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Is it worth sacrificing your career and personal life just to stay in the company longer?

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Senior Software Engineer at Taro Community6 months ago

In taro there are tons of great resources for Job Switches, like:

  • As Alex explained here Job Switching has some caveats
  • As Rahul said, it is a red flag for recruiters when you switch jobs within 12-14 months.

I understand the point, but what if I choose the wrong company? It's well-known that not all companies can offer the opportunities that we wanted initially. In this case, should I stay longer even if I know that I won't grow there due to factors such as the company structure or lack of opportunity?

I have a goal of reaching senior levels in my career, but to achieve this, I need to gain expertise in certain areas, like

  • Strong domain knowledge to make an impact on the product side,
  • connections and collaboration
  • software craftsmanship.

Currently, my role does not offer me an opportunity to gain experience in the first two areas. As the product is well-regulated and the entire engineering team works on-site, it is difficult for me to connect and collaborate remotely.

On the other hand, this is making me lose my confidence and my ability to make an impact, even though I have gained hard skills and knowledge from my previous experiences in software craftsmanship part.

I am seeking advice on what to do next, should I even care about those red flags in my particular case if I switch the job?

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Discussion

(3 comments)
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    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    6 months ago

    There's indeed a very large cost when it comes to switching jobs quickly (time/energy for interview grind, looks bad on your resume, need to go through onboarding again), but sometimes that cost simply has to be paid. Work is such a big part of our lives, so if your job is making you miserable, you should 100% quit. No job is worth your mental health - At the end of the day, I just want everybody within the Taro community to be happy ☺️

    What I will say though is that you should thoroughly try to make things work if you can. In this market, staying at a job is much better than switching jobs (at least in a vacuum). Hopefully something from here can help: [Taro Top 10] Growing Fast With Remote Work In Tech

    If you still really think switching is the answer, Taro is here to support you as well and I recommend this course: [Course] Ace Your Tech Interview And Get A Job As A Software Engineer

    Side note: If you haven't been at your current job for very long (2 months or less), just leave it off your resume entirely and pretend you never did it.

    Best of luck!

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    Senior Software Engineer [OP]
    Taro Community
    6 months ago

    Thanks Alex for the advice 🙏

  • 0
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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    5 months ago

    In general, if you see major red flags in a role, you should leave. If your time at the company is < 6 months, you can exclude it from your resume, so you don't need to answer questions about that job.

    what if I choose the wrong company?

    How many times have you switched jobs within 12-18 months in the past? If you have 1 or 2 instances where you left after a short tenure, you can "explain it away" as a bad culture fit, a change in the direction of the company, or something else innocuous.

    However, if you've picked the wrong company 5+ times in your career, that's where there will be doubts about your judgment and ability to persevere through something difficult. I made a YouTube video about tenure within a company here: When To Properly Leave Jobs So Your Career Doesn't Get Punished