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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: 0.202s | 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. tediousgraffit1 ◴[11 Mar 25 20:36 UTC] No.43336754[source]▶
You just want to code, I get, I'm the same way. What helps me is recognizing that in the 'corporate' environment, the challenge is not merely solving technical problems, but also coordination problems. Negative work is real, and avoiding it _requires_ coordination. That's what the 'corporate processes' are directed at.

Now, understanding this fact enables us not only to better understand why we do these things, but also provides a concrete way to criticize and improve those process. You can use data to figure out which processes aren't actually improving quality, velocity, and coordination.

Tldr: be the change you want to see.