Lots of good advice here. I'll make some assumptions, such as that you were doing well as a contractor. And that generally means you've adapted some form of The

Lots of good advice here. I'll make some assumptions, such as that you were doing well as a contractor. And that generally means you've adapted some form of The "Feynman Algorithm": 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3. Write down the solution. Crucially, you've had an approach to point 0 (only implied above) - figure out what the problem is. What is the domain? What is the data like? What does the problem suggest for transforming the data? About transforming the data model so the hard problem become easy? As a contractor, you'd probably work on point zero with your client - and as the relationship would typically be new, both of you knew this part was essential. What does the client (want to) do? How can you help enable that? Now, you need to figure out point zero again, in the context of a large organization: large new code base, large new domain(s), large new company culture. Ask your manager or Co worker for a mentor. Pair program. Read code, read commits from your co-workers. Try to understand the data model(s). Read bug reports. All those things should help with point zero (let's call it context). Now you should be ready to apply the "algorithm" ;) [ed: and yes, learning/internalizing enough context to be useful takes time!]