What are the things I should consider before applying for other roles?
I just got laid off from the startup I was working at with zero notice. I'm back on the job hunt. I've been working for about seven years now. I was a full-stack developer in my recent position. In the first five years of my career, I've worked in roles where I've had to carry out SRE work.
I'm looking at a job posting for an SRE position at a place I'd like to work.
What are the things that I should consider when before taking the call to apply for SRE roles?
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3D780356ef-3efc-4728-9eb4-d909b75bb4a6&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Discussion
(2 comments)- 12 years agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Some things to consider for any role:
- How many people do you know at the company?
- When was the last funding round of the company?
- What are your career prospects? Especially if there are differences in pay/promotion as a software engineer vs SRE.
- 02 years agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
Sorry to hear about the layoff - That's super rough. 😔
It's hard to provide more pointed questions here without more information, so I'm recommending this for starters: [Masterclass] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer
Here's some other discussions that may help:
- "How to evaluate a startup?"
- "What questions can I ask a potential new team?"
- [Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager
The main thing to figure out here is what your priorities are. Is it more stability to minimize your chances of getting laid off like this in the future? Is it better work-life balance? Is it pursuing a technical or product space that you're very excited about?
Once you figure out what those are, you should be able to craft much more specific questions and extract way more value from recruiter calls and interviews.
