Career Advice
Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:59 am
It's been 1 year now since my return to India and I have nearly completed 1 year in my current position (Senior QA Engineer). Many member of the R2IClub forum had helped me regarding salary information for that position when I posted that nearly 15 months ago. Thanks to that information, the transfer to the Indian office went well.
As an update, things are going well in this job. Job environment is good, co-workers are good, salary is decent. I fly home (Mumbai) every other weekend and my manager (US based) lets me work from home for a day when I'm in Mumbai. I recently had a performance review and it went well. So things are going decent for me, here in my current job, in Hyderabad.
Now, it turns out that my old boss in the US (for nearly 6 years... he was either directly or indirectly my boss), left the company and joined a new company. That company has an offshore presence in Mumbai. Recently, he lobbied the idea (nothing official yet) of my joining his group again. I used to be a Support Engineer in the US. Now, he is offering me to be a Support Manager. The position would have approximately 10 or slightly higher number of reportees. He asked me if I was interested.
I analysed the position and came up with some advantages and disadvantages:
Disadvantages first:
1) In my opinion, I'd be moving back from QA to support. I've been in QA for 1 year and from what I have seen my old role as a product Support (or Senior Support) engineer was no way less technically challenging than my current QA role. However, the industry views QA as a more technically challenging role than Support.
2) The company is much smaller than my current company. Also unlike my current company, this other company is nowhere as financially stable. It as a little more than $20M in cash and is not profitable (although it is very close to break-even).
3) I think the role will be more stressful
4) Another year in my current role and I think I will get a promotion. Anyway, I will be having a very small team here (2 interns) under my supervision in Hyderabad soon. Not a manager though.
Advantages:
1) The greatest advantage for me personally, is that I can return to Mumbai. Hyderabad is a decent city and all, but it's not home. I've thought about it for several months now and I can't see myself settling down here long term.
2) I get to be in a managerial role and having 10 engineers working under me would seem impressive on the resume. I feel that even if the company goes under after a year or so (which I think is the worst case), I will still have some management experience. I think this is a bit of a double promotion. I haven't been in a team-lead position yet and here is the opportunity to jump over that and become a manager.
3) I'm not really valuing this very high, but I think the money will also be better though I haven't discussed this issue with my ex-boss yet.
I have also noticed that recently a couple of people from my current company quit their (relatively more comfortable) jobs and joined smaller companies or started ventures/partnerships on their own. I'm thinking if they can take that type of risk considering they are in their 40s with children/home loan, etc.... I should also be able to take that sort of risk given that I don't have any major responsibilities yet (no wife/kids/home/etc) and 30 yrs old.
As an update, things are going well in this job. Job environment is good, co-workers are good, salary is decent. I fly home (Mumbai) every other weekend and my manager (US based) lets me work from home for a day when I'm in Mumbai. I recently had a performance review and it went well. So things are going decent for me, here in my current job, in Hyderabad.
Now, it turns out that my old boss in the US (for nearly 6 years... he was either directly or indirectly my boss), left the company and joined a new company. That company has an offshore presence in Mumbai. Recently, he lobbied the idea (nothing official yet) of my joining his group again. I used to be a Support Engineer in the US. Now, he is offering me to be a Support Manager. The position would have approximately 10 or slightly higher number of reportees. He asked me if I was interested.
I analysed the position and came up with some advantages and disadvantages:
Disadvantages first:
1) In my opinion, I'd be moving back from QA to support. I've been in QA for 1 year and from what I have seen my old role as a product Support (or Senior Support) engineer was no way less technically challenging than my current QA role. However, the industry views QA as a more technically challenging role than Support.
2) The company is much smaller than my current company. Also unlike my current company, this other company is nowhere as financially stable. It as a little more than $20M in cash and is not profitable (although it is very close to break-even).
3) I think the role will be more stressful
4) Another year in my current role and I think I will get a promotion. Anyway, I will be having a very small team here (2 interns) under my supervision in Hyderabad soon. Not a manager though.
Advantages:
1) The greatest advantage for me personally, is that I can return to Mumbai. Hyderabad is a decent city and all, but it's not home. I've thought about it for several months now and I can't see myself settling down here long term.
2) I get to be in a managerial role and having 10 engineers working under me would seem impressive on the resume. I feel that even if the company goes under after a year or so (which I think is the worst case), I will still have some management experience. I think this is a bit of a double promotion. I haven't been in a team-lead position yet and here is the opportunity to jump over that and become a manager.
3) I'm not really valuing this very high, but I think the money will also be better though I haven't discussed this issue with my ex-boss yet.
I have also noticed that recently a couple of people from my current company quit their (relatively more comfortable) jobs and joined smaller companies or started ventures/partnerships on their own. I'm thinking if they can take that type of risk considering they are in their 40s with children/home loan, etc.... I should also be able to take that sort of risk given that I don't have any major responsibilities yet (no wife/kids/home/etc) and 30 yrs old.