Ask HN: 3rd Week at FAANG and feeling imposter syndrome
By week 2 at FAANG I'd gotten through the onboarding, figured out how to get my app running behind all the business security and policies, and started trying to work on a simple frontend React bugfix.
I'm struggling to make heads and tails of everything going up. I understand what processes exist and why at a theoretical level, but all the outdated documentation, random commands to input and feature flags to setup, etc. is literally driving me in circles. Also my team is VERY busy, so I've had to figure out everything on my own. I have the app working, but I cannot understand beginning to end how the frontend app works.
Also I'm feeling a strong sense of imposter syndrome. I'm the oldest engineer on my team, surrounded by a bunch of fresh 20 year olds 3 years out of college who's first job is FAANG. There's an air of non-egotistical elitism I just can't put my finger on, but as someone who dropped out of college so they could earn money and lessen the burden of their immigrant parents, I just feel like I really really don't belong.
Right now at work I've taken on a ticket that should be simple, but I just cannot understand why it's not working in the massive ecosystem and integrations that exists for this app.
Also on a sidenote, I'm a bit disappointed in the sense that I expected more from FAANG. The quality of the apps I'm seeing seems vastly technically overengineered, almost like 100 different hero engineers added their own "tricks" just to seem clever, make a name for themself, make everyone else's life harder, and then pat themselves on the back while writing extensive documentation about why their little chrome extension or alternative way of doing things solves X,Y,Z (while completely ignoring how convoluted and burdensome they've now made something that, while technically inconvenient, was utterly simple to understand prior).
Anyway, rant over. Anyone felt the same way starting at FAANG? Not sure if I'm gonna stick around.
The other thing is software developed by large teams tend to be complex, and a new-comer needs more time to understand what's happening. Onboarding can be a very chaotic process especially for teams who don't specifically put a lot of effort into making it smooth for new-comers. This isn't imposter syndrome but rather something that your team probably needs to do better.
The complexity you are probably going to have to get used to. Maybe some of it is unnecessary, but just like the naïve developer trying to refactor/rewrite a complex piece of code realizes, the extra exceptions and special cases were added for some reason and without them the code breaks in various niche situations. (Or maybe they're really unnecessary! The thing is until you get a full grasp of the code, you won't know)
Otherwise just give it a couple months and see how well you adjust. I think just keep an open mind and don't assume things only because other people have different backgrounds from yours. (I mean, what does age have to do with this? You're only a couple years older than those "fresh 20 year old kids", not even "old"...)
Re: complications, increase your sense of scale beyond anything you imagined. Youre now inside of an industrial process. Depending on your company youve gone from ~100 coworkers to literally 10-40,000 other SDEs working in the same environment. There are probably more dev teams than previous coworkers. All sorts of things get complicated at that scope.
Check my profile if my experience is relevant and youd like a virtual coffee chat.
It’s probably worth sticking it out, as having 1-2 years there will look good on a resume, while a month will not.
I’ve dealt with imposter syndrome most of my career. You never really know how you’re being perceived by others until they tell you. I went into a review a couple years ago 100% certain that I was going to be shredded, because I felt like I had really been phoning it in and the boss had made some comments very early on when he took over the team. When I showed up to the review I was met with 45 minutes of praise. After it was over I just sat there for 15 minutes in shock. I couldn’t seem to integrate the false reality my imposter syndrome created in my head with the reality of what just happened.
Your expectations for yourself and the company might need time to align with the reality of how the business actually runs. Most companies are way more dysfunctional than anyone would want to believe. This is why Dilbert was such a popular and relatable comic for so many workers.
What you are describing is actually the other side of imposter syndrome. It’s the I know exactly what I am doing and can force this to work if I just cut out all the boilerplate bullshit but will never figure this out without some internal documentation.
This is why Bank of America teams in India were running circles around their American counterparts. They (the India teams) recognized this stupidity early, documented the shit out of it, and then wrote scripts for most of it. The imposters were the people refusing to recognize and confront the internal stupidity openly and transparently.
My suggestion to you, having gone through this many times, is dominate other peoples time. It does not matter how busy they are. This shit is not working and someone needs to show you why. Be very clear about this with your team. Then write your own personal documentation.
I still remember when I moved to my own startup from a very regulated finance and realised I can just install a new python library on a server without a month long approval process :D
Ask for help
> Also on a sidenote, I'm a bit disappointed in the sense that I expected more from FAANG. The quality of the apps I'm seeing seems vastly technically overengineered
You have not been capable of fixing bugs in simple React projects yet, I don't think you are in a good position to make this judgement.
Ask for help and asking questions is like a superpower at a megacorp. Trust in your intelligence and experience to know your questions are valid.
So many people nod along and operate on vibes because they all have imposter syndrome and are too scared to ask. Entire meetings where people are discussing acronyms they dont even understand. Functionaries that dont ask or understand why they are doing something, and how it fits into the big picture.
There other thing to remember is not to avoid politics. You dont have to kiss ass, but knowing who has power and building reputation with them is critical.
There is a lot to learn. Probably more than anyplace else you have worked.
The work is hard. Probably harder than anything you have ever done.
You were hired by people who know these things and they hired you because they believe you will be able to handle learning a lot and working on hard things.
In addition, they know everything takes longer than it would if the problems were ordinary.
The documentation and tools are only engineered to meet the business criteria and get the hard things done. Not based luxurious theories.
In the end, FAANG is enterprise…the problems are not going to be obvious and the optimizations are for longer term time frames.
There is a lot to learn and everyone who has stayed via competence knows that. Good luck.
I also saved a decent chunk of change from my last gig (paid more than FAANG by 20%, pure cash) so I've been coasting without much emotional attachment to this job.
The more time you spend there, the more requests you'll get, so after a couple of years it's not unusual to get 30+ feedback requests.
(Email in my profile is anonymous for HN, but will respond from my gmail)
People that grind leetcode all the way to faang are loaded. You have any idea how many people I've seen with dilated pupils in the office? Unfortunately for OP, he/she will have to roll with this crowd because that's just the truth, there's nothing they will be able to change about that reality.