Every day now we hear more and more large tech companies declaring WFH for indefinite time. Some of them permanently. While older millennials with family and kids like the idea what your 2020 grads think? Will it reshape tech industry with software engineering in particular? My freshly baked grad who was looking forward to particular life style in a tech hub hopes its just temporary measure to deal with pandemic and will not stay.
My newly graduated photography/art history daughter just wants a job of any kind. She doesn’t really care what it looks like at this point!
I would argue that the tech industry was primarily the industry that did the reshaping. Software developers/engineers (architects, coders, QA, project managers, even sys admins) have been working from home for decades. In my extended family alone, not a single developer or engineer has worked from an office in years. My BIL has moved all over the country chasing scenery and desired housing while working from home as a s/w architect and project manager for the same company for the past 15 years. The last time I worked from an actual (tech) office was 2010.
I thought the Google campus was overrun with 20 something’s who enjoyed socializing there. Don’t most young people prefer to work in person with others and perhaps go out together afterwards?
What’s not talked about enough with WFH, is that most of us have already worked in a traditional environment. So we acquired all the soft skills of learning to work in a team, learning from mentors, learning office protocol and etiquette.
I am wondering how recent grads will start a “real” job in a WFH situation. It would seem very difficult to do. My S started a job about a month before things shut down, so he got to learn the culture and clients etc before switching to WFH exclusively. I don’t know that he could have geared up if everything was virtual from the get-go.
^^^ This! Not just Google. All big name tech companies in the SF Bay Area and Seattle.
I’ve been WFH for about 15 years. Having time in-person with colleagues is tremendously valuable, IMHO. Particularly when starting with a new company in a new role.
I joined a new company back in 2018 and my new manager said I could hop on a plane and come up to HQ whenever I wanted without having to ask. That was pretty awesome and I spent probably 1 week per month for the first 6 months going up just to hang out with my team in person.
While zoom and remote meetings are fine, what you miss in WFH for new employees is being able to turn to the guy next to you and ask questions as they come up. Or going to lunch and hearing the work-related chatter. Scheduled calls really don’t replace the ad-hoc communication when you’re new.
You can certainly do WFH as a new hire, it’s just not ideal and the lack of in-person interaction makes you feel less connected to your team. A good manager is really important to keep communication open in that type of situation.
Good point @surfcity . My new grad will be starting job next month. They and other grads who will start jobs this summer will be missing an opportunity of in person mentorship . They would not know the typical working hours for the team , team dynamics, how much time is acceptable to spend on something that doesn’t work before asking for help. They will not have the opportunity to get to know their coworkers better, have those spontaneous hallway conversations or make new friends or find romantic interests.