Next career move after big tech?

[Anonymous]

I have been in my individual contributor role in big tech for about 6 years, making anywhere from 250k to 400k/year depending on the stock price. I am in a technical role and have never held a management title before.
I feel that my career is starting to stall and want to make a move. The problem is that most companies don’t pay that much outside the big tech unless it is a director role or above. I am open in a management position but don’t have that title on my resume, although I have led and managed multiple projects for large enterprise customers in my current role.
How would you approach this situation?

[Anonymous]

What does stalling out mean to you? What progress did you expect that you're not seeing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does stalling out mean to you? What progress did you expect that you're not seeing?

Part of is that I am tired of doing what I have been doing and want to try something different. Secondly, promotions are really hard to come by at my level though I feel that I have grown a lot professionally in the last 6 years.

[Anonymous]

Not a good time to move. Google laid off people just yesterday. Lots of talent on the street.

[Anonymous]

So you're growing but not getting promoted.

What are you doing as an IC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a good time to move. Google laid off people just yesterday. Lots of talent on the street.

People from Google layoffs were protestors against the contracts with Israel. Hardly a "weak job market" element.

OP, there is no better deal for an IC, sorry. I assume you are on hacker news, you can poke around there with a question but consensus is there is NOTHING like BigTech for pay vs lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

What I usually see for people leaving big tech is they leave for --
+ another big tech offering better role or comp
+ startup role with more ownership and growth potential (including becoming a founder)
+ becoming a more flexibly employed tech consultant of some kind

So it depends on what your goals are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been in my individual contributor role in big tech for about 6 years, making anywhere from 250k to 400k/year depending on the stock price. I am in a technical role and have never held a management title before.
I feel that my career is starting to stall and want to make a move. The problem is that most companies don’t pay that much outside the big tech unless it is a director role or above. I am open in a management position but don’t have that title on my resume, although I have led and managed multiple projects for large enterprise customers in my current role.
How would you approach this situation?

One question: where do you work now, Amazon? Google? Microsoft? Meta?

If you are in Amazon, the logical progression is to move to Google or Microsoft.

Google, Meta, you don't leave unless you have a real cushy gig lined up; Microsoft you may leave for Google or Meta.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been in my individual contributor role in big tech for about 6 years, making anywhere from 250k to 400k/year depending on the stock price. I am in a technical role and have never held a management title before.
I feel that my career is starting to stall and want to make a move. The problem is that most companies don’t pay that much outside the big tech unless it is a director role or above. I am open in a management position but don’t have that title on my resume, although I have led and managed multiple projects for large enterprise customers in my current role.
How would you approach this situation?

Try a smaller tech company. Everything else on here is correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a good time to move. Google laid off people just yesterday. Lots of talent on the street.

People from Google layoffs were protestors against the contracts with Israel. Hardly a "weak job market" element.

OP, there is no better deal for an IC, sorry. I assume you are on hacker news, you can poke around there with a question but consensus is there is NOTHING like BigTech for pay vs lifestyle.

Protestors were fired, not laid off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a good time to move. Google laid off people just yesterday. Lots of talent on the street.

People from Google layoffs were protestors against the contracts with Israel. Hardly a "weak job market" element.

OP, there is no better deal for an IC, sorry. I assume you are on hacker news, you can poke around there with a question but consensus is there is NOTHING like BigTech for pay vs lifestyle.

OP here. What has stopped me from moving in the last couple years is exactly this. I am 100% remote, can make my own schedule outside of core hours and I am able to find a great work/life balance. May be grass is really greener on the other side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a good time to move. Google laid off people just yesterday. Lots of talent on the street.

People from Google layoffs were protestors against the contracts with Israel. Hardly a "weak job market" element.

OP, there is no better deal for an IC, sorry. I assume you are on hacker news, you can poke around there with a question but consensus is there is NOTHING like BigTech for pay vs lifestyle.

OP here. What has stopped me from moving in the last couple years is exactly this. I am 100% remote, can make my own schedule outside of core hours and I am able to find a great work/life balance. May be grass is really greener on the other side.

np.. I work with big tech. Most of the sr managers and above work in the office, technically.

But I hear ya. This is one of the reasons why I never wanted to move up, even though I was asked if I was interested. I like my work/life balance, but I have definitely stalled.

But, for me, that's ok, because I'm in my 50s and ready to retire soon. Your situation may be different.

If you are on the younger side and can deal with it, I would say move up. Bite the bullet and do it. It opens more doors for you later on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I usually see for people leaving big tech is they leave for --
+ another big tech offering better role or comp
+ startup role with more ownership and growth potential (including becoming a founder)
+ becoming a more flexibly employed tech consultant of some kind

So it depends on what your goals are.

Goal really is to:
Try out something different with more growth opportunities and get into management perhaps. I am 43, so I have quite a bit of career left. Promotion to the next level in my current job is considered very difficult with only a handful that make it. It requires a lot of sucking up and I don't have the personality or patience for it.
Don't give up on the work life balance.
Don't give up on salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a good time to move. Google laid off people just yesterday. Lots of talent on the street.

People from Google layoffs were protestors against the contracts with Israel. Hardly a "weak job market" element.

OP, there is no better deal for an IC, sorry. I assume you are on hacker news, you can poke around there with a question but consensus is there is NOTHING like BigTech for pay vs lifestyle.

OP here. What has stopped me from moving in the last couple years is exactly this. I am 100% remote, can make my own schedule outside of core hours and I am able to find a great work/life balance. May be grass is really greener on the other side.

np.. I work with big tech. Most of the sr managers and above work in the office, technically.

But I hear ya. This is one of the reasons why I never wanted to move up, even though I was asked if I was interested. I like my work/life balance, but I have definitely stalled.

But, for me, that's ok, because I'm in my 50s and ready to retire soon. Your situation may be different.

If you are on the younger side and can deal with it, I would say move up. Bite the bullet and do it. It opens more doors for you later on.

Thanks. I am 43 so I still have quite a bit of time before retirement.

[Anonymous]

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