Corporate Labyrinth

Navigating the (tech) corporate world is already tough, let alone being a career-transitioner, a woman of colour (non-German too), and as a junior. Junior here is defined as having your very first FT job in said industry.
I've decided to dedicate my first blog-post to this topic not only because I've had to personally endure the whole ordeal quite recently, but because navigating people is so much more difficult than (legacy) codebases. As a junior weathering the current economic doom & gloom, I know we all resonate when faced with the dilemma of having to seize any opportunity that comes your way in order to get that crucial first professional experience, just to squeeze your toe in the door, vs. being able to filter and choose a company that truly values you as an individual. The goal of this post is to help you:
A) realize & understand that it's not your fault/ you're not to blame;
B) recognize those redflags sooner;
C) expand your toolbox with practical tips when traversing across these dark moments

Characters involved:
CEO: PS

• used to work at Tesla German branch back in 2014, as business director

VP of digital solutions: TR

• used to work at Tesla along with P, as sales

my manager: S

• around 14 yrs of experience
• 10 months with company

My team:
P:

• hired by S; been with company for 6 months
• around 14 yrs of experience

V:

• hired by S; been with company for 6 months
• around 9-10 yrs of experience

F1:

• full stack dev, been with the company since 2022
• a decade of experience

F2:

• working student, been with company since 2022

T1:

• working student, been with company since 2023

T2:

• product manager, been with company since 2022

L:

• working student turned junior, the only other female (but German) on my team
• hired by S; been with company for 6 months
• a career transitioner too; first tech job

Company background:

• scaleup German green energy sector ; will be 4 yrs old comes summer 2025

Redflag 1: When C-level execs are Elon Musk die-hard worshippers
Example) During my virtual onboarding, TR literally said "for the first bit of time, we will give you support, but after that, it's sink or swim on your own". Went on to worship Elon Musk & Tesla. Every time he's spoken at a team meeting, he always refers back to his Tesla days and how great its business strategies have been.

Similarly, PS, had been offended in the past, during meet & greet sessions when asked questions about diversity & inclusion. To which he replied "our company hires the right person for the right role"
At a recent meet & greet, PS said “your contributions are worthless” _(in bold letters)if you think you’re being polite when there’s nothing more you have to say”
PS then commented “but of course the media is only going to focus on the 'your contributions are worthless' part of the message".
His every other LinkedIn posts always somehow ties in Elon, politics, and hailing his days at Tesla.

Redflag 2: When the company doesn't have a solid, structured onboarding plan
_Example)_The company assigned me an American onboarding buddy to help me relocating to Germany. She had resigned (worked there for 5 months) before I had even begun. I was shocked and when probed, she replied "it was her personality, she didn't see herself growing her career there long term, but she didn't want to discourage me".
The company never found a replacement for her as my onboarding buddy.

Redflag 3: When the team manager + senior engineers gaslight your ability, efforts & for asking help, and failure of providing mentorship
Example 1): P dismissed requests for guidance during a logging best practices session, advising independent research instead of providing team-specific examples.

Publicly (during recorded team knowledge sharing sessions) questioned my preparedness when asked for direction, contrasting with responses to similar basic questions from other engineers (eg, F2's Storybook inquiry).

Advocated for unstructured “exploratory phases” and learning through trial-and-error, resisting direct guidance even during pairing sessions.

Criticized collaborative debugging, framing it as a missed learning opportunity if he walked through the steps with me. To him, 'pairing' was black & white: either he tells me the answer, or he doesn't, instead of thinking in terms of "guiding questions" that will assist a junior to derive the answer.

Outright purposefully ignored my presence during a tech department wide demo recording where he didn't acknowledge my presence as being on the same team as him. None of the other colleagues present corrected him.

Example 2):

V dismissed my adherence to branch/ticket creation best practices for experimentation, calling it unnecessary and implying managerial alignment without direct evidence.

Displayed condescension during task discussions, emphasizing comfort with “messy” code over structured processes.

Provided unhelpful responses to technical blockers, delaying resolution on purpose.

Example 3):

During past 1:1 with S, he had failed to provide concrete metrics or actionable feedback after citing concerns about my development pace needing improvement. He was unprepared to answer my questions.

Minimized my contributions to process improvements (e.g., pairing proposal, knowledge library,Lokalise GitHub integraion, writing end to end user mob testing instructions within a day, volunteering for non-dev responsibilities such as hosting retros, retros, tech deep dives, daily standups) as non-core priorities.

Offered contradictory guidance: insists on autonomy but implied over-reliance on others during team shortages.

Delayed clarity on role expectations, deferring and deflecting discussions about measurable goals.

Redflag 4: When your manager does not foster a psychological safety net for you to disclose these poisonous conduct

During my tenure, I never had the necessary psychological safety net to discuss any of these concerns with him, in fear that I will be let go during probation, because I will be viewed as "sensitive", "can't work under pressure", "not autonomous enough", "not learning fast enough".

Redflag 5: failure to establish an inclusive working environment for non-German speakers, despite company policy indicating that English is to be used as the main communication language

Consistently, my team would fail to switch to English when I joined the remote daily standups, to on-site team workshops where they would speak German blatantly to my face. I was afraid of speaking up because I didn't want to be lablled as "whistle-blower" on the smallest things.

To mitigate these redflags:

Tip 1: Identify your allies, FAST
I reached out to my ex-onboarding buddy to ask about her experience at the company via a virtual coffee chat. To my surprise, she did. And she validated all my concerns and reflags, plus sharing the reasons that drove her to resign.
I had also reached out to another current American colleagues who had also shared mutual redflags regarding company work ethics and culture. The huge sigh of relief when I feel validated knowing that I'm not crazy or unreasonable to expect proper mentorship and onboarding strategies. It's NOT my lack of anything, it's the company weaseling out its responsibility to provide such.

Tip 2: Using your private account, thoroughly document instances of all poisonous behaviour, plus a "brag sheet" of accomplishments
And time stamp every single occurrence for your own references. Better yet, take screenshots of everything. It's laborious, but you will thank yourself later.

Tip 3: Where possible, record every single pairing session
Package this with a positive spin, highlighting how this will benefit the team/company. For instance, "this will create access to on-demand learning, enabling new joiner to onbaord faster etc". This will at least somewhat hold their behaviour responsible.

Tip 4: Don't burn all bridges
Hold on to those allies you've identified earlier. Extend your appreciation by having lunch with them, one on one. I still maintain a good working relation with the manager of a different team, whom I know understands my perspective. You never know when you will need a reference.

Tip 5: Take control of the narrative (proceed with caution; only if you are financially stable)
Like my ex-onboarding buddy, I had also resigned. Take control of the narrative is critical because you get to tell the story from your viewpoint. There is a distinction between the HR knowing that "I was fired/let go (which will be viewed as a con)" vs. me storytelling the reason why I had resigned (eg. due to learning style differences, growing in a different direction than the company is heading etc). Ultimately, being constantly undervalued, having your contributions going neglected, dealing with tech pro personalities and subpar managerial guidance, non-existent onboarding/ramping up/ whole team support, c-level exec Elon Musk worship culture and then some, it was in my best interest to leave this toxic environment. DO NOT underestimate the damage of "death by a thousand cuts". The vicious cycle of self-doubt is hard to break once you've been quicksanded.

Conclusion:
And with these words, I hope you will find some form of solace in knowing that your mental health and self-worth should always take priority over any company. At the end of the day, an organization will always put its own business interest ahead of you, so you need to lookout for yourself above all else.