job change best practices (CEE edition)
April 18, 2018 7:59 AM Subscribe
More experienced people of Metafilter: how do you switch jobs and do it right? What to do in the place you are leaving, how to adapt fast to the new place? Difficulty level: multinational companies in Central Europe.
I've found a previous question with almost the exact same problem, but it was pretty much US specific. So my situation in a bit more detail:
First company change (did change positions within the company, but had no other workplace yet)
Company to leave: big multinational in consumer packaged goods, held different back-office and enterprisey IT positions, office is in Central Europe
Company to arrive: big American software company, will be doing enterprisey software developement, office is in Central Europe
On pretty good terms with everyone in the corp I'm leaving
Education is totally different from the job. Although I have demonstrated competency in programming and enterprise IT, people may raise eyebrows cause of a liberal arts education in the new place
In the past I was the "guy who programs". In the teams I used to work we never had more than me and at most another colleague who programed. How to adapt a bigger dev team? What are the best practices here?
Don't know the programmer culture in the new place yet, but I picked fights in the company i'm leaving with brogrammers regarding the usual topics... How to handle situations like this, were they to occur in the new place?
Some more questions:
How to navigate a new organization? What are the best practices to discover formal and informal networks between people, roles and departments?
What's best to keep from the old org? Contact lists, paperwork, good memories?
Are there real checklists, books or advice pieces regarding this topic?
I've found a previous question with almost the exact same problem, but it was pretty much US specific. So my situation in a bit more detail:
Some more questions:
Response by poster: No, I'm from the country where the office is & there's no language barrier.
posted by kmt at 11:49 PM on April 18, 2018
posted by kmt at 11:49 PM on April 18, 2018
"Although I have demonstrated competency in programming and enterprise IT, people may raise eyebrows cause of a liberal arts education in the new place". That is very unlikely to be a problem. It is extremely common for programmers in the US not to have a technical degree. My BA is in psychology, I'm a Programmer Analyst, and I've never been looked at askance for that. In fact, I think I've met more people in IT who have either no degree or an unrelated degree than I have those who have an IT-related degree.
How to handle the programmer culture in the new place: if you're strong enough, continue to challenge brogrammer sexism, racism, elitism, or whatever -ism they bring. It desperately needs challenging and there are too many people who don't. I'm a female in an all-male team, and would dearly love a new team-mate such as yourself who is actually aware of the problem. The casual, oblivious sexism I face every day is the #1 thing that's stressful about my job. Having a male who SAW WHAT WAS GOING ON and called it out would be so refreshing! Despite all the media stories about this topic in the US, the reality is, most programmers in my experience ARE still sexist, racist, and elitist, and unconsciously so.
On the other hand, technically you should adapt to the ways of your new team. When you're the new person, that's not the time to disagree with the way they do things. Don't challenge them on what languages, frameworks or coding standards they use. The whole team will never agree on everything, and certain decisions have to be made that everyone must abide by. There are often valid reasons things are done the way they are, even if it looks a bit loony at first. Don't be that person who thinks he can immediately change the way everybody's been doing things. Show that you can get shit done using existing tools.
posted by nirblegee at 8:28 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
How to handle the programmer culture in the new place: if you're strong enough, continue to challenge brogrammer sexism, racism, elitism, or whatever -ism they bring. It desperately needs challenging and there are too many people who don't. I'm a female in an all-male team, and would dearly love a new team-mate such as yourself who is actually aware of the problem. The casual, oblivious sexism I face every day is the #1 thing that's stressful about my job. Having a male who SAW WHAT WAS GOING ON and called it out would be so refreshing! Despite all the media stories about this topic in the US, the reality is, most programmers in my experience ARE still sexist, racist, and elitist, and unconsciously so.
On the other hand, technically you should adapt to the ways of your new team. When you're the new person, that's not the time to disagree with the way they do things. Don't challenge them on what languages, frameworks or coding standards they use. The whole team will never agree on everything, and certain decisions have to be made that everyone must abide by. There are often valid reasons things are done the way they are, even if it looks a bit loony at first. Don't be that person who thinks he can immediately change the way everybody's been doing things. Show that you can get shit done using existing tools.
posted by nirblegee at 8:28 PM on April 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by orrnyereg at 10:29 AM on April 18, 2018