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Ask HN: Advice for tolerating the "corporate" aspect of software jobs?

30 points superarch | 1 comments | 11 Mar 25 17:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source

Looking for some advice from more experienced engineers on here:

I’ll preface this by saying I’m relatively new to the industry (couple years of experience) as an engineer. I’ve loved coding and working with cool tech since I was younger but I’ve only recently started working in a professional setting at a mid-size startup.

I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to work on software full-time but I’m getting increasingly tired of the other aspects of the job (endless meetings, agile “ceremonies”, back-and-forth on Jira processes, etc.)

I know that I need to work on getting better at the other non-tech related aspects of the job in order to grow as an engineer but I’m having a hard time forcing myself to care about the things that seem to only slow everyone down without providing a lot (if any) value most of the time.

How can I change my mindset to get more out of the “corporate” aspects of software careers?

1. matt_s ◴[11 Mar 25 19:11 UTC] No.43335984[source]▶
Ticket tracking tools and processes are like the IRS and taxes, just something you have to deal with and do compliantly. They are just a part of the process for working in a software organization. No ticket tracking tool or process is going to magically make software projects suddenly be delivered on time and on budget and have high quality. If the industry knew of a tool, it would be getting investigated by the federal government for having a monopoly because everyone would be using it. Its the people that are most important, not process or tools.

Nobody is going to reward you for becoming an expert at JIRA or for activities in various ceremony meetings, etc. unless you want to become a PM. Focus on delivering working software, working well with others and following the processes. If something being done is just dumb, like if someone is demanding a ticket per every file changed, talk to them about it and the overhead/issues it causes. If you don't own the process the best you can do is ask for changes.