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Should I switch teams if I am really early on in my career?

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Entry-Level Software Engineer [SDE 1] at Amazon4 months ago

Background:

I interned on my current team last summer and returned full-time at the beginning of this year. I've been performing well and have a great relationship with my co-workers, manager, and skip manager.

However, I'm not satisfied with the level of engineering in the org as a whole. Specifically, our service does not operate at a high scale and thus the engineering constraints are very relaxed. It feels like we can get away with making poor decisions and I often think that I am not learning good engineering principles by being here. It also feels like my peers are not that ambitious or passionate about engineering which makes me feel like I don't fit in at times. As a result, I'm looking to change teams even though I am only ~6.5 months into my career.

I recently did an internal loop with another team that does very interesting work with high-scale and low-latency services. The interviews went well and I was given the transfer offer. I think my mind is mostly made up on joining the new team, but just wanted to ping-pong my situation with the Taro community as a sanity check on whether I am making the right choice.

I'm aware that switching teams is essentially a "soft reset" on my promo timeline. I have a lot of substantial work artifacts from my current team such as: code reviews for important feature work and docs that contributed heavily to the service we just launched.

I'm okay with taking a hit to my promo timeline because in my mind, if I zoom out and view my career as a 30-40 year span, it won't really matter whether I got promoted from new grad engineer in 1.5 years or 2.5 years.

What does the Taro community think of my situation? Am I thinking about this in the right way? I tried to keep some details vague as to not speak too negatively on my current team in a public forum. But I'm happy to provide more details to the best of my ability!

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Discussion

(3 comments)
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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    4 months ago

    You've done a great job thinking this through and I agree with your conclusion. I'd do the internal transfer to the new team.

    • Jumping between teams is easier (and more expected) when you're early-in-career.
    • You may be more valuable on the new team since you now have a perspective on how another team has done it.
    • The work on the new team is more interesting/challenging. Equally as important as this is also the people you'll work with. You don't mention that in your post, but hopefully the new team has better people to jive with.

    Here is some amazing guidance on team switching from a Google TL/manger: Guidance on changing teams?

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    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    4 months ago

    Switching seems like the obvious call to me here:

    • Losing 6 months of progress really isn't too bad. Like you said, there's not a huge difference in a 1.5 year promo or a 2.5 year promo long-term. Optimize for learning.
    • You are the result of the people around you. If your teammates don't really care that much about code quality and solving challenging problems, that will rub off on you in a negative way long-term.
    • The work there seems more fulfilling

    Best of the luck with the team switch! Make sure to leave gracefully and try not to burn any bridges on your way out.

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    Entry-Level Software Engineer [SDE 1] [OP]
    Amazon
    4 months ago

    Thanks Rahul and Alex for your advice! I really appreciate the additional perspective and reassurance about making this move.

    Your points about prioritizing learning, the impact of motivated teammates, and the benefits of tackling challenging work really hit home. I'm looking forward to the growth opportunity and bringing a fresh perspective to the new team.

    I'm taking your advice to heart about leaving gracefully. My plan is to frame this as a chance to grow and learn, keeping the focus positive. It's good to know that team switches aren't unusual at this stage in a career.

    Thanks again for your support. It's been really helpful as I work through this transition.