How can I find a team with interesting work which is also healthy overall?

Question

I'm looking to leave my current team, as I don't find the work to be interesting: I spend ~50% of my time on ops work.

I want to choose the right team that’s interesting to me, but it's tricky as I don’t exactly know what I want to work on. I just know that I want to work on the back-end and on a team where learning opportunities are flexible. During team matching, what kind of things would you look for in a team?

My priorities are as follows:

Interesting work
Growth opportunities
Compensation
WLB

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

Understand the day to day of the SWEs on the team look like   Can just ask them this straight up   What does oncall look like?   How much time to spend writing and reviewing code?: For mid-level engineers, I think being around 50% at least is a good place to be Don't worry too much about tech stack. Just knowing that you want to work on back-end is good enough! Even though WLB isn't a priority for you, make sure you find a supportive team and manager that won't make you miserable A question I always ask is How does collaboration work on your team?. If the team gives off more of a collection of lone wolves vibe, then I strongly avoid it Even more specifically, I check to see if the team has an open door culture where anybody can roll over to someone else's desk (either physically or the remote work equivalent), tap them on the shoulder, and ask them for help  Related resources:  How To Figure Out If An Engineering Manager Is Good Questions You Can Ask To Evaluate An Engineering Manager [[Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/oeY7ncZhzJ5NO6dij5e7/masterclass-what-software-engineers-should-look-for-in-their-engineering-manager/)

How can I find a team with interesting work which is also healthy overall?

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