Is this Career Suicide?

Question

I currently work for a Fortune 5 company as a J2EE software developer. I have a job offer that is less hours, less stress and would allow me to have more time to work on things that I want to, such as iPhone development or learning new technologies. The problem though is that this new job is a Hospital MIS department and although I would be a programmer, I have a feeling the experience on my resume would not be as valuable as the place I'm at now.

For example, my current employer( fortune 5 company ) has business analyst, development team, release management team, production team, project managers, team leads, so forth and so on. This new position has a programming manager that comes to you with a project and you are all of the above for this project. So you go and talk to the customer, you bang out the requirements, you do the design, development, manage releasing the code to the cert/prod, and when it is finally in production you support it.

From the experience with my current employer, I know that huge corporate life is not for me. I eventually would like to do web development / design and do feel that I would have more time to build a decent portfolio if I took this new job with all the extra time and all. I just don't want to commit career suicide because I'm going to a company that does not implement the SDLC in any fashion, I would have to implement it in my everyday development.

So would this be career suicide?

Answer 1

Personally I would say the position with more responsibility would actually look better on your resume. Albeit I'm not a hiring/firing person so I can't speak from experience. But if you're the only person doing all of those things then you have to carry a lot more weight then when it's all spread out over several people. I would say it also probably depends on how long you've been at your current job and how long you stay at the new one.

Answer 2

Forget the pay-checks. Forget the prestige. Forget the impact on your CV. Do what you love.

You only get one shot at life.

In any case, I think you may find that being in a role where you had to perform every function, from customer liaison to high-level architect to grunt code-cutter, may look better on your CV anyway.

Answer 3

I don't think this is a bad career move, and probably a good life move, which is more important. It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what you want to do with your career. This new job seems to fit the bill better than your current job. I think future employers will actually appreciate the fact that you know what you want to do and are willing to take jobs that put you on that track.

Taking a job where you have a lot more exposure to the wide variety of different software development roles will help you improve in more areas. You can, and should, continue to use some methodology in your practice, but it probably doesn't need to be as heavy as what you are used to. That, too, is a good thing; getting exposure to different sized methodologies.

Now, if you ever wanted to go back to the high-stress, high-reward (financially, anyway) world, you may find that some employers might question whether you will really stick it out based on having left it. I'd make it clear that you changed for the experience, not to avoid the pressure -- which is what it sounds like to me. Doesn't sound like you intend to go back anyway so you may not even need to worry about this one.

EDIT: One piece of advice -- hospitals, in my experience, can be actually less agile than many other companies. The amount of regulation, a good thing probably given the nature of the business, can really impact your ability as an IT person to get things done. I work at a University with a large teaching hospital and can tell you that the developers in the hospital IT department are much less likely to work with newer technologies and be able to respond to technology changes quickly than those of us on the academic side. This is definitely one aspect of the job I would investigate before signing on. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to solve a problem easily because you can't use the proper tools for the job.

Answer 4

It's hardly career suicide. Based on what you mentioned in your post, you have plenty of qualifications and experience to secure another good position if the Hospital MIS position doesn't work out for you. Maybe not as good of a position as what you had at the Fortune 5 company, but I seriously doubt you'll be living under a bridge as a result.

Doing something you enjoy is often more important than doing something that makes your resume pretty.

Answer 5

It is not career suicide by any means. Whether or not it helps you advance depends entirely on where you want to go with your career.

If you want to continue with the big corporate environment, then this experience may not be great for your resume/CV. Hiring managers in big corporate environment tend to look for big name corporate experience.

When hiring developers, I have found that those from a big corporate environment many times get lost in a startup where there are no project managers and piles of documentation. I would much rather have someone that is proven to 'get the job' done rather than just big names on the resume/CV.

You said that you are not interested in the big corporate environment. I would suggest that experience in a small environment where you have more responsibility paired with the big corporate experience where you understand 'enterprise grade' development and process is a great pairing. It shows you can do what it takes to 'get it done' as well as understand how to work with big projects.

Answer 6

One thing's for sure: It's suicide with that Fortune 5 company. Once you leave, I doubt that you'd want to go back, and it's unlikely that they'd have you back.

It's not to say that you shouldn't leave, but at least do the calculations out for yourself. You probably have a 401k matching program and other benefits. Calculate out for yourself what you give up if you decide to leave.

I left a large company after 14 years. It's worked out fine for me, but I think one mistake that I usually make when I get that urge to leave is I don't do enough objective plus/minus ledger thinking before making the decision. I've usually made up my mind that it's "time to go", so it's easy to ignore or de-emphasize danger points that should deter you or reasons for staying that should be compelling.

Every choice has a plus/minus ledger. Whatever you do, just be honest with yourself when you fill out one in favor of going and another in favor of staying. A little objectivity can help.

I think the economy is changing. It's always been a micro-climate as well: economic conditions in your area might not be the reality of those who advise you one way or the other here. No one knows your particular economic situation, either. This is a decision that I wouldn't take to a public forum.