I have a bit more than a year of experience at SDE1 at Expedia in Chicago. I didn't get laid off, but I am concerned about the company- and want to jump ship before things get worse. The straw that broke the camels back was my outstanding yearly review, which lead to no bump to SDE2, and a run of the mill salary increase (1st year TC 110k -> 2nd year 100k). I had a ton of research experience before Expedia, but my forte was C++. Now that I've worked in JS and spring-boot Java for a year, I lost a lot of my skill in writing good, low level code. If I want to maximize my earnings potential, what should my next steps be? Stick it out, Google, or maybe trading?
You have a year of experience in an area that’s not your forte. Why do you expect a promo? There’s a disconnect between your career aspirations and where you currently are in terms of skills. As to pay, interview and see if you can get more , C++ will get you good offers from fintech
It's not my forte, but I've put in the diligence to ensure that my production is inline with the more senior devs on my team. Additionally, I have studied up on the domain knowledge, and believe that I heavily contribute to each meeting, and each dev I interact with. My direct manager and those around me have remarked that I have performed especially well for an SDE1, which prompted my expectation for a promo.
The guidance level for SDE2 at Expedia has been ability to lead a small project (I.e ones including other team members). IMO, if this is the main point that’s frustrating you, you’ll have a hard time aligning your expectations with career growth in other companies too. If pay is the issue-that’s a whole different discussion, Expedia pay is low compared to any tech heavy company.
Try interviewing, see what you get