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My career trajectory was Dev -> Senior -> Lead -> Director -> Senior. I left a company and purposefully looked for my next job further down the ladder, after ha

My career trajectory was Dev -> Senior -> Lead -> Director -> Senior. I left a company and purposefully looked for my next job further down the ladder, after having profound burnout that made me question whether I wanted to keep working in the industry at all. I decided I like making software, I just didn't like the amount of stress, anxiety, uncertainty, politics, and bickering I was experiencing. In my experience, these things grew exponentially at each level, while the salary only grew linearly. So, I'm fine making merely "way more money than I need" while not crying in my car in the garage before work, which is something that actually happened many times at my old job.

zeroonetwothree 4y ago
How do you find a job at a lower level? I was trying to do this and no one would hire me. I guess I could lie about my experience.
- lelandfe 4y ago
  I stepped back from a lead to a senior dev this year. I was open about it to recruiters, saying my intent was to get back into being an IC. No one was even slightly put off by my resume or career direction. I'm not sure what "no one would hire me" means, precisely, but I didn't have an easy time – it took many months and near 100 applications to find the right spot.
  - hackerfromthefu 4y ago
    Yeah, BUT its the easiest job market in IT history to get hired right now ..
mattgreenrocks 4y ago
Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear you had to go through all that. What I've realized is the corporate ladder is a fiction that serves to keep people working harder and harder without significant pay bumps. It is an artificial status game that has real ramifications; however, since it is a zero-sum game, it ends up bringing out the worst in everyone. What are your goals now around your career?
RemoteIsHeaven 4y ago
> My career trajectory was Dev -> Senior -> Lead -> Director -> Senior. I left a company and purposefully looked for my next job further down the ladder, after having profound burnout that made me question whether I wanted to keep working in the industry at all Any chance you had terrible, even substandard leadership where you were Director (assuming that's where you had the profound burnout) and you would absolutely have loved it otherwise?
- reureu 4y ago
  the more places I work the more I realize that the standard is bad leadership.
  - RemoteIsHeaven 4y ago
    > the more places I work the more I realize that the standard is bad leadership. True! Why is that, though? Like - do the great leaders retire quick? Or is it that we are just an unlucky bunch who get exposed to bad leadership?

zeroonetwothree 4y ago

How do you find a job at a lower level? I was trying to do this and no one would hire me. I guess I could lie about my experience.

lelandfe 4y ago
I stepped back from a lead to a senior dev this year. I was open about it to recruiters, saying my intent was to get back into being an IC. No one was even slightly put off by my resume or career direction. I'm not sure what "no one would hire me" means, precisely, but I didn't have an easy time – it took many months and near 100 applications to find the right spot.
- hackerfromthefu 4y ago
  Yeah, BUT its the easiest job market in IT history to get hired right now ..

mattgreenrocks 4y ago

Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear you had to go through all that. What I've realized is the corporate ladder is a fiction that serves to keep people working harder and harder without significant pay bumps. It is an artificial status game that has real ramifications; however, since it is a zero-sum game, it ends up bringing out the worst in everyone. What are your goals now around your career?

RemoteIsHeaven 4y ago

> My career trajectory was Dev -> Senior -> Lead -> Director -> Senior. I left a company and purposefully looked for my next job further down the ladder, after having profound burnout that made me question whether I wanted to keep working in the industry at all Any chance you had terrible, even substandard leadership where you were Director (assuming that's where you had the profound burnout) and you would absolutely have loved it otherwise?

reureu 4y ago
the more places I work the more I realize that the standard is bad leadership.
- RemoteIsHeaven 4y ago
  > the more places I work the more I realize that the standard is bad leadership. True! Why is that, though? Like - do the great leaders retire quick? Or is it that we are just an unlucky bunch who get exposed to bad leadership?