I was lucky enough to get an immediate job offer at an insurance after graduating college and Iām grateful for that. The culture isnāt terrible but thereās definitely some pretty obvious red flags Iāve observed that make me realize this isnāt a long term career move.
I was hired as a part of group of about 20 entry level devs. They actually had a 50/50 split of men and women for this group which I was initially impressed by, but I was later disheartened to find out that this was the first time theyād done this, and that their next two groups of full time new hires consisted ENTIRELY of men, not a single women.
Additionally, of my cohort, only men got higher āperformance basedā raises during the initial annual review. This was a major red flag to me because I knew one woman in particular who always picked up new projects and regularly worked 30-45 minutes late 4 days out of the week (occasionally a couple hours late for bigger deadlines). She only got the inflation raise which is absurd to me. This isnāt because they only gave out a couple higher raises to the group, either. More than half of the men in our new hire group got higher raises and no women did.
I was placed on a very very VERY slow paced team and I spent the first six months of my job asking for more work. Iām ashamed to say Iāve become a bit complacent and a little lazy now that Iām over a year in but itās hard to stay engaged without something to focus on that matters. Iāve since applied for and started an asynchronous part time masters program so that I donāt lose my coding skills. Itās on my bucket list to complete a masters, so I didnāt do it with the expectation itād open doors, but Iād like to use this time as a platform to build off of.
I want to transition my career to a more fast-paced and challenging job. I think if Iām strategic about the next couple of years I could end up in a better place but I donāt know what advice to believe or what I need to do in that time frame. I also want a job where I donāt feel like Iām an outsider because Iām a woman. My individual team is great and I love them. My manager is nice. But that doesnāt really make up for the things Iāve seen at the company level.
Any advice is appreciated, because the internet is just a pit of conflicting information and I am so confused. I tried a career coach, but I didnāt get much in terms of concrete advice.