Will taking a job in one sector set my career path
Hey I’ve been pretty luck last week and I managed to get 2 job offers.
One is a good gig at a massive, old school financial group. I’m talking I have to wear a suit and tie. My biggest worry though is the tech is old and my coworkers and higher ups don’t seem bleeding edge so I doubt I’ll be flexing my developer muscles. Plus they have a volleyball intramural league
The other company is contracted for 6 months with a really cool tech IoT company. Job through Insight Global, Full remote, Has amazing Glassdoor reviews, cool projects, I crushed their technical interview so I feel like I can actually contribute.
I’m leaning towards the financial group because money matters and I want to feel secure.
What I’m worried about is after 2 years I’ll be 27 and I’m scared that working as a SWE for a financial group won’t look as good so I’ll never be able to work on a project that I’m passionate about again
Any advice?
27 is still pretty young all things considered. If you don’t have a family to support then I say take the risk and go where your heart takes you
Second this, and you’ll likely make connections that will help you in the long run.
You’re 25, unless your dream job is social media manager, you have 10+ years before anyone starts using your age against you. No matter which job you take, you can always pivot, just spend a few minutes crafting a narrative.
You can learn at any company. The financial company is going to give you a lot of space to learn process and compliance, and probably be infuriatingly slow, but you’ll probably come out with a different opinion about risk. The IoT start up is probably going to let you have more independence and playing with rando tech, and you will learn more about work life balance and your own working habits there.
If you’ve never worked remote, take the contract and see how much that flex is worth to you monetarily. You might be surprised. I would rather rub shit in my hair than wear a suit to an office everyday. But then again, maybe you love volley ball that much.
just to give an argument for the option most folks are not choosing.
I work for a huge old company and here are some of the benefits:
- Good pay
- Great work/life balance. putting in over 40hrs/week is unheard of, no crunch time
- Size of the company allows for movement to different tech areas
- Very stable, great job security
Now granted, we are totally WFH, don’t think I would be willing to do an in-person job with a suit every day, but there is an argument to make for making more money when you’re younger that you can start investing early.
The lack of bleeding edge tech could also be used to your advantage if you could spearhead leading a more modern initiative.
I’m not sure how large the pay difference is, but it sounds like your heart is leaning towards the start up.
In the end, you’ll just have to weigh the positives and negatives and figure out what you truly want.
