With the current state of the market in software engineering, I can understand there are people out there who cannot find a decent and stable job. I might be exaggerating, but I do believe that the “peak” of software engineering was reached in ’21. It’s all downhill from there on.
Returning to a former job can be appealing for those seeking stability, familiarity, or a role they truly enjoyed, but it’s a decision that requires careful consideration. Especially in software engineering, and in the software industry, where job hopping is considered the norm. I will try to analyze a breakdown of the pros and cons.
Pros
- Familiarity: You already know the team, culture, and work processes, allowing for a smoother transition.
- Shortened Learning Curve: Since you’re familiar with the role, you can often pick up where you left off, leading to quicker productivity.
- Potential Respect or Promotion: Returning employees are sometimes valued for their previous loyalty, especially if they left on good terms, which could open doors to promotions or new responsibilities.
Cons
- Stagnation: Returning could limit new learning and growth, as it may feel like going back instead of moving forward in your career.
- Possible Tensions: If you left for reasons related to culture or management, those issues might still be there.
- Missed New Opportunities: Going back might prevent you from exploring fresh environments or companies that could offer new perspectives, skills, or compensation.
Mr. ChatGPT, could you please…?
The above, just as you guessed, came from a single, one-liner prompt:
Write the pros and cons of returning to your old job.While I can see the reasoning behind it, and most of the pros do make sense, my belief is that the scale tips towards the cons. As usual, I’ll try to elaborate my train of thought.
Being primarily a millennial, when it comes to the job market, I was born on the wrong side of the history. Right when I managed to make a break and by shedding tears and spilling blood, graduated from my masters, I ended up right in the big financial crisis. Businesses closing down, political unrest, and not to mention that my current job aspirations were describing a profession that, at the time, half of the people could not grasp it even.
Therefore, just as my other peers born on the cusp of the millennia, we believe that having a job is actually a blessing than a burden. So, millennial compromise usually outnumbers gen z’s pickiness, or general “high maintenance” of all the younger people joining the industry. Hence, if usually millennials are changing jobs, they do so because there are strong reasons behind them.
Familiarity
The kind of reasons, once accounted and acted upon, do not easily change. Hence, the pro argument of Familiarity is a strong con. What would be the reason of returning to the old job, if, there was a familiar strong reason for leaving? If that reason has changed, yes, it makes sense, but this leads to other…kind of arguments (essentially a different company, or position), so let’s not explore that.
Shortened Learning Curve
This argument, while seems to be a big positive one, I will try to reverse it.
Indeed, since an employee left, was familiar at the least, or was doing a very good job at best, in his/her previous post. That leads to shorter time to production and increased productivity. However, we do not fully know the reasons for leaving (whether that was compensation based, or something else), but for most of the people in the industry, a short learning curve is something they generally avoid. Not learning something new (especially with all the new tools that come up every day), is considered to be job-killing. Not to mention the challenging part. It is extremely challenging to be able to comprehend, learn and adapt in order to fix something broken. Or create something new.
Potential Respect or Promotion
I cannot think a worse argument than this. The main reason behind it is quite simple. If there was enough respect, there would have been a promotion, and the employee would not have reached the exit door. GPT, is also mentioning “loyalty” and “leaving on good terms”. Both of those things are, obviously discarded, right from when someone opens the exit door…
Concluding
Returning to a former position for me does not really make any sense. Being an advocate of change and generally positive feedback, when someone leaves his post, there surely is a larger reason that has not change for him to return. If that reason has changed, the most of the times we are talking about a different company, with different managers and different colleagues. Not the same company anymore…
To quote the big economist: “This time is different”. No — this time its not different than the previous time, at least not in the software industry.