Terrible onboarding experience. I wanna quit.

Amazon / Eng
darkghoul

Go to company page Amazon Eng

PRE
Capital One
darkghoul
Jan 25 34 Comments

I’m only 2 months in, but it’s been hell. The onboarding experience has been the worst.

I haven’t had a formal reoccurring 1-1 meeting with my current manager and every time I ask about it, they say they’ll get around to scheduling it. My onboarding buddy also went on PTO so I never had a go to person. I’ve asked for help on Slack but I get left on read constantly.

I’ve been able to complete some infra tasks and small bug fixes, but I feel like I could contribute more if I got more support from my team. The tech debt is really bad. I’ve seen 4 nested conditionals and classes that break the single responsibility principle. I came from a non-faang company so I thought the engineering talent would be better here. And I’ll admit, there is better talent here, but the culture discourages taking the time to write quality code and focuses more on delivery. In contrast, my last company had a much better codebase because we were given reasonable timelines. Heck, why is CR Revisions used as a performance metric? I had to approve a CR that I’m not proud of because I didn’t want to increase my teammate’s revision average. I just don’t feel like it’s a collaborative environment at all due to our performance culture and ownership LP.

I really want to grow my career here, but I don’t see myself past the 6th month. With the overwhelming tech debt, unhelpful teammates, and tight deadlines, I can see myself getting pipped. I haven’t even started oncall yet. I would rather get fired than become toxic like some of the successful developers I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve met nice and talented people here but the overall culture is suffocating. Not sure what to do here.

YOE:
1.5 years
SDE I

TC:
~200k

comments

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TOP 34 Comments
  • was treated even more worst in MS. so hang in there and it'smore of team thing
    Jan 25 5
    • I get put into on call on my forth week here at ms. What should I do? I pretty much know nothing
      Jan 26
    • Well yes, I got to say there is atleast no fear of PIP. But if you are growth oriented then it's a problem. Like swag lord pointed out, no docs and nobody gives a dime about new comers. My colleagues would reply after a day. Never available for a quick call. Act like they are building the next quantum computer. Sometimes won't have time for even a week. I changed the team, now it's OK. Teammates are new, so we speak but knowledge sharing still sucks.
      Jan 26
  • Amazon
    brodaBezos

    Go to company page Amazon

    brodaBezos
    You are making 200k at 1.5 YOE, your mentor might be making 180K at 5 YOE and there is no reason for him to take another responsibility.

    That's just the sad state right now in Amazon.
    Jan 25 0
  • 😂😂! Living up the expectations
    Jan 25 0
  • Asana
    ppcoca1ne

    Go to company page Asana

    ppcoca1ne
    I'm right there with you. Start interviewing. It's not worth it. I tried to stick around but I'm just torturing myself at this point. Some teams know they are hiring a poor sucker to do an impossible job.
    Jan 25 4
  • Meta
    ltXo64

    Go to company page Meta

    ltXo64
    Why do you care so much about tech debt? Delivery is more important.
    And people leaving only nit-pick comments about code style on CRs with no feedback of substance just adds to the unnecessary curb.

    You could start by tackling these concerns on your own as you see them but I don't see why it's such a big issue.
    Jan 25 3
    • New
      ynKc32

      New

      ynKc32
      Of course the Meta guy likes to move fast and break things!
      Jan 25
    • Meta
      ltXo64

      Go to company page Meta

      ltXo64
      I would say I move at a very leisurely pace and still break things occasionally.

      I just don't give a fck about anything at Meta or Amazon (where I spent 6 years).

      Why would I spend time & effort designing and building all this perfect code when no one really cares. I could get it done with much less time and enjoy my own life more.
      Jan 25