Anecdotes from my experience, in a large US bank (millions of customers), specifically in a product with active investment:
Yes, processes for getting things done are dull and frustrating. Team leads often urged minimizing time spent on them by using political clout with the gatekeepers to expedite them.
Tech was not too exciting, all the open source stuff used were mature, vetted by security folks/scans, and possibly had in-house layers built on top of it.
Did get to see where my projects fit in end to end, including contributing to data shown in a widget high up on their mobile app’s dashbord, and also to several thousand internal users who are movers and shakers.
Standing up a new REST API and exposing it to the internet required much upfront design and lots of approvals. But at the end of the day it’s to ensure minimal risk while making maximum impact on the tremendous customer base.
Pay was not approaching the FAANG stratosphere. Had two WFH days per week. Office had a section of a floor reserved for the group, and hotdesking with “soft” reservations based on history of actual desks used.
Overall did learn a lot about tech, business, and leadership, but the cog feeling was still definitely an undertone.
Yes, processes for getting things done are dull and frustrating. Team leads often urged minimizing time spent on them by using political clout with the gatekeepers to expedite them.
Tech was not too exciting, all the open source stuff used were mature, vetted by security folks/scans, and possibly had in-house layers built on top of it.
Did get to see where my projects fit in end to end, including contributing to data shown in a widget high up on their mobile app’s dashbord, and also to several thousand internal users who are movers and shakers.
Standing up a new REST API and exposing it to the internet required much upfront design and lots of approvals. But at the end of the day it’s to ensure minimal risk while making maximum impact on the tremendous customer base.
Pay was not approaching the FAANG stratosphere. Had two WFH days per week. Office had a section of a floor reserved for the group, and hotdesking with “soft” reservations based on history of actual desks used.
Overall did learn a lot about tech, business, and leadership, but the cog feeling was still definitely an undertone.