Advice on What Is Normal Feedback/Direction for early career SWEs

Hi all, I’m new < 1 yoe SWE. Switched from a different field recently. I do love SWE - being able to focus on creating something by mapping out the logic. I’d like to know what is normal guidance for SWE growth. For example, I usually try to struggle myself with each issue for at least 2-3 hours before asking someone if I can’t figure it out, troubleshooted everything I could and googled… In my prior job, we billed by the hour. So, we encouraged newbies to struggle at first but we wanted efficient struggling. If you hit a wall, you were encouraged to ask questions and to submit your work so we can mark it up. If your immediate senior didn’t know the answer, it wasn’t a big deal. You escalate to the partner or you ask someone who is more familiar w that area/issue. The idea being you have to be taught it so you know it. Is this not the same for SWEs? This week, when I asked my senior, I have been discouraged because he seemed annoyed at me… even frustrated. Examples: 1) I ask because I struggled 4 hours on a small typing issue the day before and I couldn’t find the answer. He says my code is wrong. I agree and explain I’m stuck, apologize and ask for an example that I can learn from. He tells me he doesn’t know. Doesn’t suggest anyone else I can ask. I joined remotely. I don’t know engineers in other teams so I’m like… ok 10 more hours googling? 😥 He did come back with an answer when I asked if there was someone else I could pick their brain because this was hard and I’m new. 2) He told me there was too much code. Totally fine! But again, my first self owned feature that accomplishes 3 things. Around 4 -5 files were affected for each thing. Many just passing props into the right child. I’d be happy to know what part of my code is fat and unnecessary? So, I try to explain, I agree it can be trimmed but would like some help. He says he doesn’t have time to redesign it or figure out another way. Note- I have even worked after hours on this feature… it’s been weeks. I’m sorry to say this IS the best of my ability right now. Maybe if someone showed me how to trim the fat 3-5 times on my current code drafting, I know what to trim going forward? I almost about panicked at this point not sure how or what I could do. He did come through and moved one of the 3 things I was to accomplish to backend. So, I could remove the code that does that. But he seemed really annoyed at me at this point… side note, what he removed had been originally the main point of this project… Anyways, I just wanted to know if this is normal feedback/direction in this industry. In my prior industry, most of us believed you had to train the newbies to show them what’s good for the first year. You don’t get frustrated with them unless you have already let them try, you show them the proper way by marking up their work, repeat 3-5 times and they still keep making the same mistake. Is it different in this industry? Or is there a different way that I can ask? I guess, I’m just trying to figure out am I not supposed to be asking my senior 1-2 questions a day? When we get feedback that something is wrong, as an early career SWE, are we supposed to know how to fix it and not ask for a bit of direction? I don’t have the experience or knowledge to really independently level up at this point…I don’t always as for clarification on feedback. If it’s something I can Google and figure out myself, I’ll just do it. It’s only when the feedback is about something like too much code and I have recoded this feature 3 times already w 3 significant different ways of handling it and chose the one that seemed cleanest/no bugs/best user friendly experience/least amount of files touched. So, it’s just something that might be 1 hour of thought for someone w 5-7 YOE might be unachievable for me to even visualize unless some says- have you tried this? Blind tax: Less 1 year - YOE 🥺 Comp- 120