What I’ve Learned After 5 Years in Tech
My name is Michael, I turn 27 next month, and I’m unemployed for the first time since graduating college in 2018. Having worked in big tech as a Developer and a Program Manager, I wanted to take this pause in my professional career to recap and share what I’ve learned, in addition to providing helpful insights to those thinking of following a similar career path.
As a quick pre-professional synopsis: I grew up loving video games and spending my free time browsing the internet. So I decided from a young age, “computers are cool, I’ll work with computers” and signed up for my high school Computer Science elective. That high school class turned into a college major, which turned into my first “real job” — a summer internship at a large tech company in Seattle.
I entered the internship feeling pretty confident. The company invested heavily in my candidacy, even helping me pay for relocation costs, so I quickly became comfortable and convinced of my merit and shifted into a “summer vacation” state of mind. I showed up, did the bare minimum, attended the few meetings interns were expected to attend, and left fairly early every day. However, a few weeks in, I started to notice how hard some of my fellow interns were working and began second-guessing my level of effort. My intern mentor also gave feedback on my early code reviews, which revealed tremendous room for improvement.
These experiences helped shift my perspective, and for the remainder of the internship I made every effort to complete my project while going the extra mile at the office. I worked to build extra nice-to-have features into the application I was building. I spent time learning more about what a full-time team member’s day-to-day operations looked like. I internalized all code review feedback I received and used it to improve my coding habits, and engaged and networked with coworkers outside of the compact Dev team I worked in.
My hard work was enough to secure a return offer, with an explicit reminder that if I hadn’t changed my work habits, I likely wouldn’t be coming back. I was also given the most helpful piece of professional advice from my mentor that I’ve ever received.
Insight #1: It’s okay to make mistakes and stumble as long as you don’t stumble in the same way next time. Failure is a natural part of the process, so it shouldn’t be feared or thought of as a stain on your character.
I returned to the Big Seattle Tech Company in 2018, after completing my undergrad. I worked as a Developer for about 4 years, serving two incredibly supportive teams. From the outset, I reveled in the daily routine of showing up, working on my stories, sending code reviews, and collaborating with my team. I generally enjoyed the perks that came with working at a big tech firm: I learned new technologies, improved as a coder, built on existing systems, designed new ones, and gained confidence in my skills.
Insight #2: Learn when and how to properly ask for help. Comprehending each of my coworkers’ respective strengths and combining them with my own in order to efficiently collaborate on deliverables positively changed my workflow. As the weeks passed, I could feel myself evolving from an inexperienced newbie into a dependable team member — all because I made it known when I required support or guidance.
After nearly four years of coding, I found myself gravitating towards the operational aspects of my job. I liked delegating tasks, planning projects, and coordinating work across multiple parties. I particularly loved writing design documents and runbook entries whenever I had the chance. Wanting to explore administrative and procedural opportunities, I decided to pivot to the role of Technical Program Manager. I was excited to be the voice for my team and be the intermediary between developers and management in the new role. As a TPM, I worked across teams, coordinated projects and initiatives, rigorously kept status updates, and facilitated a lot of meetings.
Over the course of the job transition, I failed a lot and strived hard to improve. My status updates became more descriptive, my meetings got tighter and leaner, and my documents were more polished on first review. My days were spent working with Developers, Software Managers, UX Researchers, and other Product teams.
As a TPM, I learned to speak to the big picture — communicating implementation details and software minutiae were not as important in this new role as speaking to the high-level business impact of the programs and initiatives I owned. Having worked in a role where implementation is paramount, the ability to look at the big picture was the biggest growth area I had to explore for myself. It was more important for me to communicate progress towards the desired outcome than to painstakingly detail every step taken towards said outcome. I also vastly improved my ability to use the written word to sell a narrative in this new role. Whether it was in project proposal documents or business requirements, I was often tasked with producing a compelling argument for why our team should pursue a specific route or project, and it was my personal favorite regular exercise as a TPM.
Insight #3: Understand your audience and tailor your findings and deliverables to their level of expertise as well as their business interests. Not everything you write or present needs to be all-encompassing.
After almost five years at the Big Tech Company, I felt that it was time for me to move on and explore opportunities that would allow me to truly focus on what makes me effective in the workplace. I know that I love to collaborate with intelligent and like-minded folks, and I consider my greatest strength to be my writing, so I’ve been looking towards opportunities in Technical Writing. I hope to leverage the skills and learnings I’ve picked up from my previous jobs towards finding the best role for me in the future!
