5 ms·
As you get more senior, it takes time to understand your sibling teams, the business itself, etc. If it takes 6+ months just to get "up to speed", are you real
by __float 3y ago
As you get more senior, it takes time to understand your sibling teams, the business itself, etc.
If it takes 6+ months just to get "up to speed", are you really having much impact when you leave 6 months later?
- throwaway5959 3y agoI’m a principal software engineer. If it takes me more than a month to get up to speed with an organization (I usually work with small-mid sized companies), I consider that a failure. Six months to first contribution is insane.
- Volundr 3y agoFirst contribution is not the same as up-to-speed. I'll also note that a manager often needs a broader view of the company than an engineer, though at principal level I'd expect the gap to be less (but it isn't always).
- ardit33 3y agoFirst Contribution and Up to full speed ramp up are completely different things. Expectations at FAANGS is that it might take a month or two for the contribution to start (one week, if you count bootcamp tasks at Meta), but it takes about 6+ months to full ramp up at the Senior+ level. At small startups, it is very different.
- throwaway5959 3y agoYup, everyone should work in places they feel comfortable. I don’t want to work in an environment where it takes six months to ramp up.
- freeplay 3y agoRegardless of how good you are, you're ramp up time is very dependent on the place. If you're walking into a place with very little in the way of documentation and process, it could take a while to learn enough to be effective (ex: 50 different microservices and 5 different stacks, nuanced environments, etc.) On the other hand, if everything is very standardized and well documented, you can jump right in.