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Ask HN: Any jobs that don't force you to always be advancing career wise?

108 points throwaway929997 | 2 comments | 14 Mar 25 14:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.427s | source

(Throwaway for hopefully obvious reasons) I’m a software developer (web, fullstack) that’s been in the industry for about 10 years now and I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t care about advancing my career. My current title is Senior Software Engineer and, if I had it my way, I would be happy to keep that title for the rest of my career. I tried being a manager for a bit and hated it, and, in a similar fashion, the increased responsibility and scope of going down the road of Staff+ engineer holds no interest to me.

My only issue is that my current job has a very strong “up or out” mentality that I’m starting to push up against. And most other places I’ve worked at or talk about with friends seem to have similar attitudes toward career progression. I just want to do my job well, learn new things, and contribute to the businesses success. I don’t want to have to try and figure out with my manager what projects I should work on to make myself look good and be able to work my way up the ladder.

Has anyone worked somewhere that they felt they could just do their job without worrying about the career advancement aspect? I’ve contracted a bit and know that this would align well with this goal, but I enjoy having health insurance and not having to scrounge for work all the time.

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pelagicAustral ◴[14 Mar 25 15:00 UTC] No.43363263[source]▶
Get the same job working for government. Work stability in government is unparalleled, and there is so much cruft and technical debt that you will literally spend up until your last breath fixing legacy code and trying to get people off ancient software systems.

You will stagnate, and nobody will give a shit. People will come and go next to you, but you will be stable through the ages, like a pillar in an ancient Roman temple... Seasons will leave behind memories, but the winds will not take you with them. You will prevail, no matter what. Maybe forgotten, maybe overlooked, but more certainly not underestimated.

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dartharva ◴[14 Mar 25 15:02 UTC] No.43363289[source]▶
I wouldn't be so sure considering what's happening with federal govt offices in the US right now..
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ac-swe ◴[14 Mar 25 15:06 UTC] No.43363329[source]▶
state & local are always options
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1. pelagicAustral ◴[14 Mar 25 15:08 UTC] No.43363369[source]▶
yeah... There is always a niche in government. Plus, I haven't heard of many layoffs affecting software teams in government. Some people are so deeply rooted in their specific concerns that taking them out of a codebase is borderline like cutting the wrong cable on a bomb.
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2. kaikai ◴[14 Mar 25 15:36 UTC] No.43363646[source]▶
They shut down 18f, laying off the entire team.