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> though not the cleverest engineer, [I] was one that worked quickly to prototype new ideas and took on some of the gruntwork that not every engineer wanted to

• ozarker 4y ago
  I’m a young engineer and I’m always happy to take on the grunt work to help the team as long as I get a little time to help on big picture stuff as well. I’m worried that I might be looked down on by more senior engineers who might think I’m just trying to avoid the more brain challenging work
  • benreesman 4y ago
    A nothing is “someone else’s problem” is hallmark of the true pros. Intermediate folks might run into a broken build and be stuck until the build team can unfsck it. The OGs just fix it. Keep up the work.
  • ptsneves 4y ago
    Very well. Grunt work is very appreciated and it not only allows you to start working without pressure it endears you to the other senior engineers as a can-do person. As they will feel grateful and released from the grunt work they might even start doing direct mentoring. They also will start to get to know you, with all the benefits it brings. That has been my experience in both professional as well as open source development.
• baxtr 4y ago
  My first manager told me: Grunt work is also work. Someone needs to do it. He was spot on. What I observe with many founders I interact with is that they want to focus on the exciting stuff. Building the product etc. Most of them don’t want to be bothered with boring stuff like financial planning, which sometimes breaks their necks.