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There is no right or wrong answer but I personally do prefer to see some stability at least at 1-2 companies if you are senior. Reason is that unless you have s
by codegeek 4y ago
There is no right or wrong answer but I personally do prefer to see some stability at least at 1-2 companies if you are senior. Reason is that unless you have spent at least 2-3 years at one company/team, you haven't come across bad stuff like tech debt, things becoming more complex/stale, data challenges, version/compatibility issues etc etc. If you keep jumping ship every 1-2 years, it tells me you have never worked on those challenging/boring issues and I wouldn't want you on my team.
It is much easier to work on shiny stuff and jump ship than taking ownership of crappy stuff. Remember, what is shiny initially can become crappy over time and I want engineers who have been through all of it. Not just the good parts.
- zerr 4y ago> bad stuff like tech debt, things becoming more complex/stale, data challenges, version/compatibility issues etc You are missing the (most common) case that those bad stuff are already there when you join the new company. Switching jobs doesn't automatically mean starting from a clean slate.
- codegeek 4y agoYes that is a good point. But my overall point remains. I ideally want to see a Senior Candidate gone through the entire lifecycle.
- candiddevmike 4y ago"The grass is never greener, it's just different"
- frant-hartm 4y agoBut usually you won't be put on the worst and most difficult pieces from the start at a new company.
- cirgue 4y agoAt that point you’re cleaning up other people’s mistakes, which is a very different beast than having to clean up your own.
- blablabla123 4y agoStill possible to learn from other people's errors. Also I think these kinds of messes always have the same history. Lots of time pressure, technical debt was ignored... On the upside when being a bit more senior it's much more likely management actually listens to requests to keep technical debt in check The good part of changing jobs is you get to see actually a lot of bad and good stuff, often even at the same project.
- capitalsigma 4y agoIt is particularly informative to suffer because of a dumb decision you made 2 years ago
- mooreds 4y agoYes. Painful but informative.
- gwbas1c 4y agoPart of being a highly experienced software engineer is being able to clean up the mess that the previous person made.