I thought my first tech job would be about solving problems, not endless meetings

Question

I'm a recent grad and I genuinely enjoyed studying CS. I loved building projects for class and the quick turnaround from learning new skills and demonstrating them.

During my time in school, I looked forward to the days when I'd finally work my first real job and solve complex problems, code up apps used by real people, and get to do it all alongside similarly enthused people.

Instead, it seems like most of my day is taken up with work-adjacent tasks. Honestly, it feels like I spend more time talking about the work I have no time to do than doing the work itself. I'm in meetings, I have to write documentation, and I'm just all-around not having a great time.

I wanted some perspective: does it get any better? As I get more years under my belt, will I be able to spend more time actually coding up projects or is this just the reality of being a full-time dev?

notmaangidiot · Accepted Answer

While class projects and apps you build in school were fun, you were not expected to deliver a QtoQ profit margin and revenue growth with it. That is the crux of the problem. Documentation, feature deliberation, maintenance, release timings and marketing of the features to customers are all part of the game. As a dev you will get exposed to each aspect as you grow in your career. I do feel your pain of sitting through meetings. But if you are not required, then you should not attend. Let others pull you in as needed. Maybe the meetings are covering topics which are not something you are exposed to, and hence it can feel a drag. But this too shall pass.

eightysixer · Answer

I'm fond of saying "all the hardest problems in tech are people problems."

Meeting culture is poor in most shops: meetings that don't have an agenda, meetings that should be an email or slack convo instead, meetings to make management feel like they are "managing" you, meetings created out of strict adherence to some process, etc. But also, meeting culture is poor in most shops because people don't push back and say "I have too many bad meetings." So here's your sign: speak up and do something about it. Good culture is built intentionally.

Now as for the "I have to write documentation" bit: yes, documentation is part of your job. There's easily a dozen or more github repos at my current shop for which we have no documentation and all the devs who shipped that code are gone. It is hell. If your school didn't warn you that being a software engineer is more than just coding, they kinda failed you.

worldsbestlevelerrr · Answer

The issue is that so many companies and teams don’t know how to use meetings effectively. Meetings that could be email/teams updates, check ins, etc. are usually more time consuming than it’s worth. Something that helped my team be more efficient is asking people to tell me or other attendees what the goal of the meeting is and what we need to come out of it with. If it’s just checkins or updates then we realize we can just message each other without needing to commit to the full meeting.

trailtrail · Answer

Unfortunately, yes. While coding is the “fun” stuff, things like documenting processes, meetings, impact analysis, etc. are all expected for planning purposes and what not

I thought my first tech job would be about solving problems, not endless meetings

About

Tech

Members