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Comment by zerr | Hacker News Reader

> bad stuff like tech debt, things becoming more complex/stale, data challenges, version/compatibility issues etc

You are missing the (most common) case that those bad stuff are already there when you join the new company. Switching jobs doesn't automatically mean starting from a clean slate.

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It is particularly informative to suffer because of a dumb decision you made 2 years ago

Yes. Painful but informative.

At that point you’re cleaning up other people’s mistakes, which is a very different beast than having to clean up your own.

Still possible to learn from other people's errors. Also I think these kinds of messes always have the same history. Lots of time pressure, technical debt was ignored... On the upside when being a bit more senior it's much more likely management actually listens to requests to keep technical debt in check

The good part of changing jobs is you get to see actually a lot of bad and good stuff, often even at the same project.

"The grass is never greener, it's just different"

Yes that is a good point. But my overall point remains. I ideally want to see a Senior Candidate gone through the entire lifecycle.

Part of being a highly experienced software engineer is being able to clean up the mess that the previous person made.

But usually you won't be put on the worst and most difficult pieces from the start at a new company.

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