HACKER Q&A
📣 nullskunk

Tips on Being Undervalued?


I recently switched jobs from being an engineering manager back to being a software engineer due to burnout, switching to fully remote, and just wanting to try something new in a different domain. During the first few months of the new job I was pretty quiet; sat back and took in the new environment. Switching from internal tools in enterprise to a team that focused on external features for a startup is a big shift and I had a lot of questions.. Probably dumb questions, but asking the dumb questions was my role as a manager :)

Because of the laid-back start at this new role, I've been seen as both the "new guy" and someone more junior on the team (I'm in a senior role) that consistently gets talked down to. This is after already shipping complex architecture changes in a short amount of time, taking on mentorship/leadership roles on the team, and coming into the role with a highly technical background.

Due to fumbling the first couple of months at a new company, I feel like I've painted myself into a certain persona that's impossible to break. I'm curious if anyone has been in a similar boat, and how they went about fixing the issue.

  👤 catchnear4321 Accepted Answer ✓
Asking dumb questions knowingly is rarely dumb, assuming you aren’t asking the same dumb questions repeatedly.

If you are mentoring, someone is listening. It would be highly unusual for that same person to talk down to you, and even more unusual for you to continue mentoring after that happened once or twice.

So, not to pry without cause, and not that you need to answer as it might reveal too much or you simply may not care to, but who is talking down to you?

Because this at face value sounds like an issue with either management or a subset of a team, or alternatively you are willfully or not, regardless of intent, leaving out some detail that makes it difficult to imagine the situation.