from Gergely Orosz | by Gergely Orosz

I don't talk about too about the year I worked at JP Morgan. The people were nice, the money really good, but the workplace & culture really drained me down. The culture was... not like a software engineering culture. When I moved to Skype, the change was an instant "relief".

At JPM, everything just felt complacent. People were okay having meetings on meetings for meetings. I had to ask permission to install tools to make me/the team more productive: and most were rejected. Having good relationship with traders was more important than shipping stuff.

Talking with people who did brief (similarly 1 year or so) stints at these banks, before moving back to "tech-first" companies. They're telling me, unfortunately, not much has changed, 10 years later. "Culture and bureaucracy made speed and innovation difficult" sums it up.

At JPM, I got drained by the end of the day. I recharged my batteries by building "real" software with side projects t home. I build most my Windows Phone apps this time. They were far more fun. It just felt no one but me had the least interest to move fast, with good quality.

The one very imporant thing I learned while working at JP Morgan was that every few months you should ask yourself: - Does my work give me energy? - Do I feel challenged day to day? - Am I learning? If the answer is no: leave for more challenges. There are plenty out there.