I turned down a promotion to stay in a junior role and people think I'm crazy

Everyone told me to take the senior dev position at Microsoft last March because it comes with more money and status. But I actually like the hands-on coding work and dread the idea of spending my days in meetings and performance reviews. I've been here 2 years now and my stress levels are way lower than my friends who moved up. Has anyone else chosen the less prestigious option and regretted it or felt relief?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher_flores4615d ago

So have you had a chance to see what your friends who moved up actually do day to day now? I'm curious if they're happy or just chasing the next rung on the ladder because that's what everyone expects. That's what always got me when I considered it - everyone talks about the salary bump but nobody talks about trading real work for politics and meetings.

thomas29115d agoTop Commenter

@christopher_flores46 you nailed it. I took a management role once, hated the switch from building things to shuffling papers. Three months in, I was missing the actual work and counting days until I could step back down.