I’m feeling annoyed because I feel like I haven’t built a single new thing in months. Every week is the exact same cycle of chasing down outages, rushing out hotfixes, and patching tech debt that was written before I even started working. I'm starting to wonder if the whole industry is like this, or is my company just uniquely chaotic?

How do you handle a PM who won't stop creeping the scope after sign-off? Seriously, every single sprint it’s the same story. We agree on the goals, lock it in, and then a few days later it's "just one more small thing." Except that "small thing" completely blows up the architecture and wrecks our timeline. How do you guys manage PMs who do this without completely destroying the working relationship?

I just graduated with my bachelor's in computer science at 26. I had a good GPA, but it took me a few extra years to get through the program for various personal reasons. My main concern right now is the age gap. Since I'm starting my career a few years behind the typical age group, I'm worried I might never catch up financially or professionally. Will companies view my age as a red flag for entry-level roles, and does starting later cap my ultimate career trajectory?

My manager thinks full-day pair programming is great for collaboration, but I'm struggling with it. It feels like someone is looking over my shoulder constantly, which ruins my focus and leaves me totally drained by the end of the day. Should I tactfully tell my manager how this is affecting me? How do you all feel about pair programming?

Sprint planning as a new grad is a foreign language. Is it normal to feel so confused? Every time we do sprint planning, I feel completely out of the loop. The senior devs speak entirely in acronyms and base their estimates on decisions made years ago. As a junior, I have zero context and feel like I'm falling behind. Is this standard new-hire confusion, or should I be worried?