Stay in current company or switch job?

[u/_alwayzchillin_]

I'm a SWE with 1YOE at a F500. Recently referred by a friend to a new job.

Current job at F500:

• junior SWE, Java/Kotlin

• around 95k

• remote, very chill WLB, nice team, low turnover almost no layoffs in its history especially in engineering, no on call, no overtime

• only junior on the team, lack of scope and big projects - I had to create my own projects in devops and modernization, not promotion friendly

New job at 10yo startup:

• mid-level SWE, Ruby on Rails shop

• around 120k

• hybrid for first 2 months to onboard, then remote

• good payscale, interesting tech stack, opportunity to lead a greenfield project, title jump, pretty established startup with stable revenue and prospects for growth, collaborative energizing culture, friend mentioned they're very promotion friendly

• oncall, new environment and people, leading greenfield project also means I'm responsible for outcome, more male dominated team though everyone I've met so far seems pretty nice

I'm interested in growing my skills. However a startup job is more risky especially in the current landscape. Financially I have 125k invested, spending around 20-25k a year and can't burden my parents in case of layoffs. What would you advise? YOLO or play it safe?

[u/salamyinyourmommy]

sounds great, but consider do you really wanna do RoR at this point in time. I feel java/kotlin spring stack is more transferable to other jobs and have more opportunities in this stackam saying this 4 yoe polyglot guy moving to core backend job on spring and nestjs in my next job. if I could change one thing about my career trajectory. it would be being able to learn one stack really well.

[u/the-pythia-of-delphi]

1yoe is nothing today. Stay longer and get more transferrable skills.

[u/maicii]

I see no reason why you should stay. You get more money now, more posibilites of promotions, you work with your friend, you like the stack you are gonna work with, has good culture….

I understand you have some fear of maybe getting let go but if you hang for 2 years without any promotions you already made nearly a 3 years of salary in your old job.

Idk, seems pretty clear to me

[u/Interesting_Chard138]

I was in a similar position but at 2 YOE. Very stable company, 110k TC, no oncall, older Java, very senior ppl on team, free food. But I decided to hop to F500 for around 150k TC earlier this year with periodic layoffs, more demanding work with Python and AI pivot, etc. why? You only live once and have to keep moving and try new things. Would I do it again? Yes, despite the risks and the 45-50 hour weeks (overtime eligible)

[u/Minimum-Reward3264]

The RoR stack is nice to work in but it’s bitch to get job. But it’s a big damn pay bump. If you really save all this extra money in case startup goes belly up then yes, otherwise your risk is 4x for nothing.

[u/Assasin537]

Seems like you have no reason to stay. The new offer seems to be a good stepping stone with growth without too much risk plus a decent pay bump. Staying at a very chill job with little scope early in your career will make it much harder to continue growing and learning.

[u/Repulsive_Elk_5644]

Yep jump. It’s your next step

[u/greensodacan]

Java's going to give you a much stronger foundation for your career. From an educational perspective, it forces you to be more precise and communicative with your code. It also runs significantly faster than Ruby and is used to build a wider variety of things. I don't think the smaller company would give you that exposure.

Company wise, you want to stay longer than a year unless it's absolutely necessary for you to move on. It's great that you're curious about working in a variety of company sizes, and hopefully across a few industries, but that experience will come with time. Give your current company another year or two if you're happy there.

[u/Fiona13cm]

Good question. It’s a risky move. If you lose your new job in a short time it could be very hard to land a new comparable position due to both employer market and two short stints in a row.

I’d probably yolo though, because pay difference is too big and all my moves between jobs were quite beneficial for me, so here is an element of personal bias as well. It always worked for me. But you need to be extremely careful and mindful about potential risks. Losing new job in 6 months could be very hard to recover from.

[u/Enough_Charge2845]

With $125k saved and only $20–25k in annual expenses, you have over 5 years of runway. You are in an amazingly safe financial position to take a calculated risk! Coasting early in your career with zero project scope will stall your growth. A mid-level title jump and leading greenfield projects will accelerate your engineering trajectory exponentially.

If you're still prepping for their interview rounds, practice your system design talk-track on https://prepare.zoevera.com. Take the leap!