Two questions I always ask a team: Do programmers on the team interact with users of their software directly and what are the technical chops of the leadership

Two questions I always ask a team: Do programmers on the team interact with users of their software directly and what are the technical chops of the leadership in charge of engineering. Technical chops: do they engage in the wider software engineering community, what projects have they worked on, do they publish papers, give presentations, do they have a body of work, etc. If the answer to the first is no and the answer to the second is difficult to find out then I don't even need to work with the team for a while to know there is going to be dysfunction. It tells me that this is an ego-driven team, inexperienced and politics will play a huge part in getting work done. If the answer to the first is yes and the answer to the second is still difficult to find there's going to be some bullshit. You will have a toehold to fight against it because you can get the data you need from your users. The answer can be no on the first one and the leadership can come from a good history of delivering good work. There is a range of bullshit here. You can still have ego driven development with a lot of bullshit. If you can't talk to your customers it's hard to know whether your leadership is bullshitting or not. However if you have done your research on leadership and trust them then there can be minimal amounts of bullshit. If the answer to the first is yes and the leadership has a strong background and is well known then go work on that team. This is going to be a great team with almost zero bullshit. This combination is extremely rare but wonderful when you encounter it. How I deal with bullshit -- get a therapist if you can afford it, group sessions if you're strapped, or start a group with local people to vent and get support. Burnout happens when you can't escape an environment that puts a lot of stress on you and you feel like you cannot control it. You might need to deal with the bullshit because you need the job to support people who depend on you. You can't deal with burnout by believing in yourself. Get a support system. Bullshit is everywhere. It's often not because you are smarter than everyone else and can see it. It is often because you can't see everything going on and nobody can read your mind either. Bullshit happens when well-meaning people with insecurities are trying to meet unrealistic expectations (whether self-inflicted or social doesn't seem to matter). The best way to not spread bullshit is to leave your ego at the door. Seek teams that minimize bullshit and don't put unrealistic expectations on people.