How to be effective in a new team?

Question

Career in IT

I have about 7 years of experience with android platform.
Already at the second of the last two jobs, the situation is the same:
- They are looking for strong and experienced
ones - I pass social security with brilliance (strong hard-skill, medium soft-skill)
- Hell begins at the test
Each project has its own "senior genius" who does not have time to explain and argue their technical and architectural solutions.
My skills are not needed here, my technical skill and engineering creativity is not required.
I must become a "worthy successor" of His ideas.
In summary: each task turns into a "guess the right" game by cyclical deviations of MRs.
With each deviation, drop by drop, one more "unspoken rule of what and where to write" is squeezed out, and God forbid that it does not entail redesigning the entire feature again.

As a result:
- management has big questions about my productivity (and this is true - tasks are closed very slowly)
- the senior is very surprised that things that are obvious (to him) require a detailed explanation and already begins to doubt my competence

. What should I do if I have competence - technical, not psychic?
Very bad experience in self mastering the "obvious" bikes of every new inventor.

PS: This whole situation is starting to look like bullying for money, I feel apathy, demotivation, irritation, anger. Inability to open up as an engineer, designer, developer.
More and more the feeling of a trained monkey in the circus. Terribly depressed.

Thanks

Answer 1

I would recommend raising this issue with management: team leader, pm, it doesn't matter. The main thing is that it be a third party that has influence on both of you. Thus, you can understand whose side the problem is and come up with joint steps to eliminate it. The main thing is that there should be an independent arbitrator and both parties be ready to admit that there is a problem and want to solve it.

Answer 2

Everything is fine, this is not a decaying west, this is our own domestic development. You are a fool, the boss is always right. This is the case in all medium and small IT companies.
It's simple: any whim for your money. They wrote a task for you - you did it as described in the task. Did not fit - spent another week to change. Why is it taking so long to complete a task when it should have been yesterday? The question is no longer for you, but for the one who sets these tasks. You can suggest to the boss to establish more specific processes or to pre-create and approve mini TK for each task.

- the lord is very surprised that things that are obvious (to him) require a detailed explanation and already also begins to doubt my competence

This means that the seigneur is not really a seigneur, but simply works as a seigneur. On the other hand, perhaps you are really "dumb" for this job and do not know all its features. I would recommend discussing with him what you do not know.

- management has big questions about my productivity (and that's right - tasks close very slowly)

Again, these are questions to the one who sets the tasks. Most likely, your contract says that you must follow the orders of the boss. And you do them, you can install a time tracker and send, in which case, the time spent on subtasks. In any case, these issues should be discussed with the manager, not on the forum.

Answer 3

If you need short advice - you have to quit. An unhealthy atmosphere has been created and cannot be deflated. Apparently the mentioned "senior" sees you as a competitor, plus he does not like you and your code). If the senor is too up in his nose and does not listen to advice, rejects MRs and generally behaves like a child, then this senor is a f*ck. And you can’t work with m * ducks, you need to take care of your nerves.

Answer 4

Try two or three more new jobs. Strong hard-skills shouldn't be a problem.
If hell does not happen and the team is normal, work is a pleasure - stay there.
If they all also have a "senior tomato" everywhere who offends you, behaves badly, you will be bombed and "hell begins", then you should seriously reconsider the level of assessment of your soft skills. And in general, evaluate your interaction in the team. Otherwise, it may turn out that in fact the villain who says "I know how to do it best" and does not want to listen to anything is you :)
If they are really “average” for you, you should be able to confidently solve such questions. At a minimum, have in the arsenal of skills for resolving work conflicts something more than "letting off steam on a toaster" and be able to establish professional constructive interaction in conditions when something does not suit you without falling into apathy and emotional response.

Answer 5

Your situation is somewhat familiar to me, here are some tips:
1. Write down the "unspoken rules", and use them as a guide. In the case when the review requires you to make changes that contradict your records - poke the reviewer with the expected WTF. In any case, you will come to some agreement. In this situation, you will be in a more advantageous position (of course, if your tl is not completely a tyrant) since the unspoken rules are usually remembered and applied situationally, sometimes they are forgotten about.
2. As soon as you are not sure about something - ask a question, preferably in writing, to the task manager and reviewer, ask for a written answer. There are situations when their answers differ, or differ over time. In such situations, you need to agree on some kind of compromise solution, otherwise you will simply lose time.
3. Feel free to return the task to the director if it is written with the back left foot. An example from my practice: "the news block is not displayed correctly", yes, that was the whole description of the task.
4. It was painful for me personally to accept this, but often either tl or the whole team makes shitty code, to put it mildly, here you either come to the point that you don’t care about your job, or quit.

Answer 6

For general information: Choosing the right place to work or how to work pro...

Inability to open up as an engineer, designer, developer.

it's because you have rose-colored glasses. Stop wanting to "open up as an engineer, designer, developer", just work for money, leaving the office at 18.00, forget about this code and that's it. You look very infantile at your work. You are just a cog there, easily replaceable, no one needs you, an ordinary laborer in the business. Why are you so worried about all this? They said how to do it - do it. Shit. This is their project, not yours.

More and more the feeling of a trained monkey in the circus

So you are a monkey. Decoy code. Or do you really consider yourself an elite? Yes, you are nobody and nothing, an ordinary programmer.

My skills are not needed here, my technical skill and engineering creativity is not required.

Yes, nobody needs them. I'll tell you a secret. Everyone doesn't care. You are just bombarded by how good and experienced you are, but you are not appreciated. Relax.

Answer 7

Work on. You are not fired.

Answer 8

letting people stupidly do their job, realizing that it is not perfect - this is a rare skill of a professional.
Unfortunately, not every team leader has this skill, they are looking for the only right ideal solution)
On the other hand, your task is to be able to do as they ask, until you are in the position where they make decisions, and unfortunately you are not given such authority - or you need to leave the company where let them decide and do it themselves, or do as they say.
The only advice, learn to sell your solutions and approaches - if you can’t sell them (not impose, but interest in your approach) - maybe then such a solution shouldn’t be used.

Answer 9

and you did not try not to write here, but to tell the management and the signor the same thing?

Answer 10

If you do not want to do the same thing, then first of all try to discuss the task. In fact, both analysts and seniors proceed from some needs. Understand the process, put yourself in the place of the user. If you see a more beautiful solution to the problem, it is worth trying to convey this vision. Otherwise, simply sticking in a new framework or something that will drag not only your solution, but also an increase in the volume of everything, you will certainly worsen the situation. Be critical of yourself first.

Answer 11

There will always be people who see differently. Each team has its own development features, which may differ from what you are used to.
On MR, you need to be able to defend your decision, and not take everything for the truth. Discuss, show that this proposal is not constructive, here is premature optimization, here is overengineering. If all the questions for you are on the case, then you just need to learn, correct and not step on the same rake again.