April 14, 2019 at 11:15 am
I have a good job, but have been offered one from a company i once worked for, and am struggling to make a decision. I could use some input and advice.
In my current job I work in is :
The role ive been offered is
So the contrast between the two is
I dont know which is better from a career point of view, what are your viewpoints based on technologies, data sizes, and organization attitude?
April 14, 2019 at 4:28 pm
The words that strike me here is ...
I have a good job, but have been offered one from a company i once worked for
The first step is to sit down and seriously consider why you left the first time and ask yourself if anything has really changed for the better. Consider the people you work with now and then consider the people that you interviewed with. From a "career point of view", I can only tell you that, at the age of 66, if you're not actually happy, then your career is going to suck. That's why I've stayed with my current company coming up on 8 years now... mostly because of good people that I work with/for and the right culture to get things done in a quality manner (we don't use Agile but... that's a personal opinion), I've turned down jobs that have literally offered tens of thousands of dollars more.
Then, there are these two points...
More structured, rely heavily & religiously on agile methodologies
Much less ability to come and go as i please.
I can't speak for anyone else but I find that companies that "rely heavily & religiously on agile methodologies" can be a bit like slave ships where "agile" is the drum head that is beaten during forced all night death rowing rather than what it should be.
I also value the ability to "come and go as I please" (certainly with limitations because work does need to be done and face-time during certain meetings is critical) to avoid traffic and to be able to actually do the occasional "all night death march" to get something critical done without the "noise" and drive-by shootings that occur in a forced prescribed work day.
Before you decide on either the "Red pill or the Blue pill", ask yourself if you should even be taking a pill. 😀
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
April 14, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Jeff has said it all, I would echo it, but Jeff also says "...it depends..." a lot; so with that in mind, where you sit in the career bandwidth is important, if you are young it may be better to get exposure to greater technology and challenges, if you are at the other end then you probably want to want to stay where you are. You do need to consider why you left the other company, was it work ethic, lack of support training or development, was it a clash with other members of staff? Management attitude? Have those people left? Think twice decide once!!
...
April 14, 2019 at 6:21 pm
Brilliant responses guys, some great thoughts for me to consider.
And apologies, I should have been clearer in my first post on a few things also:
The reason Im considering leaving my current "good" job, is there isnt a whole lot of value on tech, the organization sees it as necessary to keep up but they dislike this fact. There is also no further progression. Im the data guy in the org, and although i get to decide on architecture, then implement & support it, i wont have a team to gain management experience and there is nowhere higher to go except CTO or infrastructure architect, which is dead mans boots, and both roles i dont want.
The "other"company are certainly more demanding, and Jeff, I had the same feeling about Agile, which is why I mentioned it here, to see if it rang true with anyone else.
There is a little more scope for growth as its a bigger company, but the tech stack is set, with little room for me to put a personal stamp on it.
The "other" company is offering a bit more compensation, but not enough to sway it either way. Its really all about a good decision to push my career on.
April 15, 2019 at 7:20 am
This was removed by the editor as SPAM
April 15, 2019 at 7:57 am
The words that strike me here is ...
I have a good job, but have been offered one from a company i once worked for
The first step is to sit down and seriously consider why you left the first time and ask yourself if anything has really changed for the better. Consider the people you work with now and then consider the people that you interviewed with. From a "career point of view", I can only tell you that, at the age of 66, if you're not actually happy, then your career is going to suck. That's why I've stayed with my current company coming up on 8 years now... mostly because of good people that I work with/for and the right culture to get things done in a quality manner (we don't use Agile but... that's a personal opinion), I've turned down jobs that have literally offered tens of thousands of dollars more. Then, there are these two points...
More structured, rely heavily & religiously on agile methodologies Much less ability to come and go as i please.
I can't speak for anyone else but I find that companies that "rely heavily & religiously on agile methodologies" can be a bit like slave ships where "agile" is the drum head that is beaten during forced all night death rowing rather than what it should be. I also value the ability to "come and go as I please" (certainly with limitations because work does need to be done and face-time during certain meetings is critical) to avoid traffic and to be able to actually do the occasional "all night death march" to get something critical done without the "noise" and drive-by shootings that occur in a forced prescribed work day. Before you decide on either the "Red pill or the Blue pill", ask yourself if you should even be taking a pill. 😀
+1
And if it is of any interest I am in my 36th year at my company.
Far away is close at hand in the images of elsewhere.
Anon.
April 15, 2019 at 12:04 pm
I'll be the contrarian here.
What I heard is one organization where technology is a necessary evil. While it's quite comfortable, you're not really going to grow and expand much in your career and you're certainly not on the critical path, helping make decisions that affect the organization. Instead, what you've done is what you're likely to do until they find some way to automate you out of the position. You're not really positioning yourself well if you need to shift to another company when that automation hits.
This is opposed to an organization that is focused on technology, where you'll have to grow, expand, and learn constantly. You're very likely to be making decisions that affect the organization and it's bottom line. You'll be working with lots of fast moving code, because agile, small, frequent, well-tested, deployments, is all about speed. You're going to expand your skill set, your experiences, and position yourself well for the next job (if any).
The second job sounds better to me. I'd say that especially since, at 37, you've still got a very long career ahead of you. Sitting in the comfy spot at this point in your career, might be a very bad choice. At age 56, I'm leaning more towards staying comfy, but I may only have another 10 years of work in front of me (or 20, or so... we'll see what my wife lets me do and how long I live). You've got 30 (or more).
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
April 15, 2019 at 4:34 pm
Pretty much spot on Grant! The only thing i would change is to say they wont automate me (or anyone) out of the process as they are kind of a public/civil service organization, so its not in the culture. Rather leave 20 people there doing very little than automate and free those people up for higher value work, or free up budget. Its just the culture of the org, and it works for most people there.
But to me, sitting about doing menial tasks that should be automated is worse than being automated out of an organization, the work needs to add value.
I know 37 is young, but its also a critical juncture, i should be gaining some significant responsibility now the longer i go without significant responsibility & management skills, the less likely it will happen. Maybe/hopefully I am wrong about that however.
Thanks for the advice and opinions all, it really has helped see the wood through the trees.
April 15, 2019 at 6:15 pm
Next step to consider... these two jobs aren't the only two jobs in this world.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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