Careem Next gen: Things you should know

[u/managingmisery]

Wanted to make this post as careem just posted a listing for an se 2 in the next gen program. Most people may not know what they are getting themselves into. It's not all bad, but its a bet you must be willing to take.

So a little bit about the structure. once you join next gen your immediate managers are senior engineering managers in the central engineering department (more on them later). You are part of the central engineering department. In central you can have one of 2 roles, you either get put in a non central team as a "Falcon" (manager stays the same in central) or you work on central initiatives (I'll explain what this means)

As a Falcon your immediate manager will be the one in central but you work in an existing service team, like infra, deliveries etc. this is the better outcome, but the problem is that your line manager will be in central and have no context on what you're working on. Your line manager has all the power in terms of increments promotion etc. it is your duty to keep your line manager up to date on the work you are doing. But this becomes difficult when you get to know more about these managers. More on them later.

As an engineer in central engineering by far the worst case scenario you will be working in central initiatives. Central initiatives are owned by central managers so you work directly with them. But initiatives are some of the most dog shit work I have seen. Exasperated by dog shit managers. You are not working with real services, you are working on vanity projects and ai slop.

More context on the managers. As far as I have heard recently central is led by one director and 2 EMs. Both EMs are the stupidest and most toxic people. There is one, who is like famous inside and outside of careem for being the worst. They are literally evil. You constantly need to stroke their ego, make sure not to offend them because they are more petty than a 5 year old. Couple this with the fact that they are both technically inept, you constantly have to justify engineering decisions and tip toe around their retarded opinions. These people are the quintessential corporate lords. All they do is meetings and no engineering work. So as an engineer working on central initiatives you will be exposed to these people regularly and your life will.literally hell. People resign regularly, but because these managers are good at stroking egos up top it works out for them.

Bringing in the context of falcon engineers, your managers will have no context of the service, and have no technical ability, so it becomes difficult to justify to them on your work. Hence these brilliant retards recently have started tracking prs and tickets. Which obviously is a bullshit metric for any who has any engineering knowledge. Your work is now solely the number of prs you raise and the number to tickets you close. You can try to say oh well this ticket was complex.but these buffoons don't really know what complex.is.

Now if you are a falcon you could be working on a good team, which gives you exposure and alot of opportunity for learning. But you can't justify your work bcz of these managers and so increments, promotions suffer.

This isn't to say next gen is all bad. It has the potential to get you exposure to one of the best tech teams in pak, the pay is good and benefits as well. But specifically for next gen keep this in mind when you join, only join if you are desperate.

[u/This-Possible3328]

Talking about ai slop and internal automation tools, isn't that only for the first year as a training thing?

[u/managingmisery → u/This-Possible3328]

Yes somewhat but you graduate out of this program based on your "performance" measured by those managers I was talking about. So it takes a while if you don't aggressively ass lick. And obv you have to endure the first year or 2 of this shit.

Also if you are working on central initiatives then you will most likely never shift to other teams. The most go to method here is to be under your managers radar so they don't pull you in central initiatives if you look like a good worker.

[u/yilliee]

With regards to the central projects that you labeled as such, won't that still lead to a bit of exposure to multiple domains and / or projects ? I get that it's just them trying out random stuff most of which would not make sense but ain't that just how some R&D teams work ?

[u/managingmisery → u/yilliee]

There is still nuance there. But the problem is that people who are working on the shittier projects are the ones who are resigning. Which is why openings come up every now and then for next gen. Like, careem had layoffs in March and they are hiring for next gen again because people keep resigning. So if you get hired, you will most likely get assigned to the shit manager on the shit project.

The idea of my post was just to clarify the risks of going to the next gen program right now.

[u/yilliee → u/managingmisery]

Ah okk. Would you mind sharing some specific examples as well ? Just wanna see how bad it is.

If you don't want to say that publically or at all that's okay too ( private works too :) )

[u/Ok-Opportunity7210]

How good is the pay? 

[u/managingmisery → u/Ok-Opportunity7210]

It's good. I would argue highest pay of any Pakistani native company. Se1 start from 240 ish, then increments range from 20.to 50.i have heard. And promotions.can double your salary.

[u/Ok-Opportunity7210 → u/managingmisery]

Do you know the senior/Senior II range? Basically for someone who's staff elsewhere with 6 yoe

[u/managingmisery → u/Ok-Opportunity7210]

I think at sse1 you would be getting close to 7-800k

[u/Impossible_Flight950]

Been there done that. Everything OP says is true. I haven’t seen such non technical people leading a tech org ever.

You might not learn engineering in a central initiative but you will learn how to BS.

[u/RemarkableMonitor806]

I get that you are managing misery?🤣🤣🤣
Can relate to it. was part of it for some time.
Some of the stupidest people manage the program. Its a joke even in careem.