Interesting topic. I changed jobs a lot at the start of my career, and didn't really think much of it until I was interviewing for a job and one the the interviewers said "You've changed jobs a lot. How do we know we know you won't quit in 6 months if we hire you?" I was a little surprised by that and it really caused me to think about how that sort of thing looked to potential employers. I've been at that job for almost 4 years now, which is kind of a long time for me.
As for why I bounced around a little at first, there are a few reasons: - Salary. I love to write code, but I don't particularly enjoy having to go to work every day :) So, even though I enjoy what I do, I'm not going to lie and say pay doesn't matter (although it matters to me less now than it did 5 years ago). I found that early on, there are substantial incentives to change jobs - the amount of value a developer has changes quite a bit between 6 months and 2 years of experience, but no so much between 6 years and 8 years. Pay kind of follows that trend - I nearly tripled my salary the first 5 years of working, but now my potential increases are much smaller. - Startups can be incredibly stressful and demoralizing, especially if you join at the time between being a tiny startup and successful company. It seems like a lot of startups have growing pains during that time and don't really know how to hire or manage people very well. The hours are still usually crazy, but you also don't have as much upside from stock. It is even worse when you aren't really on the same page as management - trying to get the website up at 4 am on Monday morning when you've been there since 8 am on Friday is bad enough, but when it is for totally ridiculous reasons it is enough to make you quit. - Wanting new challenges. Interestingly, for how much people seem to disdain working for big companies, there are some really good things about them. The IT organization I work for now is quite large, so if you are getting bored or burned out by what you are doing, you can usually move to another project without the difficulties of getting an entirely new job. Of course, people still get reputations as project hoppers, and it isn't instantaneous to move somewhere else - especially if you are valuable to your current project - but at least there is always something to look forward to if you aren't thrilled with what you are currently doing. I, too, have wondered about what the "right" amount of time to spend at any one job is. I don't know that I'd knock anyone I was interviewing for spending 10+ years at the same place, but for me at least, it would probably be difficult to adjust to everything new after being at the same place for so long. As for too short - I think anything under 2 years on average might cause me to at least ask questions. It isn't so much a matter of not wanting them to leave too soon, but rather people who bounce around a lot and get bored easily often seem to have problems with the mundane tasks required to get a project done and out the door. I know a lot of guys who are up on the latest technologies and seem to have a new job every time I talk to them. I also know guys who aren't as flashy and always seem to get stuck with the last (and worst) 10% of a project and slog through it to get stuff finished. I'd rather have the latter in most cases, although I realize it is never as black-and-white as I just made it sound. - Spencer On Dec 4, 10:46 pm, Christian Catchpole <[email protected]> wrote: > Perhaps open the question to everyone. I've left good jobs for > various reasons. Geography, family.. redundancy? :). I interviewed > with a "premium employer" who i wont name. Their attitude was, > everyone wants to work here, so we reserve the right to not pay you > very much. The industry is fast moving so I think the expectation > that you would just stick with a 'premium employer' is not so clear > cut. The choice of employer comes down to many personal reasons, not > just salary and working conditions. Grass is greener. etc. > > On Dec 5, 1:47 pm, abnormative <[email protected]> wrote: > > > The Java Posse seem to have worked at some great places. I'd love to > > hear them discuss why they have made the job moves that they have in > > the course of their careers. (But only if they feel that they can be > > reasonably open about it.) Anyone else curious? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
