Ask HN: Help navigating transition from startup to big company for an engineer

2 pointsled767y ago1 comments

I'm a software engineer in a company transitioning from a startup to being more corporate (for lack of a better term). We've recently brought in a whole new layer of engineering leadership.

The overall attitude I'm seeing is that they're here to fix everything, and that they don't trust us to do it.

Startups get to where they are by being scrappy, writing code that works for right now, and planning and hoping for when they can finally build for the long term.

Any ideas on how to properly navigate this transition? How to continue to have impact while working with the new reality? Is there any way to convince leadership that we would be best suited for pushing things forward?

Currently my colleagues and I are getting a bit demotivated from the reorgs and from new teams picking up important refactoring work.

1 comments

tixocloud7y ago

It's quite difficult to change one's mindset but what you can do is build trust and reputation to eventually be able to influence the leadership team.

Let them see the benefits of maintaining the startup culture. Seek to understand their concerns and address them and find a happy medium.

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