Should I leave team?

Dec 14, 2019 22 Comments

Currently l62 in team for a little over year. When I joined over a year ago, the team had 10 people. In the past year, all 10 people have left and now it is just me and two other new hires. I am thinking if I should switch teams or leave Microsoft entirely.

One reason I think everyone left is because of the environment. We have been working on the same project for years now and it has never been delivered because we have been moving around in circles nonstop, I think people felt burnt out and left. I am also feeling quite burnt out as well... however, I just had a 1 on 1 with manager recently and was told if we could deliver the project, I may be promoted to l63... keyword is “maybe” here.

I could definitely force myself to pull things together and push through, but I am not sure if it is worth it. Am I the last sucker here? or is this a good opportunity to deliver the project?

Should I switch teams? Should I quit? I am hoping if I switch companies I can get higher TC as well. If so, where do I go?

Since right now we are heavily under staffed, I am working twice as much and don’t have time to study for interviews... how should I manage this?

Current TC: 180k

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TOP 22 Comments
  • New / Eng
    Ulan

    New Eng

    Ulan
    How do you expect to deliver something by yourself successfully that 10 engineers worked on for the past few years unsuccessfully?
    Dec 14, 2019 4
    • Infosys / Eng
      BRY47

      Go to company page Infosys Eng

      BRY47
      Brooks’s law, one 10x engineer might get stuff done faster than one 10x that’s constantly bogged down by nine 1x engineer. This is a hypothetical statement though, not sure if a 10x engineer actually exists lol.
      Dec 14, 2019
    • IBM
      kacheek

      Go to company page IBM

      kacheek
      I mean 1x engineers by definition should not be bogging down things at all.
      Dec 15, 2019
  • Dude I was in same situation. Take internal transfer and during the transition period, and during the ramp up period in the new team, you will get time to prepare for the interview. Also internal transfers are quite easy and need not much prep.
    Dec 14, 2019 5
  • Do you think it's possible to deliver proj while working normal WLB and not getting burned out?
    Dec 14, 2019 2
    • OP
      In order to deliver the proj, definitely requires working long hours to get it done...
      Dec 14, 2019
    • Here are how I'd think about it:

      1. Do not enter any situation that will burn you out.
      2. Highest impact senario for your career is to land the project, by a wide margin. Doesn't matter if you get the promotion or not, the experience will be invaluable.
      3. There are likely things you can do to deliver without burnout. For example, can you recruit new members to the team? Can you cut scope and launch a MVP? Consider your highest leverage activities is not necessarily writing code. Again, do not do anything that will burn you out.
      4. Failing 3, transfering and joining a different company are nearly identical for your career. If you have become convinced the project is untenable, leave it asap, the faster you do so the better.
      Dec 14, 2019
  • Amazon
    IronMan10

    Go to company page Amazon

    IronMan10
    Is this Azure?
    Dec 15, 2019 1
    • New
      QTdN03

      New

      QTdN03
      Yeah, we need to figure out if this is a handful of bad environments spread throughout all of Microsoft, or a larger systematic problem within a particular area.
      Dec 15, 2019
  • Similar situation, not sure what to do either!
    Dec 15, 2019 0