tldr;: got new job with legacy code and a bunch of stuff i don't like, but it has higher pay and better brand. I want to work on meaningful projects so the role seems like a bad fit. Should I keep my currently fine job and looking, or try the new role out? I have 2 yoe and got an offer at bbg that is not building new systems. There would be lots of 10+ yr legacy code and if you know bbg , some of their systems are proprietary with little documentation. Not all of them are, but seems like the team I will be joinin is like that. Dependencies on other teams' libraries. On top of that I would have to learn finance jargons which I consider a burden since I derive joy from doing non-finance tech work. I have worked at a similar job but this new job has the potential of having more complicated legacy code and bigger business impact, which means higher stress to perform. From what I gathered bbg is anti wfh and I rly enjoy wfh so this is another stressor. I am losing sleep over how much i fear that my day will be reading incomprehensible archaic c++, and trying to understand the finance, and doing a tiny feature change that is just adding a field in the UI and the DB that take weeks because the code is hard to navigate. However i do recognise that i might just be painting it in the worst way possible. At the same time, I trust my body's instincts which are tell me a strong no. The chest pain, heavy breathing, and insomnia is only showing up when I think about this new position. I am very torn between listening to my heart and trying to make a rational good decision. My current job is pretty pro wfh and we are working on a project with big scope and I enjoy the coding part. The frameworks used are open source and I am feeling more connected to the tech world here. The pay is 80% lower at a less tech sounding big company. In my current job, I like building new stuff and learning the trade offs between different architectures. I like seeing how a distributed system handles heavy load. I like a codebase with good code coverage. I like manageable microservices. I like my competent team lead. I like being able to find stackoverflow posts and docs on the open sourced libraries we use. I like being able to refactor a function and not worry about breaking other parts because we have unit tests and QAs making sure. New team doesn't have QAs from what heard. I also like being able to code from bed, scream when my code isn't working, and turn my coworker's volume down. I can relax a bit when I'm tired without worrying about my coworkers. Can't do that in bbg when you have to go to the office pretty soon eventually . I always wanted to work at bbg because it has a good brand, and some teams do seem to have good tech, but that's very team dependent. I am fearing that I will not be learning a lot on the technical side because everything is built already and I will not be actively coding a lot. But I might just have too much anxiety when entering something unknown. Should I still go for it? Will this be a good learning opportunity and help me grow? Or should I just stay in my good job and look for opportunities where I could have good wfh balance, open sourced libs, less legacy code, and in a less business /finance oriented position? Many are saying I should use bbg as a step to FAANG, and I can switch teams if I want, but some conversations I had said it would mean staying a year at ur team to get good eval until you find a team that takes you. Also everyone wants to work on infra or ML and new shiny projects so there's probably competition and some would have coding rounds as well. It's not an easy thing to switch is what i'm trying to say. Idk how I would have mental energy to LC if my day job is killing me. How can I write my projects on resume if they are boring little fixes and firefighting? I am doubting if I could endure the job since I am already dreading it and feeling like I am dying from the anxiety.
I would say bbg is good. But since its giving you so much anxiety. Maybe u are not ready. Ask them if u can hold the offer for a year.
There are def some interesting projects at bbg without financial jargon and without old messy code. No reason to panic. My team is hiring, just look around and consider internal mobility.
quit?
You’re thinking too much. You will figure it out once you’re in the job. No engineers are brilliant, if they can do it, you can do it!!! Bloomberg better than CitiBank
Would you consider Bloomberg better than Schwab?
80% raise? That's worth the stress of onboarding at a new role. Also they wouldn't hire you and not onboard you accordingly. Youl be fine. The wfh thing may be the deal breaker. That's on you to figure out. That's a big raise though.
Thanks for reply. Yea raise is a lot which makes it a hard decision but i am mostly worried that my skills after bbg won't be transferable considering it's a lot of finance understanding and not on a modern architecture/stack. That could change if I manage to switch teams but that is not a guarantee
Yeah, that is a completely unfounded concern. Architecture and stack don't really matter that much, so don't stress about it. Its not really that important when interviewing for a job. Besides with that 80% raise you afford to take a couple of months off and crunch for interviews whenever your ready to move on. Take the new role, it's a great opportunity.
There are people here who don't get the finance stuff. It is not necessary with all teams. It is just a good to have in some teams
Are you joining trading analytics/trading systems department?
Could always try to kill it on your team and switch to one with more cutting edge open source stuff. Plenty of it, just gotta find it.
I’ve worked on both new code and legacy c++ at Bloomberg. I know you’ll be fine, but the anxiety can be too real. You should talk to a real licensed therapist about the anxiety. The job is probably not much different than what you do at Citi, you will have every term explained and the training is extensive. DM me if you need to
This 100%
stay a while and try to move to west coast. Bay area startups are much more exciting You will be OK. 😅 Eventually land a nice job. I think learning as much as you can