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I am seeking input from other people who've come in a similar fork in the road.
Would you share your choice, what choice you took, and how it went?
Thanks
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I'm currently employed with the same company for 11 years. The pay is alright, with some bonus tied to the success of the product (number of clients using it). I'm in a team of 6 software development for a fairly stable industry, and the company has a small nitch and some prospect of getting bigger clients.
Recently, we got 1 one those big client showing interests and using our product. So the future "so called probably" payoff has better possibilities of happening, meaning bigger bonus. But that bonus was a verbal agreement done around 5 years ago when my salary remained the same and instead of salary raise, a bonus pool of money was set aside and divided up between the team by the manager.
I do not know how much the other team members make, nor how much their bonus are.
This current job has some rewards in terms of leaning new technology in my field. Some flexibility in time. And the stress level is lower than if I pursue for more responsibility. I've been at this profession for over 15 years.
The drawback is that I also want to pursue other aspects of my chosen profession, and seek higher pay. I'm the only who is employed in my family. Wife has been a stay a home for over 11 years now, and the prospect of getting a decent job is low at the moment due to the needs of our 3 kids (16, 12, and 6).
Early this year, a new possible job opportunity is forming. The source is from an online gamer friend of 5+ years. He's a vice president of a familiar named game company and is aware of my talents in the technology. He thinks I can fit the bill of the development team he has in mind from the resume I sent on his request.
It's a different job role and I'm interested. The salary would still be negotiated. The job requires me to learn something new and I think I can handle it.
My dilemma is exactly this.
1. Do I stay in this job "hoping" the payoff is close at hand?
2. Or do I pursue a different career path?
My main concerns are that I am the only one in my family in the earning potential to mean our living means + some savings.
Fear or rocking my financial boat if I switch.
I'm also concerned with the risk to the medical insurance coverage during a job transition.
I will probably set a formal job interview in March to get more information.
And at the same time, I am thinking of asking my current company clarification about what this current BIG client means to my salary and the team bonus.
Your thoughts are great. I'll share a little about my own experience.
I stayed in a small company for over 15 years. My regret right now is that I should have left after about 5-8 years into it. Going to a different company gives me a lot of different perspectives. In half year in the new company, I learned so much more than years in my old job.
If we don't learn new things, we stop advancing ourselves and will soon be left behind.
I was about to look elsewhere 5 years ago, but our team convinced that management to switch to a new technology that we learned as we developed our product.
In essence, it was like a new job, albeit same pay, but a positive progress in my professional.
I emailed a former manager to get his updated info as he said I'm welcome to use him as my reference.
I also emailed my friend with the new job prospect about my continued interests, as well as some concern. Hopefully we can meet and discuss further.
I'm trying to think of opening the discussion at work of what the expected compensations about these new BIG clients. In terms of client budgets, our current "big" clients are about $5 million budget. These new BIG clients are about $100 million budget, that is a huge jump.
The hope is that this one BIG client will lead to many others. The industry know each other. The initial impression from this BIG client is that he likes our product. I have yet to determine or know what that translate to bonus to me and the team.
Stick with the techlology that will gain in polularity over the years or at least stay the same. You don't want to be in a technology that has a very small volume of companies that use it, or a technology that is being replaced by something else (another technology that is newer, competition that is taking hold of the market).
If you get into the wrong technology, you could have trouble finding future work. The fewer companies that use a technology, the fewer job opportunities in the future. This holds true with your current job and any future jobs. You always want to have recent experience in a technology that will make you marketable in the future if and when you look for another job(layoff, by choice, relocation, more money, etc)
Smaller companies you often wear many hats. This is good because you can learn many technologies. The negative is you have a lot more hats and more expectations and a lot more things to be an expert at, versus a larger company where a large team splits the duties and you wear 1 or 2 hats where you can be an expert.
Small companies might fail or might do very well and get bought out. When a buy out, you might have to move.
Think about if travel is involved and if that suits your life. Do you go to client sites all over the place?
I've been in smaller companies and not been to bigger (more than 500 employee) ones yet because I enjoy learning how the company works rather than just seeing the small portion of it.
I agree with learning new technologies.
Adding more specific to my situation, I'm a programmer. That title can go from coder to project manager, and everything in between, including tester and maintenance.
I went from the old DOS 16-bit to Windows and now to the internet .net SQL. Coding wise, the syntax differs but the concepts remain similar.
So it is a matter of learning how to use that tool, and experience comes in the form of knowing what I can do with any tools.
The new job prospect removes me from the coding initially, and puts me in the big picture design / management.
Current job is in the accounting/payroll development, and new job is mobile gaming development. Both software. Both nitch industry.
Commute times would be about the same, both about 30 miles away which in Los Angeles terms, 1+ hour commute each way that I'm used to.
I worked for a company for 10 years and went on a job interview just to see what else was out there. I was offered an even better job than the one I interviewed for. I liked what I did and I considered how long it took to get such a great group of people to work with. I turned the job down and stayed. Only to have them sell out to a larger corporation and guess who had to start over. So, what sent up a flag for me in your post was the fact they are a small business and starting to build a big clientele with big projects and that is ripe for the picking to sell out. To add insult to injury I worked in Market Development which included mergers and acquisitions and I actually worked on the acquisition that took my job. I laugh now.
I feel that I work with good group of people now. We get along, joke around on occasions, and no drama.
Interesting about red flag you mentioned. The company I was in prior to this new one, I helped developed a new system in Windows, 11+ years ago. It was up and running very well when I left, and last I heard about 5+ years ago, the owner sold the company with little notice to his employees.
Wow! Thanks for this. It is something to consider.
.net is hot and not going away any time soon. SQL just the same. You are in a great spot. mobile apps are also a hot trend but who knows their staying power and how they will evolve.. All good stuff to have on your resume. The new job sounds fun. Be careful about being expected to work many hours. Some IT shops are like that. Will you develop and support 24x7? Middle of the night support work while also working days is not easy. Just things to consider.
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