Everyone talks about switching companies for TC and coming back or switching again after 1-2 years. Does this look bad on your resume? Or is this the norm now? Is 2 years the norm or is it 1? FWIW, I’m junior and I’ve already had short stints (6 mo, 1 year) in the past. Looking to leave after 1 year since G isnt the place for me). Edit: I mentioned TC as common motivation on Blind, but I am personally looking for a startup with more learning and growth opportunities.
2 years is good, 1 year or less you’ll have some explaining to do. You need to have a really good story about skills that you’re picking up at each company and continuing on that learning path
I feel like picking up skills and learning is orthogonal to time spent in one role. IMO learning quickly peaks unless you find new projects. We trade off learning new skills for having an impact using what you already know. I think the more important factors are (1) the amount of impact you’ll have had (and whether you completed complex projects), and (2) whether this signals that you will not stay long in the next role. (1) is not particularly important if you are a fast learner, or already ramped up. I see some engineers make a lot of impact on a team and move on. Neither factors are very important at a startup I’d guess. Recruiters similarly only care if you stay one year.
Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. Do you think that applies in engineering management roles as well? There I think it leans closer to 2 hear as minimum, since navigating the organization and create leverage tends to take a bit longer. High growth teams might have different success criteria through, even in a larger company context.
When I see a candidate with many 1-2 year job stints it raises huge red flags for me. If you've never stayed at a job longer than 2 years, I would not be inclined to hire you unless you had a really good reason. While it may help you in the short term with TC increases, it will hurt you in the long term since it makes you look undependable.
It is pretty standard in tech to move after 2 years.
After 2 years. It's generally 3-4 years for more senior people. Not every year. I would not hire a person who is flipping every year. I would ask what impact has OP delivered in his or her 1 year at various jobs? It can take up to 6 months to ramp up to new codebase, tooling, architectures. And another few months to build domain knowledge and business knowledge. If you are moving every year... How are you delivering?
2 will always look better than 1. Also depends on how many roles within your total YOE. I have 4.5 YOE and across those, 4 jobs: 5 mo, 1.5 yrs, 1.5 yrs, and 1 yr. (No-name companies except for maybe one large public non-FANG company) I've had no problems getting brought onsite for both startups and FANG. They definitely ask about it though in the behavioral interviews. I always answer first with the overview of each job was a better fit each time, and noting a couple of major reasons that weren't in my control in my case (moving across the country, reorg, etc). Results are positive in these interviews but I definitely would rather not get questioned by it if I had the choice. In general, I don't recommend it unless you're absolutely not growing in your role anymore. I was glad to have jumped in one of my shorter roles because growth stagnated very quickly and I knew it wasn't going anywhere. I agree with some posters here that it's hard to gain long-term, significant impact in just 1 yr except maybe in a startup. I'd say stay for 2 years and look for a new team to try first. You'd still have the G name to help you in the future but it'll look much better if it's for more than a year.
I have 10 hrs of exp and LinkedIn is my 7th company. My friend who works for VMware with same years of experience is into the 11th company. Both of our CTC have a huge gap and he still get Calls from the recruiter. Until n unless you can explain your work and reason to come out, should be fine
What is CTC?
7 companies within 10hrs, that's impressive, especially in bay area traffic
I generally change company when either m not happy with work, colleagues/manager OR I am getting >30% jump. Not much an issue changing company every 1-2 year
I change on average in 1.5 years. Did it several times. 5 jobs in 8 years. No problems whatsoever. If you are good and prove that you would contribute to the company, they will hire.
Also, at least at Amazon, people rarely even look at your resume during a loop, so it's never even a factor
If I am the manager, I won't hire the guy hops a lot every 1-2 years. Just my 2 cents 😀
I assume then that you give our yearly compensation increases that don't require us TO hop every two years?
Don't forget promotions and transfers too. If you don't want people to hop after they get promoted, make sure you're paying them as much in the new role as your competitors would. That means the same as what you're paying new hires, most likely.
Y do u wr8 like dis? It sux.
Why g isn’t for you ? 2 yrs is pretty good for standards
I’m seeking more impact and growth opportunities and want to work with folks that feel the same. I might look around internally for other teams, as mine seems fairly complacent. Or maybe I am a startup person, sigh.
Nah it's not just you. I'm feeling the same about my team.