Make yourself useful to the right people at the right time. Pretty quickly you’ll be able to work across many teams on many problems. This is cool because in a startup you simply don’t get the same amount of exposure. It’s always the same product. Instead of looking to fix the systemic issues or looking to do politics, tackle one problem your team has and you’ll do well in no time. Different kind of work but can be rewarding

I'd say a big organization is a bunch of little organizations. What matters is: "do you like your boss?" and "how does your team work together?"

That feeling that you can't run at full speed is common in that kind of role but working in startups or other small co's you can have just as much or more dysfunction: you can run yourself ragged or feel like you're in a magically productive team or even both at the same time.

I have two relatives who work at a major online retailer that has 'Z' in the name and one of them is thrilled to go to work each day and the other just had a nervous breakdown because they had her doing three people's roles. The situation you have where you feel unproductive but the people around you think you are is pretty common because of the economics of scale: if you are working at a 100x bigger company that software you work on can have 100x the economic impact that it would for the smaller company. So a big company can have an organization that seems unproductive based on your instincts working at small companies but you are creating enough value to pay you so you are doing fine. [1]

If you have some slack, don't feel bad using it in a way that is meaningful and restorative to you and keeps you in fine condition to do what your organization needs of you.

[1] A friend of mine quoted Marx and said I was being ripped off because I was getting paid less than the value I made and I told him... I've tried the alternative and it usually ends up as hell on Earth.

My few cents:

1. Visibility over actual completion of work (presentations, sessions, etc.,)

2. Communication (mainly over email! because email is used as a golden truth when there is a conflict between individuals or teams)

3. Getting to know other members/teams (you don't know when you will end up collaborating with them)

4. Being thorough with reviews (be it code or ideas)

5. Proactively participate in meetings (1. to grab the opportunity 2. refuse to take up the work which is not actually yours)

6. 1x1s - if the manager/management doesn't see your name often you end up in the list (you know what list)

7. Before asking questions in the Slack channel or meetings or an email (do the groundwork, a basic question from a senior will cost a lot)

8. OOO - religiously setting out-of-office saves you lot of troubles

9. Collaboration is only on paper, actually you should put a border around your team and work to guard what's rightfully yours, otherwise the other team will showcase it as theirs!

10. Don't respond on weekends, even if it will break the company. Once you set the bar, you will be expected to live within that bar.

11. There is nothing like "this is critical", what's critical will always have some buffer, tell the truth and ask for extension.

12. Don't go harsh on anyone in a corporate environment, because you will end up working with that person.

13. Attend org wide presentations, you get to know something new or you get to know whom to reach out for what or you get to know what shouldn't be presented