Hi, I recently joined a FAANG 3 months ago as an L3 and I haven't been able to perform the best. One particular task is taking too long and due to that other easier tasks are also taking longer. My TL did mention to increase the velocity. Things I have done so far to increase the velocity, Multi-tasking**, this works up to certain degree but I constantly keep going back to the tasks that is stuck. Ask for help,** I have asked for help but since our team has a pretty important deadline coming up everyone is busy with their tasks and I do not feel comfortable asking. One of my teammates also mentioned that I ask questions that are very easy to figure out so that is also one of the reasons I try to do everything on my own. Work Longer hours,** this one just feels like I am stuck for longer time and not progressing much. Although I am able to push out PRs for other changes. I have been actively asking for feedback from my TL during 1:1s and also making clear the expectations from my Manager as well. My constant fear is that I will be let go off due to performance issues, it has happened to me in my previous job (mainly due to me not taking the work too seriously, but I learnt from that). How can I improve as a SWE and, is not performing well consistently an indicator, that I should switch careers?

Panicking in this situation is not going to do anything. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, step away from the computer and take a deep breath. Something that concerns me is that you're instinctively falling into work anti-patterns. Multi-tasking - Line up all your tasks in order of priority. Break down each task down so much that even a LLM could code up each atomic mini-task. Block 4-8 hour blocks of time to only do coding. Do the tasks one by one. Context switching is the ultimate killer of productivity. Ask for Help - If your teammates are saying that you ask questions about trivial things, ask them the deeper question of how you can find these things on your own before asking next time. If they don't want to provide that advice, make sure to spend 15-20 minutes finding your own solution and then ask for help. Work Longer Hours - Working longer hours only helps (barely) boost what's already working. In your situation, nothing's actually working so you need to revisit your work habits before you even do this. Go through Alex's course on Junior to Mid Level Engineer course. It singlehandedly helped me turn around my performance at my previous job. I know it seems like the world is crashing down, but sometimes you need to regroup and really make a strategy for moving forward.

How to know if SWE is not the right career path?

Entry-Level Software Engineer at Taro Community4 months ago

Junior Engineer

Hi, I recently joined a FAANG 3 months ago as an L3 and I haven't been able to perform the best. One particular task is taking too long and due to that other easier tasks are also taking longer. My TL did mention to increase the velocity. Things I have done so far to increase the velocity,

Multi-tasking, this works up to certain degree but I constantly keep going back to the tasks that is stuck.
Ask for help, I have asked for help but since our team has a pretty important deadline coming up everyone is busy with their tasks and I do not feel comfortable asking. One of my teammates also mentioned that I ask questions that are very easy to figure out so that is also one of the reasons I try to do everything on my own.
Work Longer hours, this one just feels like I am stuck for longer time and not progressing much. Although I am able to push out PRs for other changes.

I have been actively asking for feedback from my TL during 1:1s and also making clear the expectations from my Manager as well.

My constant fear is that I will be let go off due to performance issues, it has happened to me in my previous job (mainly due to me not taking the work too seriously, but I learnt from that). How can I improve as a SWE and, is not performing well consistently an indicator, that I should switch careers?

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Discussion

(4 comments)

3
Elliot Kang
•AI/ML Eng @ Series C startup
4 months ago
Panicking in this situation is not going to do anything. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, step away from the computer and take a deep breath.

Something that concerns me is that you're instinctively falling into work anti-patterns.

Multi-tasking - Line up all your tasks in order of priority. Break down each task down so much that even a LLM could code up each atomic mini-task. Block 4-8 hour blocks of time to only do coding. Do the tasks one by one. Context switching is the ultimate killer of productivity.

Ask for Help - If your teammates are saying that you ask questions about trivial things, ask them the deeper question of how you can find these things on your own before asking next time. If they don't want to provide that advice, make sure to spend 15-20 minutes finding your own solution and then ask for help.

Work Longer Hours - Working longer hours only helps (barely) boost what's already working. In your situation, nothing's actually working so you need to revisit your work habits before you even do this.

Go through Alex's course on "Junior to Mid Level Engineer" course. It singlehandedly helped me turn around my performance at my previous job. I know it seems like the world is crashing down, but sometimes you need to regroup and really make a strategy for moving forward.

https://www.jointaro.com/course/grow-from-junior-to-mid-level-engineer-l3-to-l4/how-this-course-works/
- 0
  Entry-Level Software Engineer [OP]
  •Taro Community
  4 months ago
  Thank you for your comment!
  
  I also think focusing on one thing is more beneficial for me rather than task switching.
  
  But this was clearly mentioned by my TL that I need to multitask and have to be working on more than one task and switch multiple times per day.
1
Alex Chiou
•Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
4 months ago
First off, ask for help - You might as well. If you deliver a project late or with poor quality (or worse, both), you will lose reputation points anyways. Follow the advice from the question asking course to maximize the chances of you getting an answer while preserving your standing within the team: Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly

As Elliot mentioned, it's best in times like these to take a step back and clear your head. Go for a walk (ideally on a recurring basis), spend time with friends and family, get back into a hobby you've put on hold. Yes, surviving as an L3 at Big Tech is hard nowadays, but it's not that hard where taking the time to reset for a few days will tank you.

You mentioned that you're getting feedback regularly (or at least asking for it). That's a great start. If you're probing for feedback well and aren't getting any negative feedback, don't worry as everything outside of that isn't under your control anyways.

In terms of whether tech is right for you at all, that's a trickier question and I wouldn't spend too much time dwelling on that. If you want some answers though, check out this great thread: "How do you know if software engineering is the right career for you?"
1
Jonathan C
•Employee @ Robinhood
4 months ago
My honest advice is just focus on writing more code. The more code you write, the more you have learned about what it takes to write code. Your slow velocity is because you haven't done enough reps writing code to have that subconcious base-level understanding. There's 2 things that will help building up the learning loop when it comes to writing code: space and velocity.

For space, focus on one task at a time. Start with the one that has the highest level or urgency and/or impact. Focus on that one single task until a PR is up. Then switch to another task. Do not switch off of that task unless something more urgent comes out.

For velocity, the main bottleneck for you seems to be getting help. So let's look to improve the process of how you get help to reduce the total time needed.

If your question is more specific to a commonly used programming language or a framework and you're pretty sure the answer can be Google'd, ask ChatGPT.

If you feel like your question is more towards proprietary code in the company, look through Slack (or the Slack-equivalent) and see if anyone asks a similar question. From my experience, there's usually a record of someone else saying something if the context is common enough.

When you ask your questions, try to narrow it down to a "yes"/"no" question. The smaller the decision tree, the more likely you'll get help. If you have a guess on what's going on, include that into your question too.