Episode 447: Overleveled at FAANG and accidental draft feedback
Feb 10, 2025
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The hosts dive into the challenges of transitioning from startups to senior roles in major tech companies. They discuss the shift from individual contributions to leading projects and the intricacies of understanding corporate expectations. A listener's experience with commenting on draft pull requests sparks a lively debate about workplace feedback culture. The conversation highlights the balance between giving constructive feedback and maintaining team dynamics, peppered with humor about common code review pitfalls.
Transitioning from mid-level to senior engineering at FAANG requires demonstrating strategic ownership and leadership impacting team productivity.
Feedback on draft pull requests can be sensitive; it's crucial to acknowledge their status and provide constructive criticism tactfully.
Deep dives
The Complexity of Package Management Systems
Package management systems often become slow and bloated as they gain popularity, leading to frustrations among developers. An ideal package manager that simplifies dependency management could ironically result in a situation where bloated ecosystems arise due to an influx of users adding numerous dependencies. This phenomenon has been observed with Rust's Cargo, once celebrated for its efficiency, now facing backlash as users report challenges with the excessive number of installed packages. This dissatisfaction underscores a common trend among popular frameworks and tools, where initial success can lead to unintended complications.
Transitioning from Mid-Level to Senior Engineer
Moving from a mid-level to a senior engineering position often requires demonstrating ownership and leadership over projects and teams. For those coming from startups, this shift entails not just completing assigned tasks but influencing broader outcomes and impacting the team positively. It's about transitioning from merely executing tasks to initiating and guiding projects that align with business goals, showcasing one's ability to think strategically. The expectations at a top-tier company can be particularly high, necessitating that engineers not only meet but exceed their roles, emphasizing the importance of making tangible contributions to team productivity.
Defining Ownership in a Corporate Environment
In a corporate setting, 'ownership' signifies a broader sense of responsibility beyond individual tasks, emphasizing the importance of collaborating across teams and taking initiative. This includes understanding how one's work impacts related teams and proactively improving processes that benefit the entire organization. Concrete examples of ownership might involve enhancing APIs or addressing issues that hinder the efficiency of dependent teams. Such actions can lead to recognition and appreciation, reinforcing one's reputation as a leader within the company.
Navigating Draft Pull Requests Etiquette
Commenting on draft pull requests can sometimes generate mixed reactions among developers regarding feedback appropriateness. While many cultures accept input on draft PRs, others may see them as incomplete work not yet ready for critique. Developers are encouraged to gauge the context and expectations set by the author, as misunderstandings can lead to miscommunication and defensiveness. A helpful approach is to acknowledge the draft status while providing constructive comments, ensuring that feedback is framed as supportive rather than critical.
In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:
I am a mid level engineer overleveled as a senior engineer in a FAANG company. I got super lucky landing this high paying remote job, but dang… I did underestimate the expectations for my senior level. I had no FAANG experience before, just working at startups, flat hierarchies, just doing the heavy lifting coding.
Now it is all about impact and multiplying impact across the team. I am told I should do less IC work and more leading of projects and owning initiatives.
Can you give me some general advice on what actions I can take to get from the mid-level to senior-level? I am not really sure, what taking ownership really means in practice… These just seem like empty phrases to me without a meaning…
I have had a bit of time, while running a 40 minute build, so I looked into open pull requests. One PR caught my eye and I started to read through it and left a comment with a suggestion for a small change. All in all sounds good probably, but the caveat to this is, that the PR was marked as Draft.
I was thinking that it would be useful for the author of the PR to already get some suggestions during development, but the response got me thinking. The author passive aggressively mentioned that the PR is in Draft and that there is more work to do.
Am I the jerk for commenting on a draft PR? Second question, what other things should I pay attention to in code reviews to not be a jerk?
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