I just graduated with a B.S. in CS in May 2023. I’ve been working at a big non tech company in a data engineering type of role with AWS and Terraform. My team’s culture, team members, and PTO hours are great. The work is easy, but I also don’t learn much from it.
I’ve only been at the job for three months, but I was just headhunted by a recruiter for a tech company similar to iRobot ( they don’t sell robot vacuums, but they sell hardware with similar levels of tech behind it and are in the same stage of growth and have also been recently bought out by a magma company). They are offering about 25% higher base than my current total comp. Both jobs are remote btw.
However, I am wary of the notorious culture of the magma company that bought it and how often that new parent company fires its devs. I am also wary of how a 3 month job would look like on my resume.
Edit: yes, this is in the US
Yes, learning this the hard way is the bane of young devs.
I am an underpaid senior developer. I KNOW I am underpaid. I don’t care. My work-life balance is great, my co-workers are competent and friendly, my boss leaves me alone on weekends and fully respects my vacation time. I am respected and listened to when I think a project is ill-fated, or even if I simply don’t like working on it.
There is no drama, minimal pressure, and I haven’t worked an hour over 40 in a very long time. I get called by headhunters all the time offering big pay raises, but they also say shit like “rewarded commensurate with effort given” which is code for “200% more work for 25% more pay” and I’m not falling for it.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t keep your eyes open and be willing to change for the better, but if you ever find yourself happy, stay happy.