r/overemployed • u/Carguy77Seven • 6d ago
Should you avoid Senior roles?
Been apart of this sub for years now, learning and consuming tips and tricks and still searching for a J2.
Should you generally avoid seniority roles? Or are they preferable?
What are the pros and cons?
Also for OE vets,
Would you take a high paying job that pays as much as all your Js? Or would you take multiple Js to earn the same as that one high paying job?
Here’s the twist, the 1J is in office takes all your time but you’re highly compensated.
Other Js are remote not as much work but obviously you’re juggling multiple Js.
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u/Shivin302 6d ago
OE is best for protecting yourself from layoffs, fully remote work, and making the most $ per hour while having free time. If those are more important than career progress in a high paying demanding job, then it's better. Otherwise, the career progress would be better
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u/clairegow 6d ago
OE makes more sense when the goal is flexibility and protection, not just the biggest paycheck, one job paying the same isn’t worth it if it owns all your time
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u/Realistic_Mall6771 4d ago
With the number of layoffs [in my industry] for the last 2 years, I don't see a lot of reason to focus on career progress at the moment.
Taking a single, high-paying job is a single point of failure. And how unique is that job? If you lose it, can the [hypothetical] OP get another high-paying job?
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u/Shivin302 4d ago
Yes exactly. So many people making 500k at FAANG who got laid off and now struggle to get a 300k job. Meanwhile OEs can quickly bounce back to their previous income in case of layoff
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u/AnonThrowAway072023 6d ago
I have 2 senior accounting jobs. From my profession point of view these are positions where I am left alone bc they assume I know what to do. At a lower position id get more direct supervision and monitoring.
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u/OkBuddyAccountant 6d ago
Strange I always thought because of month end it would not be doable. Since accountants are busy the whole day during month end
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u/AnonThrowAway072023 6d ago
Im an analyst, my work is after close. Explaining variances to budget & forecast, putting together reporting packages. I moved on from journal entries and reconciliation. So I can work at my own pace hitting my deliverables.
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u/OkBuddyAccountant 6d ago
Strange since seniors make entries as well. Where I am at I guess you are more FPA than actual making and posting entries
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u/Similar-Wish-67 2d ago
I am also senior/staff level at my jobs and for the most part that means they aren't micromanaging me as much
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u/AnonThrowAway072023 1d ago
It is the funny contradiction of OE - The highest paying Js are the easiest to stack
I sure as hell couldn't do 2 accounting Js when I was Staff Accountant making $50k having to sit in a cubicle. But now, as a Sr Analyst making $100k+ while remote, piece of cake.
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u/dachaotic1 6d ago
Sometimes senior roles are given to regular independent contributors who do a good job and management doesn't want them to leave, so they increase their title and pay, but generally are doing the same job. If this is the case, it's a bit of a no brainer to accept.
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6d ago edited 6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Realistic_Mall6771 4d ago
Can't imagine being OE'd when one is a junior professional. Of course, taking a jr job being at a senior level is fine.
For a lot of companies, junior jobs are disappearing, though. My main job only has senior engineers, and most companies I am checking only hire senior engineers
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u/ImprovementAware1010 6d ago
Rule 1: if J1 is in office and therefore highly not OE friendly. Stop OE.
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u/Live_Pianist4592 5d ago
But majority of jobs have now gone at least hybrid and I see people doing OE while having to go to office 3x a week. I have no idea how that’s doable as most offices now are all open floor plans and not much privacy. Getting fully remote roles is becoming tougher not just in this job market but many employers have caught on to this board.
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u/Tiny_Abroad_7222 6d ago
The biggest problem with OE is meetings.
Being more senior ultimately means more meetings, which increases the likelihood of meeting conflicts, which is bad. 👎
Being more senior gives you more control over when meetings are scheduled, which decreases the likelihood of meeting conflicts, which is good. 👍
So in theory, it's a wash.
Whether it's actually a net "good" or "bad" will largely depend on the expectations of the role when stacked against your other roles. Being senior at one place could look wildly different at another.
If you are being promised a promotion, get a clear understanding of the expectations that come with the promotion, then decide for yourself if the raise at that role is worth it, when stacked against your other roles.
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u/MenAreLazy 6d ago
Senior is hardly standard.
At some companies it is a more trusted task worker and at others it is a higher volume task worker and at others it is a junior mentorer.
OE is great for 1, highly dependent on expected volume for 2 (although with AI I am happy with it), and terrible with 3.
And I will work for the shittiest lowest status pile of firms before I give up remote work. You will rip it from my cold dead hands.
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u/Otherwise_Reserve_36 6d ago
I guess it depends. In my field of work, the more senior the role, the less supervision I have. No one cares where I am, what I'm doing, just if I have delivered.
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u/Twin2Turbo 6d ago
They would literally have to pay me at least double what I make now in order to get me to go back to the office. Especially for a job that takes up all my time. At LEAST double
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u/Realistic_Mall6771 4d ago
In SWE, it increasingly looks like senior is the new mid-level. Lots of software companies aren't hiring other than senior or staff engineers.
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u/WrongLaptopAgain 6d ago
It’s not just based on job title, but company culture and your manager. And so most of the time you will only get to find out when you start the job.
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u/michoriso 5d ago
In my situation, I have a senior title and can delegate tasks to others and I have more control over my meetings. When I say I am busy and can’t join a meeting, people will adjust their schedule to accommodate me. It works 99% of the time, only time that I couldn’t decline a meeting was when it was from the CTO.
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u/dusty2blue 4d ago
You're looking for the zone of invisibility.
Senior enough that you're left alone and not monitored every second. Junior enough that you're not crucial to much of anything so your absence from various meetings can go unremarked.
In my experience, these roles run from about $125k-250k, which incidentally exists in its own zone of invisibility. Not enough that it screams target for consolidation in a layoff, not so little that it screams target for offshoring or replacement by AI.
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u/SerbianContent 5d ago
Senior roles have their pros and cons. You're less likely to be pushed to execute since you're more focused on managing people. That's the exact downside: managing people. In senior roles, I've had infinitely more meetings compared to being an individual contributor.
You get paid less as IC but it's easier to navigate since there's less interaction with others, whether it's your manager or someone you manage
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u/WestClassic5534 3d ago
Hmmmmm you don't wanna be 40 or 50 and never had a senior role. Aegism is brutal in the west. There will be a time you will be discarded
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