Greetings everyone! Any advice is appreciated here. So I’m a software engineer who’s hopped around quite a lot, for good reason. My history is as follows: -1 year at my first job. Left for relocation purposes; this job blocked me from being able to live with my SO which was our ultimate goal. Plus this job was in the defense industry which I wanted to get out of to get more relevant tech experience -1.5 years at second job. More of a tech company, a startup. Left this one because the pay wasn’t too great to begin with (my main priority for this switch was location and getting out of defense) and my raise was so small despite the amount of increased responsibility I had. -10 months at my current job. This is my current situation. Pay is pretty good but is pretty average for tech IMO. Financially it doesn’t seem to be doing great, although no layoffs yet. The product is interesting but not super remarkable to me. Culture could be better. I’ve been offered a founding engineer position at a startup. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try and they presented me with their financial plan which showed that they had enough $ to pay those they intend to hire for 2 years. I want to negotiate the pay a little bit more. But assuming I reach a negotiation I’m happy with, would this be bad to switch that many times? I know in most industries hopping isn’t as common but I know it’s fairly common in tech. Just want to make sure I’m not hopping too much and it comes to bite me later. YOE: 3.5 TC: 145k base, 10k RSU
Nah it's fine, but be sure you stick it out at the startup for at least 18 months to 2 years no matter what though. I've hired Eng at my fair share of companies in 25 yrs, and I'm an Eng career coach now.
Yeah for sure! I’m hoping to stay at the startup for a long time, at least 2 years. As founding engineer, that would be the hope to take it to the next level and have a possibility of promotion and leadership positions. That would be huge and that’s why it’s exciting to me
you could simple say you were at some places longer or remove or change dates in your CV. They’re not going to check with every place you worked at
How would you know which ones they'll check?
Doesn’t matter in small time-frame. But if you look at bigger time-frame (10-15years) then it might become a problem for promotions. I have observed after a point most senior role (principle env,directors etc) reach there by sticking to one company. It is quite hard to hire someone externally for these senior roles.
Good point
Interesting perspective! Yeah I feel like getting an external promotion would be difficult..I’m hoping it would happen at this startup, like join mid level and get promoted in a few years
Early in your career is the right time to jump ships frequently. This is your learning and finding yourself phase of your life. When you change jobs you broaden your perspectives and see how different things are done by different companies and people. But ideally within 3-5 years you should find out what you enjoy doing and should naturally stay longer. Also, it is not that hard to get n+1 level offers early but much harder later. So bu jumping jobs you are not going to miss on the first few steps of levels. But after lvl5 you'll have to stay longer as this is the time when context and tribal knowledge of internal company business starts to matter and is required for promos.
Also I recommend not giving $ as the reason you moved jobs if you can avoid it. That can make you sound like someone who will bounce the next time an extra $5k appears. That’s not the case with you, but stick to the other reasons - needing to relocate, dream job etc.
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Recruiter here. It does give teams pause bc it’s an effort and cost to hire someone, and companies want to invest in people who will stick around. But that said, you can use LinkedIn to tell your story. Explain that this is your dream job and you couldn’t resist, and you left that other job to relocate etc. Life happens and teams get it. But see if you can get some tenure - at least 2 years - at the next spot.
Heh tomo and I saying the same thing
Thanks so much for weighing in!! I was hoping for this current job to be the one where I got tenure but the finances are looking bleak and it’s not as exciting as I thought it would be. The job before this one I was also hoping for more tenure in, but the pay was just too low to justify staying.