One of the perspectives you gain after a long career is one of hindsight. After more than 25 years in the tech industry working as both a developer and developer advocate for (too) many companies, it’s much easier to look back and see patterns of when I made the right career move and when I made the wrong one.
There is definitely a common thread that I found when I made a move that, even with the benefit of hindsight, was a positive one versus one that I ultimately regretted. That common thread is when I prioritized people over pay, position and product. In other words (without the alliteration), I focused on the people I’d work with and for over specific salary goals, title or working on/with a “cool product.”
Wait? You’re Saying That I Shouldn’t Care About Money?
Not at all. You should care about money, title and the product, but it’s a matter of priorities. When you take a longer view of your potential happiness and success at a job, the people should be the priority. Here’s why I think so:
1. The people you work with are more important to your long term happiness than small variations in your pay.
Pay is very important – obviously – but it isn’t determinative of long term happiness in a role. If you’ve ever had the experience of asking for and getting a raise in a job you were unhappy in only to find that a couple months (or less) down the line that you’re still unhappy, you know what I mean.
In my experience, no amount of money can make working with people you don’t like or enjoy worth the price of admission. Across my own career, I’ve moved multiple times where I earned less in the near term in order to work with the right team. I have yet to regret that decision.
Now you may wonder, what’s a small variation? That depends on your particular financial situation, so you’ll have to use your judgement. Keep in mind that money tends to be a shorter term consideration. My own experience has shown that when you find the right team, you are more successful at your job, and when you are more successful at your job, you tend to be rewarded in the long run.
2. The people you work with are more important to your long term happiness than having a particular title on your resume.
Let’s be real – titles have zero impact on your happiness in your job. Titles are, in my opinion, largely meaningless with two exceptions:
- In some companies, a specific title is linked to a specific pay band. So, for instance, a Senior Software Engineer will be locked into a lower paying pay band than a Principal Software Engineer. In these companies, fighting for title can be linked to fighting for more pay in situations where you’re near the top of your current band.
- Titles can be important as part of a career trajectory. Basically, a particular title may be a necessary step to getting the next role. For example, I may need to show experience as a Manager in order to be qualified for a Director position.
For reason number one, the same rules apply as the discussion over pay above. For reason number two, you’re effectively prioritizing the subsequent job over your happiness in the next opportunity. It’s important to have goals and a career trajectory, but choosing to work with the right people is a better way of getting you there. In my view, a title that looks great on your resume for a job that you are unhappy in is more likely to be a roadblock in your trajectory than a launchpad.
3. The people you work with are more important to your long term happiness than how “cool” the product seems.
Cool products are a dime a dozen. If you think about it, I bet you could rattle off a long list of products that you think are cool or impressive – even if you limit yourself to whatever focus area in tech that you work within. A great or even a technologically impressive product is one signal of the long term potential success of a company but nowhere near being decisive (we all know companies that are successful selling what we think are crappy products).
Good people who are also good to work with are surprisingly difficult to find. Good people, in my experience, make or break the success of a company. A toxic culture is no guarantee of a product’s failure for sure. Recent events point to a number of successful companies who have famously awful cultures filled with awful leaders but that find financial success. I think these are outliers, but even if they aren’t, working on a cool product isn’t going to have a critical impact on your happiness or success in a role. By all means, choose a product you are proud to represent, but don’t overlook a place with great people and a decent product.
There’s One More P to Consider: Politics
Look, I hate to do this to you but we live in a particular time where I believe that it’s critically important to add one other consideration into your search, and that’s politics. Unfortunately, many companies in the tech industry are, in my opinion, malignant forces in the world. Some of them even once professed to do no evil and now…
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a world of easy choices. You may end up with a choice between a role that aligns with your career and financial goals versus one that aligns with your values. You may think, “Well, that’s ok because good people and good values tend to go together.” The thing is that, in my experience, that isn’t entirely true. The values, especially as they relate to politics, are often driven by leadership (sometimes in conflict with actual employees). So, it’s entirely possible that you find good people at a company with terrible politics.
Personally, in those cases, politics trumps people (pun only somewhat intended). Does that mean that looking for a job in a terrible economic environment (for tech anyway) becomes that much harder? Unfortunately, yes.
Final Thoughts
All of my advice here is based on over 25 years working in the tech industry across many companies both large and small. I have not always made the right choices, but that’s where the good life lessons were learned.
All that being said, every situation is unique. By no means should you put yourself through excessive hardship over principles (haha…another p). If you are out of a job and/or financially strapped, then many of these considerations may go out the window depending on the specifics of your situation. Jobs are ultimately temporary and finding one to pay the bills, even if the people and politics don’t align, may allow you the ability to eventually find one where they do.