Career Change #1
Having just finished my first week at my new employer, I’ve been reflecting a bit on the process of changing jobs. Although this is my first time doing it, I think there are some valuable things I’ve learned just by understanding what made my experience so great at my previous company.
Since starting, naturally I've had several people ask me “How did your first week go?”. And my answer to that is: simultaneously productive and unproductive. Unproductive because of the usual expected stuff: setting up devices, logins, on-boarding, etc. Productive because after joining, I realized I already had quite a few existing connections. That lead to some spur-of-the-moment 1-1s with a few great engineers from adjacent orgs, and I found those conversations really enlightening for understanding the new place I was in. Things like: how divisions are organized, who's who, and where to get help when I need something specific. These are the kinds of things you typically develop over time at any company, but having a few existing connections really accelerated that process. For anyone early in their career reading this: I know "networking is important" has become a bit of a platitude by now, but it really is one of the best things you can be doing for yourself regardless of what you're working on - especially if your industry is on the niche/specialized side.
On the departing side, I'd say things were bittersweet. I was fortunate enough to be at a place that cared about my growth and took a chance on me as an intern who came in with nearly zero C++ and Graphics experience. It was also a crucial time in the early days of Samsung's GPU program where the first product had yet to be shipped (EU version of the S22 line), so in some ways everyone was still figuring out what they were doing. This meant that there was a lot of room to grow, and that there were absolutely no "stupid questions". It was and still is a supportive environment. So yeah, you do end up getting a bit sad about leaving that kind of place, where you spent 40+ hours a week. The work was fulfilling but ultimately the people were what I valued the most.
In terms of what's coming there's not much I can say now. But I'm excited for the projects I'll be working on. As someone who's more personally invested into the PC gaming space, working on Windows is refreshing and it'll be a great opportunity to get some DX12 experience under my belt. It can only get better from Vulkan, right? (I kid, I love Vulkan despite its flaws).