16 Replies
Thread automatically created by theshenglongz in #🤔｜questions
xenial-black•5d ago
What does a low or mid tier SWE job look like in terms of org type/make up and duties? Are there any other data points to consider and analyze?
In my experience, the lower on the totem pole you are the more people feel the need to coach you and keep an eye on you
The higher you get the more autonomy you have
Until you get to like staff or principal then you just do meetings all day
At my J2 the principal engineers are in meetings all day and barely write code
xenial-black•5d ago
Im assuming if im trying to break into SWE that I would automatically be the very bottom of the totem pole?
Unless you can convincingly fake some experience on your resume and make it through the interview, yes
xenial-black•5d ago
What are these roles doing in so many meetings? How is any work done? Why less coding compared to Staff?
They are making big picture decisions
Architecture type stuff
The higher you go the more you shift into a leadership/decision maker type role
Senior SWE is the best balance of autonomy that I’ve found
I have the freedom to push back on unnecessary meetings, I still get to work on code, nobody checks in on me
xenial-black•5d ago
My bad. I think I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying bottoms totem pole SWE peeps are stuck in meetings all day, making decisions.
Ohh my bad 😂😂
sensitive-blue•5d ago
dat thought leadership
i don't believe the pay scales tho with having more meetings
pay rate ratio goes down with meetings since i think at prinicipal/staff, you'd have to pay attention and actively speak in all those meetings lol
xenial-black•5d ago
Sounds like senior is what I want to aim for as a goal
harsh-harlequin•5d ago
Assuming you’re not fucking up that is.
xenial-black•5d ago
I was thinking about looking at any company that’s F500 or any non profit entities to look to slide into. I feel like most people in the server are either at FAANG, banks, or F100?
quickest-silver•5d ago
I'm at 1 small cap, 1 mid cap, and now a 200 person startup. I think anything will work and those mid size public companies are great to chill in
I’m at two large caps currently. One of them I hear from my manager once a month lol
sensitive-blue•5d ago
yh, feels nice when manager just skips 1:1 basically 99% of the time