What began as a promising career move quickly became a source of stress and regret for a lead developer.
The lead developer shared his experience in a Reddit post, describing the realities of life after a promotion in a service-based IT company.
“Pressure after becoming a lead developer at a service-based MNC,” the caption of the post reads.
Leadership role turned stressful:
According to the post, the developer recently switched jobs and was promoted to a lead developer role.
While the promotion appeared positive on paper, the post said it severely affected the developer’s personal life and limited career learning and growth.
“This hasn’t been completely beneficial for me as it has really impacted my personal life,” the post adds.
Most of the project work had been completed by another company before being handed over a year earlier. Despite repeated requests for proper knowledge transfer or recordings, none were provided, leaving the developer with a limited understanding of the system.
The expectations placed on the lead developer were described as heavy and unrealistic.
“I am expected to deliver 6-7 hours of story work that is assigned daily and do the deployment daily, which again consumes 2 hours,” the post adds.
Along with these responsibilities, the developer is also expected to mentor the team and resolve user acceptance testing and production issues.
Reddit users reacted to the post by sharing similar experiences from service-based IT companies.
Several users said promotions often come with heavier workloads but little real support.
One of the users commented, “A lead has to figure out a way forward.”
A second user commented, “Health is wealth, don’t ruin it.”
“I went through the same loop; it’s totally draining and frustrating,” another user commented.