I’m simply not enjoying my current role and thinking about making a career shift. Currently, I’m a 100% remote worker at Meta, an E6 TL. I did not get promoted to this. I was directly hired at this level and honestly didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. I’m not getting PIPed or anything, I just hate the job. There are many reasons why I don’t feel like it’s a good fit, but if I had to pick one thing to really focus on, it would be being constantly interrupted from working. I believe meetings count as interruptions as I’m unable to both pay attention to the meeting and work on deliverables at the same time. And that, right there, is why I feel like I’m covered in paper cuts. I have roughly 6 hours of meetings a day, sometimes more and sometimes less. I have many, many random requests for my immediate attention regardless of whether or not I’m in a meeting or trying to focus on something. It hurts my brain and makes me feel like I can’t ever complete anything. I’m not built to multitask and be interrupted. I can, at most, handle two things at the same time. It hurts my head to constantly be interrupted. It’s wrecking my mental health and I just don’t think the money (TC 550k before stock tanked, now TC is 340k) is worth it. I’m just so fucking unhappy. I’d rather make less money and have a job at a place that has better planning and communication. I want to be able to reasonably plan out my work for at least a few days in a row of continuity with interruptions being a minority case, not business as usual. Basically, I really want a position that values quality software engineering and has a good work/life balance, even if that means I’m giving up compensation. That’s fine. The problem is, I just don’t know where to look. I really have no idea if any companies even exist that value what I bring to the table: over 20 years of coding experience in a very broad range of areas. I’m a programmer and that’s what I want to do. I really just want to enjoy work again and actually feel like my strengths are being targeted. What companies should I be considering? For the sake of simplicity, let’s just ignore hiring freezes.
Definitely not Amazon. Urgency in every ask, many meetings and constant interruptions is common here too. I am in a similar position, OP. Perhaps some teams/orgs in Google or Microsoft? Folks from these companies, help out.
Any advice for what kind of teams I should be looking for? Green flags, red flag, etc…
That’s so painful. I hear you. Before my corporate job I worked at a startup - uninterrupted coding hours but the downside is it’s also hard to code 9 hours a day (someone else’s CMS.) Now I’m in a tech role but only about 10% coding. If I were CTO of a company I would fight for 0 meetings for engineers. It’s criminal and it was invented by people with no skills who’ve never entered a “flow state” in their lives. That’s why they’re busy marginalizing those who have.
You brought up a good point. In a roundabout way, what I’m trying to say is that I can’t ever enter a “flow state” and it just becomes mentally fatiguing. The side effects are fucking horrible: inattentiveness, brain fog, depression, anxiety, and pretty much any kind of negative feeling. I’ve considered talking to HR to try to change my role, but I simply don’t trust them. My manager seems to be trying to make my current role easier, but there’s only so much he can do. I really just think this isn’t the right role for me. I can obliterate systems designs and sling some great code. I can also teach people all of the above better than most (my most recurring feedback is that I’m a good teacher). What I can’t do is be expected to answer every single question all of the time, at all times, any time, while simultaneously being in meetings and trying to actually get work done somewhere in between. Trying to take a shit when you have 6 hours of back to back meetings is kinda hard, too. Like I said, paper cuts.
Your problem is not something a therapist can fix, your inability to take pride in your work and complete your tasks is a product of gRoWtH mInDsEt (capitalist greed,) and every manager in every meeting (I am one of them!) is there to justify their existence. The whole idea behind corporate planning is just a bloated troll-under-the-bridge scam where talentless people stand in between maker and customer and their only value is their ability to try and extract more labor from the talented. The irony is they don’t because they don’t even realize you’d be 1000x more efficient if they didn’t exist at all. I’m obviously burnt out by this premise too and feeling your anger with you, coming quite unhinged, lol
Late stage start ups are fun, coming from amazon. Built out infra, lots of ownership, new projects, less bureaucracy.
One of the reasons why I don't want to get into a staff role in spite of having 19 YOE. I think you might want to downgrade yourself to a L5/Senior where you can get more time to code
That is absolutely the plan. I explored the idea of downleveling (demoting) myself, but Meta doesn’t allow it. So that’s another reason why I’m leaving.
e5 is not much better unless you really try flying under the radar and keeping a low profile. Success at Meta is not about keeping a low profile though.
6 hours if meetings is torture if you are working remote, that sounds disfuncional. Start a no meeting day for your team or greater org if you can. Try to block out time on your calendar for yourself, and put your slack on do not disturb. Not everyone is worthy of your time. Set boundaries. If you think a meeting isn't important, miss it, and ask for follow up info and action items.
Already have no-meeting days at the org level and focus blocks at the individual level. None of them are respected. We don’t use Slack (we have our own chat app), but nobody cares and thinks that if they ping you, you owe them their time. It’s cultural - this company is all about instant gratification in every way. I had a TPM ask me to sign off on something that I’m not even the point of contact for. I told him I needed some time to dig into the project status and that I’d get back to him later. 1 hour later, he called (called, not texted, not chat, not set up a meeting) and said he’d escalate it if I don’t respond immediately. While I was in meetings the entire time, by the way. This happened today. This is bullshit.
Wow, that sounds insane.
If you are not built for multitasking and interruptions, why did you accept a team lead position? If you are a team lead and 100% remote, you have to handle interruptions and go through meetings. You can't have that organic hallway conversation or just walk over to your teammates and preempt those interruptions or solve an issue without a meeting.
You know you can decline meetings right. If you dont think you are necessary to the meeting, theres no point to go
Following