Ask HN: Sacrifice Seniority for Better Long Term Career Prospects? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Sacrifice Seniority for Better Long Term Career Prospects?

I’m currently at Job A where I have some seniority (5+ years) and a minor leadership role (tech lead on a small project). I enjoy what I’m doing and like the leadership experience. A larger leadership role is my goal, but I don’t see any opportunities for that anytime soon.

I now have the option for Job B, where I would have no seniority and little leadership (to start with). However, I would learn a lot of new technologies and tools, which would greatly enhance my skill set. Pay would be similar (good for the area) and Job B has a better pool of talented engineers to learn from.

Should I trade the seniority I’ve built up at Job A for a chance to learn more hard skills at Job B?

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Seniority really isn't worth much on a software team because no matter how high you climb, there's always someone above you who can override your decisions.

Once you have stayed at a company for more than 3 years, leaving for greener pastures is never counted against you. If you think it's good for your career, do it.

The problem is I'm not sure if it will be good for my career. Ultimately I'd like to be in more of a leadership role, and Job A has me doing some of that. However, its not clear how much room there is to move up. I like what I'm doing, but worried I'll get stuck while skills atrophy.

There's never enough room for everyone to move up. If you're comfortable in your role, stay there. But don't expect any more promotions.

If your goal is higher leadership roles, then neither - look for Job C, where you are a full-time manager/leader, and you can focus on increasing your leadership skills, not re-tooling your tech skills. You can likely look for a higher place on the org chart in a smaller company to hone your management skills, and than start the big fish/small pond dance, where you get good at a role in a small company, upgrade to a later role in a bigger company, then go for an even higher role in a small company again. Rinse/repeat every few years.

I would do it.

I am a "senior software engineer" equivalent at a large non-tech company (bank). I am painfully aware I am not at the level of a senior software engineer at a top or upper mid level tech company.

I would gladly take the opportunity to delevel to a mid or even junior level engineer to get into a top tech company. The funny thing would be my compensation would probably take only a minimal hit, if any at all.

I felt bored and depressed at my job as a senior developer where I wasn’t contributing much so I accepted a temporary position as a director of a small help desk team in another country for less money. I love it. I am really making a difference here and turning things around.

How did you find a temporary job in another sector in another country?

Military

You just need to decide whether you value being an individual contributor more than being in a leadership role.

You state yourself that your goal is a larger leadership role. It doesn't make sense to make a move in the opposite direction, especially if the salary at the other job is similar.

based on my understanding of your post, you WANT to go to leadership role in long term, but you got offer for non-leadership role. I would not accept this offer if both companies are in same caliber, because you don't know when you can adjust your ladder again to leadership position in upcoming years, you might end up being engineer for next 5 years.

If we are talking about different caliber companies, say jumping from medium sized business IT department to FAANG companies, then probably you might be okay, since after getting FAANG in your resume, your next journey might immediately start with Engineering manager, Team lead positions.

visibility * skill * demand = value , if your function as SE is to increase value. There isnt good answer , pick the role which has best as aggregate of all three. if its a leadership role in a small popular company thats worth more than a senior leadership role in an other company , offcourse all of these variables are subjective and to truly know you would have to talk to lot off people.

If you join a company that grows fast enough and put enough work in, you should be able to hit seniority and get promotions really fast. I'm usually able to master a segment of an entirely new tech stack within 6 months, no matter how complex, assuming that it's well documented.

Generally, a lot of companies prefer that someone has ownership over a segment of the architecture, so there will be opportunities to grow, assuming the company is decent.

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