Episode 316: Skills reboot and quitting the perfect job

Soft Skills Engineering

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. Hi! I have been a software engineer at a very small company for 10 years. We write desktop products and single server products - I don’t have experience with scaling systems or the latest & greatest Javascript frameworks. I would like to move to a company where I can learn and grow, using a more modern stack. My coding skills are great, but it seems like I just don’t have the experience many companies are looking for. With 15 years total experience I am too junior for senior positions, and too senior for junior positions. I’m feeling stuck and am tempted to quit my job so I can focus on side projects using the latest and greatest tools. Or is there a better way to get unstuck?

2. Listener James asks,

   How do you know when it’s the right time to move on from an almost perfect job?

   I’ve been a frontend developer for 6 years and spent the last 2 years at a really great company. I have lot’s of autonomy, a competitive salary, excellent stock options, and great job security. But, so far my entire career has been working with the same technologies, and there’s no scope to learn new languages at my current job.

   I was recently contacted by a recruiter, which resulted in an interview and offer for a full-stack role with a stack that would be completely new to me but really excites me.

   I’m worried that never holding development job for more than 2 years would look bad, but at the same time I don’t want to be stagnant and not learning.

   Should I stay at my current job where I’m comfortable, or take a risk and jump into the unknown to develop my career.