Few things that I would tell my kid of she was starting out in this industry today
- never work FAANG or any bullshit company like that
- look for companies that are small (up to 100 SWEs max, preferably 1/2 that) that have solid business (20+ years, profitable)
- when you get hired volunteer to fix every problem everyone else is running away from (there will be plenty). you will work hard in the beginning to understand the nuts and bolts of everything
- along with nuts and bolts of the technology / stack / ... learn the domain as much possible (so much so that you could get a job tomorrow in that domain, e.g. if your company is providing software for automation of say state&local courts then you need to learn everything there is to learn about state&local courts so much so that you could legit get a job as a court administrator)
"soon" you will be the first that:
- fixes all the issues
- puts out production fires
- is in every meeting
- ...
there are other ways to do this but this 100% is one of them...
quite the opposite on the burn out part… if you are curious (this in my experience is in the top-5 traits of exceptional SWEs) you will instinctively want to learn everything there is to know about what you are building. and do it at your own pace, to use a cliche, this isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon.
the leadership also does not have to be competent, you actually want slight incompetency because competent leaders would not allow project to heavily rely on one or handful of people.
"At your own pace" exists only in a handful of very privileged spheres. Maybe part of the USA scene and that's it. Everywhere else is "fall in line or get fired".
You hiring? I got rejected twice from US companies with the explanation that they wanted to have me and the CTO pushed for having me but compliance does not want people from my region.
Replies like yours are wholesome and nice... but they also assume the only problem is in one's head. I am long past this. I just can't find good companies to work with in the last few years is the chief problem now.
pick your battles. You decide what extra work is worth your effort.
learn to say "no", by which i mean "yes, but...". e.g. "can you look at this production issue?" --> "yes, but it is outside my comfort zone, so i will have to charge at least 8 extra hours of overtime towards that issue".
Sure. The problem is more like that during the interviews I was made to believe this is welcome and on day one I was told in no uncertain terms that I'll follow a script to the letter or get fired. Which ultimately happened.
Shitty luck and all sometimes, of course. But really, most of the HN crows very quickly glances over how many toxic and terrible places to work at exist out there.
