[benzesandbetter]

I suspect you already know the answer here.

The organization, culture, and fit with the role are massively important to your success.

What you're describing in Company B sounds like a failure of hiring process, management competency, or both.

A well-designed hiring process should give both the company and candidate a clear idea of how well they will match with the role. While there are people who interview well and underperform, a good hiring process should really catch most of those. This is one of the things that distinguishes true HR professionals from the amateurs.

As a candidate, you want to ask the right questions to understand what's expected of the role. This can include examples of the kind of projects/tickets you'd work on, as well as the overall pace and vibe of the team.

Provided that the new employee is in the general ballpark of what's expected for the role, their managers should help them succeed, communicate clear expectations, give specific and constructive feedback, and provide the resources for them to adjust to, and succeed in the role.

I think you're also discovering the differences that can exist in leveling between companies. What is expected of a senior engineer at one company could be intermediate at another and so on.

It can be worthwhile to reflect on this experience to look for clues you may have overlooked in the hiring process. Sometimes those clues can be subtle and other times they can be hard to miss. Similarly, it can be beneficial to think of questions you could ask when interviewing in the future to help identify dysfunctional or toxic culture.