Strategies for Engaging with the Codebase Amidst Non-Coding Assignments

Oh no, this is bad 😟. Not having any coding tasks for 5-6 months would greatly damage your career (and be extremely boring). I've helped a lot of engineers in similar situations (and have been in that situation myself), so I have a lot of advice here. Your 3 questions are actually a great place to start!

Should I take the initiative to review and study different parts of the codebase independently?

No, "studying" a codebase is a huge waste of time, especially at a Big Tech like Microsoft where a ton of the code will be legacy spaghetti. You won't truly learn a codebase unless you engage with it (i.e. write code into it).

Could I propose small, self-initiated coding projects to demonstrate my understanding and initiative?

Yes, yes, yes! This is the best cure when you're stuck in a situation without work. Create scope! At a Big Tech company, the obvious culprit is refactoring, adding automated tests, and other sorts of cleanup work. For me at Meta, there was no shortage of non-controversial refactors that didn't need any buy-in. For example, after Instagram's codebase supported Java 8, a lot of code needed to be migrated to lambdas. I submitted a ton of commits doing that (the IDE did most of the work haha).

How can I use this time effectively to ensure that when coding tasks are assigned, I’m fully up to speed and ready to contribute meaningfully?

Easy: By writing code. Find opportunities to write code. On top of code cleanup work, internal tools are another easy target. At Meta, a lot of internal tools were thatched together by interns and after they left, their tools fell into disarray. So that was another good source of coding with some decent impact when you were bored.

I also recommend talking to managers of sister teams (i.e. teams that have the same skip as you) and seeing if they have anything on their backlog you can help with. Again, Big Tech engineering teams often have tons of random cleanup work in the backlog from small bugs, internal tool patchups, and refactoring.

Here's another similar question I highly recommend: "Help needed: New grad job going at a slow pace with nothing to do - Next steps?"

As an engineer, this is a bad sign that you are not being trusted (or, more likely, your team is not trusted): "I wouldn’t be assigned direct coding tasks until September or October"

If your goal is to grow your career, get promoted, and increase your technical competency, this situation won't get you there...

I would recommend trying to create scope for yourself. This requires some level of relationship with engineers in the US who can review your code and trust you. Once you have that, find bugs or small improvements you can make and submit them.

I would not "study" parts of the codebase independently. It's very hard to study/read a codebase and get anything valuable from it, unless you actually make a change.

Here's a great discussion about finding scope internally vs changing companies.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your earlier response—it was enlightening. I’m currently part of a new team that’s focused on building the system, and at this juncture, there doesn’t seem to be any direct coding work available as the manager suggested. In such a scenario, could you guide me on how to create scope for myself?

Moreover, how can I discern if there is any coding work that needs attention amidst our build system tasks? Any strategies for identifying areas where I could potentially contribute code or improve existing processes would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Rahul,

Reflecting on your comments about the lack of direct coding tasks, I believe the situation may be less about trust and more related to the current stage of our team’s development. Since we’re a new team that’s still focusing on building the system, coding tasks might naturally be less frequent at this juncture.

Could you provide some strategies or steps on how to build those relationships with US-based engineers from a remote position? Also, how would you recommend I identify and approach opportunities for making impactful changes or improvements within the current work, even if direct coding tasks are not yet assigned?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how best to navigate this phase, particularly on finding ways to contribute meaningfully while the codebase and project are still taking shape.

Hi Alex and Rahul,

I’m contemplating the possibility of contributing to sister teams within our organization to broaden my exposure and contribute more actively during this initial phase where my team’s coding tasks are limited. Do you recommend discussing this with my manager beforehand?

I’m a bit hesitant because there’s a chance he might prefer me to focus solely on my current tasks, especially given the team’s nascent stage. If he doesn’t encourage branching out, how should I proceed?