Mailbag: SWE Regrets Leaving Job
In This Issue:
A software engineer left a job he loved for a bigger paycheck and regretted it
Why anger is the worst career advisor you’ll ever have
The grass isn’t always greener
How to audit your job search
What to do when you’re already on the other side and the view isn’t what you expected
The Question
RR, I’m in a rough spot and could use some perspective. I was a software engineer at a large hospital system for about three years. Loved the team. Loved my manager. The tech stack was modern and the work felt like it actually mattered. We were building tools that directly impacted patient care, and I could see the results of what I shipped. The one downside was a five day RTO mandate, but honestly I lived about 20 minutes from the office so it never really bothered me.
The problem was comp. I was underpaid and I knew it. I brought it up a few times, got the usual runaround. “Not in the budget.” “Maybe next cycle.” You know the drill. After my last attempt got shut down I was furious. That same week, a recruiter hit me up on LinkedIn with a fully remote role paying about 35% more. I interviewed, got the offer, and took it within a couple of weeks.
It’s been about four months now and I’m miserable. The work is boring. I’m maintaining legacy code that nobody cares about. I feel like I’m just collecting a paycheck. I keep thinking about my old team and wishing I’d handled things differently. Is there anything I can do here, or did I just torch something I can’t get back?
The Answer
I appreciate you writing in because this is one of those situations that looks like a compensation problem on the surface but is really about something much deeper. And I think a lot of people reading this are going to see themselves in your story, either because they’ve lived it or because they’re one bad week away from making the same move you did.
So let’s unpack this.
