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Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

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Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#51

Post by seti0Cha »

brianwawok wrote: post #18

Title doesn’t matter. Pay does. Also titles are not the same across companies. SR dev at one place is a level 5 dev at another is a lead dev at a third. If you are at the pay you want with a lower title, that is pure gold. It means an easy promotion, which is a pay bump. Fighting for a higher title as an IC when happy with the pay seems like you are fighting against yourself. You want to be hired at the highest possi…

Depends. A higher job title helps you land higher level jobs down the line and is expected with a certain amount of experience. If I see a resume where someone spent significant time as a mid-level while having 10 years experience, I'd wonder whether that person was not capable of working at a higher level.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#52

Post by ColonelBlimp »

>I found out about this only 6 months in.

The fact that you realised what had happened 6 months after signing the contract might give you some information about how motivated you were about this job in the first place.

Of course, this is just me guessing but it looks like you've been delaying an important decision about what you want and can do about your career. In fact, your message contains some hints about what the issue is.

Finally, not a piece of advice though, but whatever you decide, try to do it as a positive step not as a direct reaction to what happened with your current employer.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#53

Post by throwaway9191aa »

throwaway160123 wrote: post #24
throwaway9191aa wrote: post #11

This sounds like AWS, but probably resembles most large companies. Hire great people down a level, and suddenly you are raising the bar. However, you are also grouping folks with 10+ years doing great work with folks who just got promo'd on their first job out of college. I have not quit. Instead I became a high achiever in other aspects of life. I listen to folks at work talking about programming podcasts and online…

Not AWS, but yes, sadly I expect my employer is not the first one to do this. Sounds like you have a lot going on in the real life, and I have to admit I am a bit jealous now, I def should "get a life" outside of my work identity, something I have struggled to do successfully so far tbh.

I'm also 42 years old. None of this happened overnight. It is one of those things where you have to ignore where you will be in 5 months, and focus on 5 years.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#54

Post by cableshaft »

blhblah12345 wrote: post #28

If you quit today, expect this to be your last technical position. You will not find another job this year. I know incredible engineers with great experience, well known engineers, who have been unemployed 50% of the time or more during Covid. It's no longer a seller's market, it's a buyer's market. If you do find a new job, it will take you a long time, and you will take a lower salary than you have now.

For FAANG jobs, yes. For non-FAANG, it sounds like there's still a good amount of demand, especially for senior-level.

Regardless they shouldn't just quit without having another job lined up, and you have to be a bit more careful with your choice of company (maybe choose one that already jumped at the chance to do its "well everyone is laying off 10% of their staff, we should too even though we're still making record profits").

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#55

Post by Cthulhu_ »

If you've already decided to move on (based on the comments here), you can go in with a last ditch effort; show them you were hired as senior, show your glowing reviews, and demand a promotion and/or raise.

If they refuse, that's cool, you give them your resignation - they probably anticipate a resignation already.

If they try to meet you partway, that's cool too, but it's basically them making up for something they should have done when they hired you.

If they agree to your demands, that's an excellent result. That gives you a starting salary to negotiate with if you then decide to move on anyway, but any immediate financial pressure should be off your shoulders then.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#57

Post by ghaff »

blhblah12345 wrote: post #28

If you quit today, expect this to be your last technical position. You will not find another job this year. I know incredible engineers with great experience, well known engineers, who have been unemployed 50% of the time or more during Covid. It's no longer a seller's market, it's a buyer's market. If you do find a new job, it will take you a long time, and you will take a lower salary than you have now.

That's probably overstated but directionally correct. I know people landing new jobs. I also know of people who have been looking for quite a while and there's no particular reason to think things will improve this year. In general, if someone doesn't like where they are, they should by all means start looking around--but I wouldn't quit on the assumption I can find something better next week or next month.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#58

Post by wnolens »

Happened to me at AWS.

And worse, several clearly less talented folks on my team are getting promoted to senior before me (due to tenure/politicking). I virtually took the day off every time it happened.

And worse, my boss promised me promotion in an upcoming cycle once (after 1y), and it didn't come. It's promised to me again (after 2y). Should happen any day now.. can't help but feel it was held hostage to deliver a 6-8mo effort.

The only true leverage I have is to come to my boss with another job offer. And I tried, but couldn't find anything that I was willing to be called my bluff on. Job market is scary. In the US you are competing against 30k-50k layoffs (who are in the top 10% at least).

You are really angry right now, and perhaps rightfully so. Just don't make an objectively bad decision by quitting a job in a recession without another/better one.

Take 2 weeks off. Reduce your work hours/responsibility (if you're not senior, don't work like a Senior). Consider blocking off 2-3h/day for either interview prep, OR indie dev. Write a list of the things you appreciate about your current job and practice gratitude consciously.

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#59

Post by alva »

throwaway160123 wrote: post #24
throwaway9191aa wrote: post #11

This sounds like AWS, but probably resembles most large companies. Hire great people down a level, and suddenly you are raising the bar. However, you are also grouping folks with 10+ years doing great work with folks who just got promo'd on their first job out of college. I have not quit. Instead I became a high achiever in other aspects of life. I listen to folks at work talking about programming podcasts and online…

Not AWS, but yes, sadly I expect my employer is not the first one to do this. Sounds like you have a lot going on in the real life, and I have to admit I am a bit jealous now, I def should "get a life" outside of my work identity, something I have struggled to do successfully so far tbh.

MS?

Re: Ask HN: Should I quit my job?

#60

Post by orwin »

throwaway160123 wrote: post #24
throwaway9191aa wrote: post #11

This sounds like AWS, but probably resembles most large companies. Hire great people down a level, and suddenly you are raising the bar. However, you are also grouping folks with 10+ years doing great work with folks who just got promo'd on their first job out of college. I have not quit. Instead I became a high achiever in other aspects of life. I listen to folks at work talking about programming podcasts and online…

Not AWS, but yes, sadly I expect my employer is not the first one to do this. Sounds like you have a lot going on in the real life, and I have to admit I am a bit jealous now, I def should "get a life" outside of my work identity, something I have struggled to do successfully so far tbh.

I didn't "got a life" for like 5 years (8 if you count my productive school years when all my friends were also devs). I tried multiple sports in those five years, doing sport camps on summer to learn new stuff (mostly water-based in the beginning, i had a 31-32 BMI). I finally found out two sports i really like, i moved in a smaller city, closer to my family, and now am pretty much fulfilled. I have enough money to offer great vacations to my family, i hiked accross Europe in the last 3 years (well, actually mostly Spain and Portugal, i'm doing Italy next autumn, so hopefully at 60yo my trip will be done)(Btw, Spain: Best outside sport infrastructure i've came across yet).

I know it's a really "just do sport bro" advice, and i know that not everybody can do it (i actually have ankle issues since i was 18, and slowly becoming obese did not help at all, but i found a nice PT and techniques that mitigate the pain in the morning). You probably have money so you can try expensive sports like sailing and parasailing (i know i did).

The pandemic helped me in regard with moving out, trying new stuff (i took a 6 month sabbatical where i tried half a dozen new activities).

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