't do you any good my friend.
Yeah. Looks like this is my only option.
Op can you refer me at f-5?
I’m in an identical position. Legacy codebase, no documentation, senior engineers are unwilling to help and keep information to themselves for “job security”, and my work is mind numbing. I’ve been told by friends that this isn’t an uncommon situation but there are definitely companies out there with a much better culture. I recommend leetcoding and finding a new job. Even if you can’t leave yet due to visa issues, start preparing now anyway.
This is exactly the situation which I'm in. Legacy codebase sucks. I spent three weeks fixing the build and make scripts to generate an RPM. As this codebase was not written to support the current development toolchain :( I agree that there are companies which are better, I hope I can find one such company. If I start leetcoding now, probably will be ready by October. Good tip. Thanks! I wish you the best too. Do get out when you can.
Thanks, appreciate the kind words. Best of luck to you as well.
Yeah, welcome to the rat race
:( But is it just me who feels like this? Or does everyone in the rat race have the same feeling?
I like working from home.