I recently joined Capital one as Senior SWE and initially I was really excited about it. However it turned out to be a nightmare, the workload is extremey low. The first month I was sitting around for 8h a day doing some online courses. then finally the project started, we are 5 developers for a project that can be easily done by 2. At my old job I was working on Java, Kotlin, K8s and Kafka, all at the same time and also took over some leadership aspects of part of the project. Am that started within the first month. Here I am tied to a desk and forced to slow down. e.g. My manager thinks setting up a spring boot project is a task for an entire day. Whenever you do more, there has to be a meeting to “discuss.” Everything has to be discussed 5 times over. I moved cross country for this job and really regret my decision. I cannot leave because I received a significant signing bonus and moving bonus that I would have to pay back if I leave before two years are over. I understand I just started here (6 weeks ago) but I don’t get the impression that this will change much. Can anyone offer any advice what I should do? or what I can do? Sitting around all day is killing me. Senior SWE yeo 6 tco 140000 city Washington DC
Talk to your manager about expectations. If not jump ship, fuck it don’t be miserable
Ok, thank you!
Leetcode will be your best friend
Good call. I’ll start doing that.
1. This is a great opportunity to explore new tech and learn new things, reflect upon work. 2. Senior SWE is supposed to influence the culture by having mature conversations with the manager. Try to make small changes at a time. 3. Work on some community project within or outside the company. 4. Stop complaining and take things in your hand.
#2 is a very good point but also depending on OPs level it might not be senior in the same way as Amazons senior role. Cap1 has weird leveling/title system. But the point stands none the less regardless of level
All valid points. Thanks!
Are you senior as in senior associate or principal associate? Unfortunately depending on the size of the bonus/relocation you may have difficulties finding another company that will offer a matching signing bonus as one thing Cap1 does well is offer pretty decent sized sign on bonuses but if you do that might be an option to leave early. But keep looking around and also after 9 months your eligible to move teams. Not all teams are equal at C1.
Principal
Ok cool, and I understand your pain about meetings, Cap1 loves meetings about every little thing and all hands meetings for every sub-org lol
If you ave problem if less work , Jump ship period.
Use all the free time to prepare for interviews. You are so lucky! I wish I could coast for 8 hours a day and leetcode!
Seems like you should be asking for more work. Personally I haven’t found an issue with that, even when tasked with minimal work I can always contribute my time to other teams or help out... helps you quickly advance too.
Show your manager that you can accomplish these tasks at the expected quality level much faster than the expected timeline. Don’t be afraid to take the self-initiative to identify other opportunities and take action on them as well. You have the freedom here to do that - and be a positive force for change. At the PA level you should absolutely NOT have an expectation to be task managed (which seems to be what you are expecting). That’s a sure fire ticket to an Inconsistent rating. Your experience here will be what you make of it.
@ntCw47, could be that OP isn't given the broader context, and only given very specific tasks from manager. OP, is there a backlog? Do you have some autonomy to pickup stuff without asking for more? Were you provided some context around your workstream, so that you can plan your own tasks?
Man if that was remote it would be perfect.
Join AWS
I had an interview with Amazon a few months before Capital One but was turned down. So I cannot apply for another 6 months, plus I cannot leave prior to 2 years.