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

108 points throwaway929997 | 10 comments | 14 Mar 25 14:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.985s | source | bottom

(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.

1. giantg2 ◴[14 Mar 25 15:10 UTC] No.43363392[source]▶
Maybe just job-hop. Sure, you're a senior for 10 years at one company, then be a senior at another company for another 10 years. I know that's easier said than done, and could run into ageism as you get older.
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2. seanw444 ◴[14 Mar 25 15:16 UTC] No.43363448[source]▶
I keep hearing about this "ageism" but it's never made sense to me. I would always want to hire an older, wiser developer, if I were calling the shots. Why is this a thing?
replies(3): >>43363509 #>>43363594 #>>43365891 #
3. dowager_dan99 ◴[14 Mar 25 15:22 UTC] No.43363509[source]▶
I'm 50+ and it's a thing, but not really different than any other bias lots of people here likey deal with. It's not legit but does make sense: any groups that you don't identify with are assessed differently based on the delta. Sometimes this is positive; most times negative.
4. bradlys ◴[14 Mar 25 15:30 UTC] No.43363594[source]▶
Older wiser developer has less tolerance for bullshit and wants higher pay. Older wiser developer is less likely to be on a visa because they've probably been working in the country for a while. They're less likely to be foreign as well because the giant surge of foreigners (Indian/Chinese) coming to US is something that has happened in the last 15 years. If you have 20+ years of experience in the US, you're much more likely to be American or at least a citizen or have a greencard.

In all senses, older developers want more and have a better positioning to negotiate from. For capitalists, this is exactly what they don't want.

It's not really ageism as much as it is the associations that come with older age. If you were as naive, desperate, and cheap as a new grad - you'd get more easily hired too. Oh and a lot of older devs don't like the grindy leetcode nature of interviews because it takes a lot of time outside of work to study for and they prefer to do other things with their time. (In half of my FAANG interviews, I get asked LC Hard problems regularly. The bar to pass is very high.)

5. blackhn ◴[14 Mar 25 16:16 UTC] No.43364084[source]▶
10 years rofl
6. cantrecallmypwd ◴[14 Mar 25 18:49 UTC] No.43365891[source]▶
It's definitely a thing.

Just one example: I was working at Stanford in the Med School and one of the admin people was forced out simply for the crime of being "old" without any specific performance problem or inability.

Another anecdotal negative confirmation: When I was 19, I was constantly offered jobs. You don't hear me singing that tune anymore.

replies(1): >>43366571 #
7. scarface_74 ◴[14 Mar 25 19:53 UTC] No.43366548[source]▶
I’m 50.

It has never taken me more than a month to get a job when I was looking and most of the time at least two offers.

I changed jobs when I was 25, 34, 37, 39, 41, 44, 46, 49 and 50.

My first only and hopefully last job in BigTech was at 46.

If you are old and have the experience, network and reputation you should have built based on your age, the world is your oyster.

If you don’t have experience with current technology, you’re screwed.

replies(1): >>43367080 #
8. scarface_74 ◴[14 Mar 25 19:55 UTC] No.43366571{3}[source]▶
I have been constantly offered jobs from the time I was 22 until last year when I was 50.
9. giantg2 ◴[14 Mar 25 20:42 UTC] No.43367080[source]▶
If you're getting hired based on network, then you don't know the struggle.
replies(1): >>43367227 #
10. scarface_74 ◴[14 Mar 25 20:57 UTC] No.43367227{3}[source]▶
My network includes recruiters.

But if I look back.

- 2008 (34) - spammed job boards.

- 2012 (37) - reached out to third party recruiters via LinkedIn

- 2014 (40) - reached out to internal recruiter on LinkedIn

- 2016 (42) - reached out to a recruiter I met earlier.

- 2018 (44) - reached out to a recruiter I met earlier

- 2020 (46) - Amazon (AWS Professional Services) recruiter reached out to me.

- 2023 (49) - targeted outreach to a recruiter based on a niche of niche within AWS where I was an SME.

- 2024 - responded to recruiter who reached out to me.

To be fair, in 2020, I did pivot from “software developer” to working in cloud consulting specializing in app dev - working full time for consulting departments/companies