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Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

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Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#691

Post by dgunay »

My last job was I think maybe a somewhat less common story than I see here. I definitely did want more money and could see the raises begin to slow down as I reached the upper half of my pay band. What really had me looking though was that I was using dead-end proprietary tooling, with no team to work with, becoming the single point of failure on one of my department's main "products" I guess if you could call it that. It also still involved a lot of mind numbing work and dealing with red tape since it was a defense job.

It was about year 3 and I needed to leave or I'd get pigeonholed there forever, so I just took the first appealing job offer that I scored and bounced. Decent raise but the new environment has made my resume massively more appealing (using very in-demand tech, managed to get a fast title bump, I lead a small team now, etc).

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#692

Post by crucialfelix »

maxsilver wrote: post #435
steveBK123 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too many roles / too many hats is far too common and why I find it hard to stay anywhere more than 4-5 years. As a senior IC in a super-flat & growing org.. I'm almost like a customer successs engineer, product manager, scrum master, senior developer and tech lead all rolled into one. Management administrivia I accumulate administrative things my manager doesn't want to do & pushes down I do unofficially own a part o…

> I'm almost like a customer successs engineer, product manager, scrum master, senior developer and tech lead all rolled into one. This is also me. Except I really like it. But I'm not sure what to do about it, it can reflect super poorly on a resume for some reason. "Oh, your applying to be a Senior Engineer? Look at all this product management and developer manager experience on your resume, you must not really be…

Technical Product Manager

Followed by a one liner summary

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#693

Post by jrumbut »

b112 wrote: post #472
travisjungroth wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you, but that's surprising. I've generally had my well-roundedness very well-received.

The problem is, some cannot believe that high performers, can be experts in multiple branches of a field. Their development slows to a crawl, as they get stuck in one role. Yours, and others like you, just keep that intense growth happening. It isn't necessarily their fault, either. Circumstances can keep someone slotted deep in a role, with no way to expand laterally. So, they may literally think such breadth and de…

The other aspect is organizational appetite for risk.

The first company I worked for let anyone grow into any role they proved they could do. If you solved the hard problems you were the senior developer, if you took the reigns you were quickly promoted to lead/manager. Seniority didn't count for anything and roles were very fluid.

That's an uncommon situation and what I've learned is it's hard to imagine if you've spent a career in more traditional organizations.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#696

Post by meddlin »

I voted company culture, but that's not the whole picture.

I was laid off about a month ago (2 weeks before Christmas; "non-performance business-related decision"), but I was job searching anyway. Why? Because nobody freakin' listened, and my position wasn't taken seriously. Call it strategy misalignment, bad culture, whatever.

After joining, I learned they had 4 CIOs within 3 years. As a mid/sr. level engineer, I was teaching senior management about my position while also learning about it myself. I still don't know how many they laid off during the annual review period, but it was at least several to a couple dozen.

I'm done. I know now why so many retire early to farms, baking, wood working, homesteading, etc. Corporate can have their BS.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#697

Post by meddlin »

jzb wrote: post #70
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #9

My old boss Eric Carlsen used to say, nobody left because of money. They may get more money if they change jobs. But they start looking because they're unhappy. So when somebody asked for more money, he'd start by asking what was bothering them.

That's a pervasive story that lots of people want to be true, but I can tell you firsthand it's not something you should bank on. I've definitely left jobs because money and only money. I've definitely watched co-workers and friends do the same. There's definitely a ratio of job satisfaction / money where more money won't cancel out a toxic work environment (there's no reasonable amount of money that would persuade m…

Yep, gotta agree. I picked up and moved 500 miles because of money. Sure, ATX is a tech hub and all that jazz. I moved from a place where top-end after 10 years was $80k-100k/yr, and there were few jobs to pick from. I moved and got 2.5x's my old salary.

Now I'm looking at starting my own thing and moving back. Why? Because money. (real estate) Yes, family would be close again. But when comparable homes are $600k vs. $275k...c'mon, I'm ready for these tech hubs to not be as necessary.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#698

Post by [deleted] »

yibg wrote: post #543
car wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People don't leave companies, they leave managers."

I hear this all the time, but I've actually never left a manager. I've liked all of my managers. It's usually either some external force like a compelling opportunity or something with the org that is beyond my manager's control.

[deleted]

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#699

Post by lpapez »

temporallobe wrote: post #652

Wish I had seen this thread earlier, as this will get burried now. Oh well, here it goes: I am seriously considering leaving my current position as a lead developer because I am basically taking on the role and tasking of SCRUM master, architect, build engineer, DB admin, UI/UX consultant, technical writer, and not to mention - developer! I often find myself writing unit tests until 11 or 12 because I am stuck in mee…

The first thing that needs to be done in this situation is to stop working overtime. By working overtime and completing everything that needs to be done you are sending the message "yes, everything is fine, we got this". If you stop delivering on time, questions will be asked why - and only then things might start changing.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#700

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

chris11 wrote: post #434
steveBK123 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, I'm rather experienced and make many multiples of 50k/yr, so its not really a compensation thing. It's more that it feels very ephemeral / tenuous as none of it is in an org chart or official. It is basically what problems management has to solve and what seniors are available at the moment. I am, officially in title and org chart an IC. In reality 10-20% of my time is IC dev work. 6 months ago it was 50%, 6 m…

I'm just a senior IC, and not at FAANG. But my employer does recruit from FAANG. 0%-20% sounds low for dev work, but the basic description looks somewhat familiar. We don't have project managers, and not all teams have product managers, so seniority can get you more of that work, and less dev work. I don't think ICs do managerial people management if you don't include mentoring. And I do know one or two directors who…

They do, but it's vastly easier to get promoted to those levels as a manager, because the organization needs managers to function, but super senior ICs are less critical.
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