Hey Blind, Kind of in a tough spot in my career and could use some advice. I started as a new grad ~2 years ago still at level 59, hired from the internship where I did well. My experience at Microsoft has not been great. My team has had a lot of attrition which had led to reorgs (I've had 4 managers in < 1.5 years). I also had some bad projects, one which got scrapped due to changing priorities and others where I was working alone with little mentorship at all. So, for my first year and some I was super checked out and deeply disconnected from work (some of this was also probably my attitude which I take full responsibility for), there was barely any in person team bonding or collaboration which is not my style since I am a very social person. Not great but decent, my manager at the time said I was very close to meeting expectations. Despite all that, I got 80% rewards due to delivering a project late. In the latest reorg 6 months ago, I got a new manager (who I've worked with before as a lead and is now my current manager) who runs a really tight ship and a fast pace for the new team, which I was not used to. I got an email from my manager in March saying I need to deliver faster and plan better. This is mostly due to not merging a PR for a small feature I completed a months ago due to issues with its deployment pipeline (which I had no idea how to fix myself and took a lot of my coworkers' time to assist me. It eventually got completed and learned, but the damage was done). In my defense, I delayed merging it because other high priority tasks came up. This mismanagement most likely contributed to an IR on my most recent connect, citing poor planning of tasks, slow delivery, and not being independent and resourceful enough and asking for help too much. After I got the initial feedback, it felt like I was overwhelmed despite making my best effort to improve. I was making tons of dumb mistakes while ramping up on new tasks and projects. I didn’t know how to plan my sprint well and break down new projects. My code was sloppy, I was making bad git mistakes, I was rushing to complete PRs which led to logic errors and delays. I have a daily sync with a tech lead, and each meeting I was more and more embarrassed to attend this meeting in fear of screwing up and often felt insecure and judged for my mistakes which led to me feeling more disconnected from my team. I got much better over time and now have learned and avoided those errors but it was quite a painful learning process (this is all before May connect as well). I've done a tons and tons of self-reflection, wrote down all the feedback I got and am making an action plan. I'm trying my best to address my specific feedback now and am really focused on learning and growing. Despite that I just feel like I've been through enough and need a fresh start. My options right now are: 1. Improve on current team and have a strong connect by November, 2. Interview and get an offer externally, or 3. Interview externally and get an offer before rewards season in August where I might get ZR'ed. Switching teams internally sounds nice, but I'm not sure what team will take me since I'm still at L59 two years in and have an IR on my most recent connect. I'm preparing for interviews here but I would also like to ask if anyone else has been in a similar situation and would like to and gotten out of it and would just like to talk -- or knows what the best course of action would be. # #software #engineering #swe #microsoft
Personally I would switch to an external company, and get a fresh start there.
Ask internal channel. Msft managers can help you more.
Start interviewing outside, you’ll get managed out.
Definitely don't stay on the team. You can try moving internally, but move somewhere far from your current team (so not on a sister team where your old manager is buddy-buddy with your new manager) My 2 cents, if a manager keeps hitting a new hire for not delivering on time, they're the one to blame. They should help you set expectations and deadlines, not write negative feedback when you fail to deliver. Source: My first manager was like that. I've had different, far better managers since.
Make it a poll, personally my vote goes to start interviewing and get a fresh start/TC bump
I don’t know about Microsoft. At Amazon they will pip you for sure. If Microsoft is not piping you, don’t worry too much about promotion. Keep learning. I am 💯% sure that you will learn and get better. It will happen. Two years is nothing. People with 10 yoe join as L60 every day. You are way ahead
Op can be pipped. Ir Will make switching harder and looks bad internally
Thanks my dude -- really need this encouragement right now, means a lot