New opportunity should I take it?

[thedazman67]

This is the first time I've taken to the internet to seek advice on a potential job move.

Lets begin, so I am currently a Software Engineering Team Lead i've been at my current employer for about 10 months now.

Nothing wrong with the job it's pretty easy majority of the time, my role is about 50/50 split between hands on development the other is leading/mentoring a team spread across two agile delivery squads.

I've always been a developer primarily focused on web development for my entire career. I enjoy working with developers and being close to the code, naturally as i've progressed in my career i've been writing less code which is to be expected but I still write a fair bit. I do find myself a bit bored in my role and it doesn't really challenge me mentally anymore.

So we all know how it is with LinkedIn developers generally get inundated multiple times a day with opportunities from recruiters, I generally take no more than a passing glance at them.

One however popped up recently, it took my attention firstly because its where my fiancee works and secondly this place is a 10 minute drive from my house.

So I've gone through the process nailed the interview for a Technical Lead position and been offered the job. It's a 5k pay rise, better pension scheme, better commute, a bonus scheme up to 20% (avg payout of 12%)

Now what this new role entails is vastly different to what I am used to. I've asked many questions to the recruiter and the gentleman who interviewed me and gone away and done some research.

The role is not what I'd call traditional software engineering the role involves integrating a third party software package called WebMethods developed by Software AG. So there is really no code to write you use their designer tool to drag and drop elements in to configure it. There is a whole area of how to deploy this thing versioning and so and so forth.

This software is brand new to the business and they want me to lead this with a couple of other developers. I've openly said them that this isn't my skill set and WebMethods is a skill onto itself for which there a dedicated developers for.

The new employer are fine with this and are offering training in this new software for me and the team I will be leading.

So offer on the table what do I do?

Part of me thinks this role isn't right for me, I think i'd miss the traditional software engineering too much. It's also not going to do anything for my future career WebMethods looks to be quite niche so whilst I could pick up this skill its not something really transferable.

Other the hand because it is so vastly different I could relish the challenge and I really enjoy it.

What do others think?

 

[Diddums]

I am not a software developer, keep that in mind, but here are my thoughts anyway. The bits that stand out to me are these:

its where my fiancee works

10 minute drive from my house

5k pay rise

better pension

better commute

a bonus scheme up to 20% (avg payout of 12%)

this isn't my skill set

The new employer are fine with this

You then say that you might get bored, but what if it goes the other way and you love it? What sort of timescale are you looking at for your knowledge in your current field to become irrelevant, and is it something you could keep up to date on in your own time?

I guess the most important questions are:

How much do you like your current job and what's the career progression like?

Are you going to be working with your fiancee, and if so, what will that do to your relationship? I don't necessarily mean sitting next to her, but word spreads quickly in companies.

This is where my knowledge could go wildly off track but generally with any product the less time it takes to create something with that product, with less staff and less investment costs in training and upkeep, the more successful that product's going to be, provided it achieves the same as the "old school" way of doing things, if that makes sense. This could be the next big thing, you could be way ahead of the curve here, but then I might be reading it completely wrong.

Personally, if I wasn't absolutely 100% committed and happy with my current role and something like that came up, I'd be all over it. The perks are too good to ignore and would be worth a decent risk for me.

 

[Bickaxe]

I would go for it. If you are inundated with opportunities you can always go back to what you do now if it doesn't work out.

Can your current employer match the benefits offered? Work from home, payrise...?

I work in the same building as my missus, we travel in and go home together, have lunch and our departments work together but I don't tend to see her much during the day and now we are working on the same project but different parts of it. Because of her, I know a lot of other people and it's really helped.
No downside at all.

 

[thedazman67]

Thanks both

I've approached my current employer said I am thinking about this new role. I don't expect much from them as I struggle immensely getting pay rises approved for members of my own team.

I wouldn't be working with my fiancée same office sure but completely different department doubt our paths would cross on a daily basis. She agrees too, she doesn't even know the guy I had my interview with for example.

Career progression in my current role I need to ask again about there have been some organisational changes as of late so there maybe opportunities there again historically my current employer doesn't move very fast with this type of thing.

 

[Randomface74]

Don't work at the same place as your fiance. The whole webmethods thing sounds janky anyway. /thread

 

[AHarvey]

Honestly, I'd take it.

Worked with my wife several times and never any issues and everything else just puts you in a better place when applying for other jobs and negotiating salary etc.

 

[peterwalkley]

I would be surprised if it all just magically worked with a bit of drag and drop. That smells very fishy to me - why would they be recruiting developers if coding skills aren't needed. I suspect you will be coding to handle the awkward parts of the integration, so I wouldn't worry too much about not keeping your hands dirty.

What does ring an alarm bell is this being all new to the business and they are not recruiting someone with previous experience. No amount of training course time is going to make up for that. You will be learning on the job - with the impact on the business (delays, errors etc) being visible. I would want to be very confident they would give me the room and time to learn, otherwise you are being set up to fail. A big vendor like SWAG would want to sell a bucket load of consultancy on top of the WebMethods sale, but this sounds like you're on your own. Definitely counts as a challenge !

On the plus side, the package is a good step up and certainly worthwhile over what you do have. Reduced commute time especially.

 

[omnomnom]

How long has your fiancee worked there out of interest?


Personally id take it.

 

[thedazman67]

My fiancee has worked there for the past 3 years, that aspect doesn't bother me at all. I've dropped her off there every day for the past couple of years as its on my route into work at the moment.

What does ring an alarm bell is this being all new to the business and they are not recruiting someone with previous experience.

This is something which I asked, I never did get a proper answer on this so I will ask again. My thoughts are they haven't really considered what resource they need to integrate a product like WebMethods. Further backed up by my conversations with the recruiter as he had no idea it was a focus on WebMethods he was briefed it was going to be traditional software engineering with your core languages like C# using .NET Core. This is what originally attracted me to the position, they do utilise those above mentioned technologies but there are no open positions at my level on those teams at the moment.

A lot of the IT team in this business are new, a lot of them have only been there for 2 months, including my would be new manager. They have been quite open about this and admit there has been a shift in there approach to IT with renewed investment in it.

 

[A2Z]

From everything you have posted it looks like an easy decision - take it.