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First month at a technology company job: not a lot do do, feeling useless?
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A month ago, I started a job as software engineer, at a large technoloy company (similar to Google, Facebook etc.). I guess my job level is on the low end of Google T5 or high end of T4? (salary is around $175k, not including stock options.). I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing.
Things seem to be going well, but I've been feeling rather useless. I just don't have a lot to do at the moment, and I'm not sure if I should be actively seeking out tasks, proposing new features, or what. Naturally, I've been spending a lot of time delving into our codebase, but this isn't something with visible results that I could point to, for myself or the rest of the team. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
I haven't worked at a big company like this in a long time, so I have no context for how things are supposed to work. Is it expected that tasks take longer than in the solo/startup world? Are engineers on my level supposed to be more proactive with this kind of stuff? I know what's in the pipeline for the next few months—the sorts of tasks that are more my specialty—but we're still scheduling meetings to work out the details. (Mostly it's my manager doing this.) In the meantime, I feel like I'm just idling.
Basically, I have this intense fear that I'm not living up to the expectations of my high salary and that nobody's going to say anything until things get really awkward. I take this home with me every day. My manager hasn't mentioned anything negative in our 1 on 1's, but I don't know if he's expected to.
How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? And if I happened to do things wrong, will I still be able to fix my mistakes?
I'm not lazy; I just have no idea how things work in the corporate world!
new-job productivity new-hires onboarding
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
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rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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A month ago, I started a job as software engineer, at a large technoloy company (similar to Google, Facebook etc.). I guess my job level is on the low end of Google T5 or high end of T4? (salary is around $175k, not including stock options.). I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing.
Things seem to be going well, but I've been feeling rather useless. I just don't have a lot to do at the moment, and I'm not sure if I should be actively seeking out tasks, proposing new features, or what. Naturally, I've been spending a lot of time delving into our codebase, but this isn't something with visible results that I could point to, for myself or the rest of the team. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
I haven't worked at a big company like this in a long time, so I have no context for how things are supposed to work. Is it expected that tasks take longer than in the solo/startup world? Are engineers on my level supposed to be more proactive with this kind of stuff? I know what's in the pipeline for the next few months—the sorts of tasks that are more my specialty—but we're still scheduling meetings to work out the details. (Mostly it's my manager doing this.) In the meantime, I feel like I'm just idling.
Basically, I have this intense fear that I'm not living up to the expectations of my high salary and that nobody's going to say anything until things get really awkward. I take this home with me every day. My manager hasn't mentioned anything negative in our 1 on 1's, but I don't know if he's expected to.
How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? And if I happened to do things wrong, will I still be able to fix my mistakes?
I'm not lazy; I just have no idea how things work in the corporate world!
new-job productivity new-hires onboarding
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
New contributor
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
"How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? " I do not think how are first months suppose to go would depend on your salary range. Instead of salary, you need to include your role, job description and what task your manager gave you (if any) in your initial meetings. Do you have a time sheet to sign for?
– PagMax
4 hours ago
Role: software engineer, with no real qualifiers. I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
– rericks
4 hours ago
what is FANG by the way?
– Pac0
1 hour ago
where are you? 175 isn't necessarily high... @Pac0 fang is fb, amazon, netf and goog. fang style? no idea.
– bharal
1 hour ago
@Pac0: FANG is probably for "Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… . I edited to add this.
– sleske
9 mins ago
 |Â
show 1 more comment
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
up vote
2
down vote
favorite
A month ago, I started a job as software engineer, at a large technoloy company (similar to Google, Facebook etc.). I guess my job level is on the low end of Google T5 or high end of T4? (salary is around $175k, not including stock options.). I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing.
Things seem to be going well, but I've been feeling rather useless. I just don't have a lot to do at the moment, and I'm not sure if I should be actively seeking out tasks, proposing new features, or what. Naturally, I've been spending a lot of time delving into our codebase, but this isn't something with visible results that I could point to, for myself or the rest of the team. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
I haven't worked at a big company like this in a long time, so I have no context for how things are supposed to work. Is it expected that tasks take longer than in the solo/startup world? Are engineers on my level supposed to be more proactive with this kind of stuff? I know what's in the pipeline for the next few months—the sorts of tasks that are more my specialty—but we're still scheduling meetings to work out the details. (Mostly it's my manager doing this.) In the meantime, I feel like I'm just idling.
Basically, I have this intense fear that I'm not living up to the expectations of my high salary and that nobody's going to say anything until things get really awkward. I take this home with me every day. My manager hasn't mentioned anything negative in our 1 on 1's, but I don't know if he's expected to.
How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? And if I happened to do things wrong, will I still be able to fix my mistakes?
I'm not lazy; I just have no idea how things work in the corporate world!
new-job productivity new-hires onboarding
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
New contributor
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
A month ago, I started a job as software engineer, at a large technoloy company (similar to Google, Facebook etc.). I guess my job level is on the low end of Google T5 or high end of T4? (salary is around $175k, not including stock options.). I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing.
Things seem to be going well, but I've been feeling rather useless. I just don't have a lot to do at the moment, and I'm not sure if I should be actively seeking out tasks, proposing new features, or what. Naturally, I've been spending a lot of time delving into our codebase, but this isn't something with visible results that I could point to, for myself or the rest of the team. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
I haven't worked at a big company like this in a long time, so I have no context for how things are supposed to work. Is it expected that tasks take longer than in the solo/startup world? Are engineers on my level supposed to be more proactive with this kind of stuff? I know what's in the pipeline for the next few months—the sorts of tasks that are more my specialty—but we're still scheduling meetings to work out the details. (Mostly it's my manager doing this.) In the meantime, I feel like I'm just idling.
Basically, I have this intense fear that I'm not living up to the expectations of my high salary and that nobody's going to say anything until things get really awkward. I take this home with me every day. My manager hasn't mentioned anything negative in our 1 on 1's, but I don't know if he's expected to.
How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? And if I happened to do things wrong, will I still be able to fix my mistakes?
I'm not lazy; I just have no idea how things work in the corporate world!
new-job productivity new-hires onboarding
new-job productivity new-hires onboarding
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
New contributor
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
New contributor
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
edited 7 mins ago
sleske
9,80633655
9,80633655
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
New contributor
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
asked 5 hours ago
rericks
141
141
New contributor
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
rericks is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
"How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? " I do not think how are first months suppose to go would depend on your salary range. Instead of salary, you need to include your role, job description and what task your manager gave you (if any) in your initial meetings. Do you have a time sheet to sign for?
– PagMax
4 hours ago
Role: software engineer, with no real qualifiers. I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
– rericks
4 hours ago
what is FANG by the way?
– Pac0
1 hour ago
where are you? 175 isn't necessarily high... @Pac0 fang is fb, amazon, netf and goog. fang style? no idea.
– bharal
1 hour ago
@Pac0: FANG is probably for "Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… . I edited to add this.
– sleske
9 mins ago
 |Â
show 1 more comment
"How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? " I do not think how are first months suppose to go would depend on your salary range. Instead of salary, you need to include your role, job description and what task your manager gave you (if any) in your initial meetings. Do you have a time sheet to sign for?
– PagMax
4 hours ago
Role: software engineer, with no real qualifiers. I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
– rericks
4 hours ago
what is FANG by the way?
– Pac0
1 hour ago
where are you? 175 isn't necessarily high... @Pac0 fang is fb, amazon, netf and goog. fang style? no idea.
– bharal
1 hour ago
@Pac0: FANG is probably for "Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… . I edited to add this.
– sleske
9 mins ago
"How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? " I do not think how are first months suppose to go would depend on your salary range. Instead of salary, you need to include your role, job description and what task your manager gave you (if any) in your initial meetings. Do you have a time sheet to sign for?
– PagMax
4 hours ago
"How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? " I do not think how are first months suppose to go would depend on your salary range. Instead of salary, you need to include your role, job description and what task your manager gave you (if any) in your initial meetings. Do you have a time sheet to sign for?
– PagMax
4 hours ago
Role: software engineer, with no real qualifiers. I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
– rericks
4 hours ago
Role: software engineer, with no real qualifiers. I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
– rericks
4 hours ago
what is FANG by the way?
– Pac0
1 hour ago
what is FANG by the way?
– Pac0
1 hour ago
where are you? 175 isn't necessarily high... @Pac0 fang is fb, amazon, netf and goog. fang style? no idea.
– bharal
1 hour ago
where are you? 175 isn't necessarily high... @Pac0 fang is fb, amazon, netf and goog. fang style? no idea.
– bharal
1 hour ago
@Pac0: FANG is probably for "Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… . I edited to add this.
– sleske
9 mins ago
@Pac0: FANG is probably for "Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… . I edited to add this.
– sleske
9 mins ago
 |Â
show 1 more comment
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
Honestly, you should probably bring that up with your manager. Either in a 1 on 1, or ideally, right now.
Something along the lines of “I feel I now have a good grasp of the codebase, is there anything I should now start to work on while we wait for X to start?â€Â
This might include prototyping things to get familiar with the tech or things you might encounter, or maybe there’s a completely different project they can use help on.
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
1
Agreed - this needs to be raised with your manager sooner rather than later. I think you'll probably be told to relax and not worry too much; however it would be awesome to come up with a side project idea as @Aeolun suggests as a stop-gap measure (show's you're keen and keeps you sane).
– Matthew E Cornish
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
Honestly, you should probably bring that up with your manager. Either in a 1 on 1, or ideally, right now.
Something along the lines of “I feel I now have a good grasp of the codebase, is there anything I should now start to work on while we wait for X to start?â€Â
This might include prototyping things to get familiar with the tech or things you might encounter, or maybe there’s a completely different project they can use help on.
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
1
Agreed - this needs to be raised with your manager sooner rather than later. I think you'll probably be told to relax and not worry too much; however it would be awesome to come up with a side project idea as @Aeolun suggests as a stop-gap measure (show's you're keen and keeps you sane).
– Matthew E Cornish
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
Honestly, you should probably bring that up with your manager. Either in a 1 on 1, or ideally, right now.
Something along the lines of “I feel I now have a good grasp of the codebase, is there anything I should now start to work on while we wait for X to start?â€Â
This might include prototyping things to get familiar with the tech or things you might encounter, or maybe there’s a completely different project they can use help on.
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
1
Agreed - this needs to be raised with your manager sooner rather than later. I think you'll probably be told to relax and not worry too much; however it would be awesome to come up with a side project idea as @Aeolun suggests as a stop-gap measure (show's you're keen and keeps you sane).
– Matthew E Cornish
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
Honestly, you should probably bring that up with your manager. Either in a 1 on 1, or ideally, right now.
Something along the lines of “I feel I now have a good grasp of the codebase, is there anything I should now start to work on while we wait for X to start?â€Â
This might include prototyping things to get familiar with the tech or things you might encounter, or maybe there’s a completely different project they can use help on.
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
Honestly, you should probably bring that up with your manager. Either in a 1 on 1, or ideally, right now.
Something along the lines of “I feel I now have a good grasp of the codebase, is there anything I should now start to work on while we wait for X to start?â€Â
This might include prototyping things to get familiar with the tech or things you might encounter, or maybe there’s a completely different project they can use help on.
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
edited 2 hours ago
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
answered 2 hours ago
Aeolun
1314
1314
1
Agreed - this needs to be raised with your manager sooner rather than later. I think you'll probably be told to relax and not worry too much; however it would be awesome to come up with a side project idea as @Aeolun suggests as a stop-gap measure (show's you're keen and keeps you sane).
– Matthew E Cornish
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
1
Agreed - this needs to be raised with your manager sooner rather than later. I think you'll probably be told to relax and not worry too much; however it would be awesome to come up with a side project idea as @Aeolun suggests as a stop-gap measure (show's you're keen and keeps you sane).
– Matthew E Cornish
2 hours ago
1
1
Agreed - this needs to be raised with your manager sooner rather than later. I think you'll probably be told to relax and not worry too much; however it would be awesome to come up with a side project idea as @Aeolun suggests as a stop-gap measure (show's you're keen and keeps you sane).
– Matthew E Cornish
2 hours ago
Agreed - this needs to be raised with your manager sooner rather than later. I think you'll probably be told to relax and not worry too much; however it would be awesome to come up with a side project idea as @Aeolun suggests as a stop-gap measure (show's you're keen and keeps you sane).
– Matthew E Cornish
2 hours ago
add a comment |Â
rericks is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
rericks is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
rericks is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
rericks is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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"How are first months supposed to generally go for someone at a big company in my salary range? " I do not think how are first months suppose to go would depend on your salary range. Instead of salary, you need to include your role, job description and what task your manager gave you (if any) in your initial meetings. Do you have a time sheet to sign for?
– PagMax
4 hours ago
Role: software engineer, with no real qualifiers. I wasn't really hired to do any particular thing. I wasn't given any task to start with, though my manager has been throwing small features and bug fixes my way here and there.
– rericks
4 hours ago
what is FANG by the way?
– Pac0
1 hour ago
where are you? 175 isn't necessarily high... @Pac0 fang is fb, amazon, netf and goog. fang style? no idea.
– bharal
1 hour ago
@Pac0: FANG is probably for "Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… . I edited to add this.
– sleske
9 mins ago