When is a good time to move to a smaller company?

Question

I'm currently a staff/senior level engineer for a FAANG in America. I have expertise in cloud infrastructure and building backend services - apis, workflows, stream/message consumers, etc.I've been doing the same job since 9 years, since I graduated and it's been a lot of fun.I've been thinking of moving to a smaller company, because I'm hoping it will give me more experience with more opensource tools, and I'm hoping it will accelerate my carer.Compensation numbers are all over the place in our industry right now, and I'm trying to maximize this for the 3 - 4 year range.How do you decide it's a good time to move to a smaller company?

christophilus · Accepted Answer

There is no right answer. I started at a small company and have zigzagged between small and large companies my whole career. I prefer small companies. You&rsquo;ll never know what&rsquo;s best for you until you try it out.It&rsquo;s very different from a FAANG, though. You have much more responsibility, in my experience, and not everyone can make the transition successfully.