I’ve been working at one of the “You’ve heard of them” tech companies for a while now. Let’s call it BigTech. The compensation is fantastic. I make way more money than I deserve to. The work/life balance is amazing. I’m encouraged to take paid time off whenever I want. The company is known for being a responsible corporate citizen. I’m as close to being proud of my employer as I’ve ever been.
Yet… I’m more unhappy at this job than any job I can remember. The actual work I do is horrific. Not much actual engineering. Mostly slack conversations and meetings. Sometimes I write a throwaway technical document that may get read by a person or two. Our technology is a mess. Engineers with identical titles can be brilliant or totally incompetent. Politics rules everything–you get marching orders and then the rug gets pulled without explanation… “We’re doing this other thing now.”
I mentioned the great pay and benefits. That’s the trap. You get complacent and comfortable. You depend on the big paychecks and the ability to take Fridays off without worry. Maybe you have a family to support. At some point, you realize you have become a BigTech “engineer”. You have succumbed to mediocrity–constant slack venting, endless process, and unpayable technical debt. You have unconsciously accepted that writing code is a treat and not part of your job anymore. You haven’t learned anything new in years. You are so burned out you feel as if your brain is on strike. You watch the company stock price and your 401K.
I’m certainly a worse engineer than I was before I started working here. Don’t be me.
Tech Unfiltered 