But I was really about to quit with a job lined up. I gave myself to the end of 2025 to get a new job. I had savings enough to hold me off, but it was one of those things where I was ready to even do freelance or contract. Putting more time in searching and portfolios. I'd rather get more time making code that was publicly available on GitHub to show my prowness than just talking about it to people.
And I had an incredible support system from my partner. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking this leap without her. :)
Author here. I debated this, but the state of Google and YouTube together and certain things internally led me to just look for external opportunities.
Did you get a pay rise moving externally? One very negative thing I have found in my career: Exactly zero internal moves come with a pay rise, but nearly all external moves come with a pay rise. The choice is easy for me.
I don't mean this to be a callout, but what do you mean you led teams as an L4? Even if you were unofficially leading them, you get caught in the politics trap of not being able to claim any credit for having done so, because that means the higher levels in the workstream weren't doing their jobs, and you can't write that down or say it outloud. This is a problem in every hierarchical organization, and learning how to navigate it is unfortunately a part of the leveling process in itself when you are starting from a lower level versus being hired into a higher one.
Author here. I do agree to an extent. But getting datpoints from the other people in the company at those higher positions is important. Asking what can you do to improve and what you can do to make better impact. For my situation, many people did agree that they agreed that I should be up leveled. Some people did say I could work on different projects but they have seen people get up leveled for way less. Some of it is luck as well.
It's also a horrible swe job market out there. Haha
But the biggest is to never feel like it's a disfavor. You are worth it and there is always room to grow, I just didn't know how else to grow at the company anymore
Don’t listen to defeatist BS. If a candidate needs to grow, the response should be to give them small projects to lead and grow. A few university classes in missing subjects, coaching, etc. Not keep them in purgatory.
Author here. I'm touched by whoever posted this here. I hope people can read this and feel empowered to value themselves and try to make the impact they feel like they can.
Author here. They do, even most recruiters require this before submitting for some of these jobs. Most hiring managers also filter that out by behavioral interviews and seeing how you handle team work, large scale work, and discussion upwards and downwards. Especially the higher you go, the harder it is to lie to get through.
Author here. I do want to mention that I don't exactly know the situation my manager was in, but he definitely did not make me feel dispensible personally. He and I had long conversations about life and work and our own lives and how the company will continue.
Some manager may seem this way, but my manager (and the other direct managers I had I YouTube) felt the most human and caring people I have met. They had goals to meet, but I also felt they really cared for me (and their other reports). So I really thank them for that.
We geeks often like to go deep, and engineers who persist with shallow understanding of tech hit limits. But as you get more responsibility, getting quickly oriented to project/task/business stuff is extremely valuable. And tbh, doing the same for tech topics is valuable but harder to do.
Author here. I worked at internships and smaller contracts in HS and college. But I've been coding since the start of highschool with coding competitions and jobs that helped my neighbors and my grandparents. Even in retrospect, even though they were small or not as full time as what I did now, I would still count them as learning career experience
And I have been hired somewhere else. I was really close just to quit early and go to contract work. But I got really lucky with an offer a few months ago. If someone's feels like they want to quit, definitely investigate the amount of work it will take to be self employed. It's a lot, but understanding your own skills and being able to market that is a great ability to learn!
My man, if some Joe went as a salesman with 20 years of experience because every summer he sold some lemonade since he was 5, people would, well, at the very best pat one with “good for you, buddy, good for you.”
Then again, “fake it till you make it” is known to work too, so you do you. Definitely wouldn’t judge you in this economy to employ every trick in the book.
But I was really about to quit with a job lined up. I gave myself to the end of 2025 to get a new job. I had savings enough to hold me off, but it was one of those things where I was ready to even do freelance or contract. Putting more time in searching and portfolios. I'd rather get more time making code that was publicly available on GitHub to show my prowness than just talking about it to people.
And I had an incredible support system from my partner. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking this leap without her. :)