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> If the work is good and the company is good, why leave? Possible reasons, off the top of my head: 1. Being approached by a recruiter or hiring manager and e

> If the work is good and the company is good, why leave? Possible reasons, off the top of my head: 1. Being approached by a recruiter or hiring manager and end up being given an offer you can't refuse (eg much more money, dream job, etc). 2. Your spouse or significant other has to move to another city for their job, you don't want to leave them, and your current employer won't let you work remotely. 2a. Ditto with needing to move to care for an older and/or ill family member. 3. A shift of passion into a new career. 4. Health problems that cause such an extended leave of absence that you may as well leave. 5. I've encountered some managers who are leery of people who have spent "too long" at one place, wondering, eg "Why did s/he stay there for ten years? Did this person just find a spot to coast and collect a paycheck? Why hasn't s/he moved on to bigger and better things?" I think this line of thinking is just as knee-jerk as being leery of "job hoppers".

JustSomeNobody 10y ago
re: 5. That's just wrong-headed logic. Nothing wrong with being at a company that long. In fact I would love to see more companies able to keep devs for their entire career.
- jackmaney 10y ago
  Can anyone name a company that, in 2016, is known for keeping a significant number of their employees for their entire career?
delphinius81 10y ago
re 5: Or they live in the SF/Bay Area and that one job pays them enough that they can afford to pay their mortgage (if they are lucky enough to have one), children's school/college, car, etc. and still have money left over for date night. Once all those expenses pile on, there are very few companies that will pay you enough. You aren't going to hop to a risky startup @100k/year when you have those kinds of expenses. But then, if you finally got that job at Google, you can probably move on to wherever you want afterward no matter how long you were there.
- maverick_iceman 10y ago
  I keep hearing this a lot. But is it really true that a tenure at Google makes you super attractive for other companies? How does Facebook compare?
  - delphinius81 10y ago
    On the engineering/product side of things, a lot of it boils down to the technical challenge of their interview process. Essentially, getting a job offer from those companies (and others of their ilk) show that you have very high capabilities. Their interview bar is so much higher than most other places, that you are proving yourself capable of the technical side of things. That doesn't mean you have the soft skills or personality to succeed somewhere else, or even that your technical skills will matter to the new company's product, but it's attractive to the recruiters/hiring managers trying to fill roles.

JustSomeNobody 10y ago

re: 5. That's just wrong-headed logic. Nothing wrong with being at a company that long. In fact I would love to see more companies able to keep devs for their entire career.

jackmaney 10y ago
Can anyone name a company that, in 2016, is known for keeping a significant number of their employees for their entire career?

delphinius81 10y ago

re 5: Or they live in the SF/Bay Area and that one job pays them enough that they can afford to pay their mortgage (if they are lucky enough to have one), children's school/college, car, etc. and still have money left over for date night. Once all those expenses pile on, there are very few companies that will pay you enough. You aren't going to hop to a risky startup @100k/year when you have those kinds of expenses. But then, if you finally got that job at Google, you can probably move on to wherever you want afterward no matter how long you were there.

maverick_iceman 10y ago
I keep hearing this a lot. But is it really true that a tenure at Google makes you super attractive for other companies? How does Facebook compare?
- delphinius81 10y ago
  On the engineering/product side of things, a lot of it boils down to the technical challenge of their interview process. Essentially, getting a job offer from those companies (and others of their ilk) show that you have very high capabilities. Their interview bar is so much higher than most other places, that you are proving yourself capable of the technical side of things. That doesn't mean you have the soft skills or personality to succeed somewhere else, or even that your technical skills will matter to the new company's product, but it's attractive to the recruiters/hiring managers trying to fill roles.