How to Know When to Switch Teams
Undervalued, mismanaged, or just bored — figure out when and why to switch.
I work as a software engineer in one of the big tech companies. A few months ago, I mentioned that my team was disappearing — the two people I worked most closely with quit within a month of each other. Since then, I became the front-end technical lead for my team and trained a more senior person than me in all things frontend.
It’s been a stressful few months, and it’s always easy to run away from tough situations. I sat myself down and stepped through my situation to determine whether I should stay with my team or go, and here’s what I figured out.
If there’s smoke, there’s fire
A lot of software engineers have left my department in the last six months. Two weeks ago, the person I worked most closely with quit. Days after that I found out that my small network of technical mentors, which I had built up since the two engineers left my team in September, were all moving to another product team.
I’m relatively new to the company, so I had waited to judge the situation. A friend…
