[quote=svelte]Sounds like you pretty well thought it through, and I would say I would jump too.
Actually, I’ve been in a very similar situation and did jump…worked out fine.
The only things I didn’t hear you mention:
– how does going back to being the newbie sit with you. With any new job, there is a steep learning curve even if it is in a field you know well. My head hurts for months after taking a new position…I go home with my head swimming with new information…maybe I should buy a heat sink and CPU fan for my head when I start something new.
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Excellent point. At this particular company, I think there are things that I can bring to the table to help, while as others who have been doing this for awhile can teach me things that I haven’t had the opportunity to learn. Plus,I do know some people at new company too, so it’s not quite as big of a steep curve. I don’t mind learning new things, as long as people don’t mind putting up with my brief learning curve.
To fairly assess the company, I’d say this is one of the few companies I would have seriously considered jumping ship to anyway, even if my current company wasn’t acquired. The vibe is just different. I’ll give you an example. Every time there’s a new project I want to do at my current employer, the response I get is “how much is this going to cost us” along with 20 or so other reasons why we can’t do it, of if so, can I use the office in Bangalore to do it…And when that happens, I’m like “never mind”…because I’d rather do it myself with my limited resources/team at that point, otherwise it’s going to take twice as long with much shittier quality…
On the other hand, this new company encourages people to push the limits and spend time finding new product ideas. It’s just a different mindset.
This was how my current company was a few years ago. But something snapped, not sure what, and what happened along the way. I think the bean counters took over, and it went downhill from there. And with the acquisition, there’s going to be even more bean counting….
Anyway, if you hate engineers. The best way to demoralize engineers and make engineers quit is to assign bean counters with no technical knowledge to run projects and bring out large spreadsheets. That is much more effective than threatening to lay them off or cut their comp packages…
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Since you are far enough along in your career that your family won’t starve should the new position not work out, I think you can safely jump if that is what will make you happiest. From your post, that sounds to be the case.
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I thought about this for a bit. I actually like to work. I wouldn’t want to do something on my own at this point (short of real estate), but I do like working with tech. But then I thought if I’m going to spend considerable amount of my time working for someone else, at least most of it should be under the terms the conditions that I want them to be. And I don’t think I’m an unreasonable, over-demanding person when it comes to my basic needs in terms of work.
