I've worked at these companies for several years, gotten promoted, shuffled around internally, etc...it can be frustrating and demoralizing for sure. But it can

I've worked at these companies for several years, gotten promoted, shuffled around internally, etc...it can be frustrating and demoralizing for sure. But it can be rewarding too, and I saw plenty of people coast without stressing too much. Here are my survival tips. Tl;Dr, calm down and try to be positive at work. * Things are never as serious as they seem, and deadlines are rarely as solid as they seem. These companies have inertia and capital, and they understand that estimates are not promises. * Check in with your teammates regularly, and avoid giant complicated code reviews. Be ready to change direction quickly, and don't worry too much about throwing away a few days of work if a better solution presents itself. * Try to get a feel for how the in-house tools work. Even a basic understanding of how large companies handles things like deployments might be valuable in the future. * Ignore the politics. Try to help your peers, and be nice to them even when they're annoying. They may or may not be "low-IQ", but as long as your teammates feel like you help them out, you should get good annual reviews without needing to work more than 40hrs/wk. * If you want to transfer internally, be up-front about it with your manager. In-house transfer applications aren't always private.