Ask HN: Why aren't you switching jobs? Discussion in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23563997 seemed to center around staying vs. switching jobs as a Software Engineer. So, let's hear it. It's common knowledge that you can make more money by switching jobs vs. accepting small percentage raises at your current job. So why are you staying? |
I started as a computer scientist in a bank and became a trader a couple of years later.
Outside of my company, it would not have been possible because I didn't study finance.
Some companies seem to prefer to hire from the outside rather than to give the chance to someone internally.
I joined the desk as a computer scientist. They quickly gave me the opportunity to develop the strategies with them and thus to understand/know the business.
At the bank for which I was working, this kind of move is not uncommon.
Pretty hard to do better I guess
1. Sizeable retention package at 1 year of employment.
2. My job is very undemanding at the moment and I get to learn a bunch of things in my spare time.
3. The optics of leaving after a short period of time.
4. Difficulties around finding a new job due to covid-19 and/or having to work fully remotely for a new company.
So I'm hanging around until the 1-year mark and doing my best to level up my skills as much as possible in the meantime.
Longer answer: I like my team and manager, although not my company and org (non-tech company), and the work has become very unchallenging.
But if I make a change, I want it to be to a company that will give me a significant benefit in terms of some combo of compensation, work, culture, and prestige. If I'm only going to get a 10%-20% raise but end up with a bad team or manager, I don't feel it's worth it.
...hence, I need to grind more leetcode, because all of the companies I feel worth jumping to are heavily gatekeeped by leetcode interviews.
* Apropos of the above, current salary and bennies are decent, bonus potential is great; no reason to rock the boat now
* Work teams are a mess at times but are tolerable enough. Being 100% remote at this point is cool. Better the devil you know, etc.
* Looking to buy a house and have a kid/kids soon, would rather focus on home life for now before creating additional wrinkles
* Been using a lot of different technologies over the past 5-7 years, "jack-of-all" but no mastery. I'd like to specialize a little more and go deep into a stack/language/skill-set. Easier to be at one place and focus on getting fluency and skill then throwing more complications into things.
In Australia, we get roughly 10 public holidays per year (depending on the state) plus 28 days of "annual leave" which is usually called PTO here (and an additional 10 days of sick leave, which usually isn't counted since it's not paid out if you leave the company).
* 45 days PTO when you would otherwise be working - it kicks in after 6 months, no hard policy besides "please don't use it all at once".
* Unmetered sick-leave.
* All federal and public holidays in your state, in addition to any public holidays in California (as that's when the rest of the company won't be working anyway).
* The catch is that you have to post your vacation photos to the company Slack when you get back.
Actually Covid may make working remotely more acceptable, so may lead to more options, if the economy does not prevent it.
I am likely making 1/2 of what I could be making if I moved to a FAANG and I am pretty OK with it. Is still plenty to live and save well.
There aren't a ton of open positions in my area right now.
I've been in obscure/obsolete tech for too long (neoxam and filenet).
I have a family to support, so I need the pay and benefits.
Otherwise, I would probably leave tech for something like construction. I'm tired of the unrealistic expectations.
For example, to get promoted I would need to work a 9 hour day instead of 8 hours. I put in extra time when needed, like for elevations and stuff, but I'm talking about consistently working a minimum of 9 hours. That's a 12% increase in my minimum daily work time for only a 7% raise. How stupid do they think people are?
What I wish I knew back then was that being "staff" could (and likely should) be carried over to the next company.