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At the job interview to my current position I was asked the classic ”where do you see yourself in X years” question. I replied something along the lines of that I see myself staying if I feel good where I am and long as I have the opportunities for professional growth.

Now with recent developments it’s looking like those opportunities will be bygone pretty soon. I work on a massive legacy codebase, where with the scarcity of current dev resources and the apparent difficulties of procuring additional personnel to the dev dept, it does look like we’ll be limited to maintenance and simple small scale improvements with no room for meaningful projects. Theoretically I could ask to be moved to another product, but realistically that would both be a dick move well as unlikely to happen, as other projects are fully staffed (and made with technologies there’s easier to find personnel to).

As a consequence of this perceived imminent halt in opportunities for self-development at work, I’ve been starting to look for greener pastures. There are some intriguing ones out there. But then I come here, read some rants and comments, and it always becomes abundantly clear I’m good where I’m at right now. So what of it, if my position won’t enable growth out of the box for a while? I can always develop my skills and knowledge on my free time, and besides, the stagnation won’t last forever... right?

Comments
  • 4
    Stagnation can and often does stay for a long time, be careful
  • 1
    @HitWRight I am, don’t worry. I’m constantly preparing for the projects we should do so when the time comes that we either have more devs in the team or I get so fed up with the stagnation phase that something needs to happen I can just bring forth whatever I’ve got prepared for the roadmap and see how it goes. My manager knows I can’t stand stagnation. He’s well aware of what will happen with his team if we won’t go forward.
  • 0
    I am in the same boat as you, stagnation is a b1tch, dull job just wears off all my energy so side projects are not moving forward for some time now.

    Looking for a better job right now.
  • 0
    Same as you, looking around anyway meanwhile developing my skills in the free time
  • 3
    Correct answers for the X years question

    "Dead"
    That side of this table"
    "Prison"
  • 1
    @TheBeardedOne I always answer ”dead” in my head
  • 0
    Looking after yourself is not a dick move. Let the project go to hell.
  • 0
    @creator letting your colleagues down and/or in trouble would be a dick move in my book.
  • 0
    @100110111 not really! I personally would be happier if one of my colleagues got what they wanted in another team or job. I’d be sad to see them leave, but I wouldn’t consider it a dick move.
    Companies who have to rely on this for badly maintained and understaffed projects are the bad guys here. You should not be responsible for other’s mistakes.

    In fact, I’d suggest everyone to leave that project if they wish for it. It’ll end up badly and you’ll regret why didn’t you leave it sooner.
  • 0
    @creator I mean, I agree with you. But in this case, afaik most of us are quite content on working with what we are working. The only problem is being understaffed, and procuring that personnel is not as easy as one would hope. So if I was going about with ONLY my personal interest in mind in such a tightly knit community as we have among the dev dept, I wouldn’t feel good about it.
  • 1
    @devJs stagnation and being solo developer on large scale applications are basically the worst in this field.
  • 0
    @TestInProd423 especially when it is written poorly just to satisfy certain conditions for funding, you know mvp or prototype application.

    Except they just build on top of that prototype the same half-ass way for next 7 years before I came along.
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