

Ask HN: How long do SE's on average stay at a startup before moving on? - immranderson

I had heard a while back that the typical turnaround time for a Bay Area based Software Engineer in a startup averages 6-9 months. I feel like, according to anecdotal evidence, this has been somewhat accurate for myself and other people I have worked with -- why stick around when you can hop over to the next company and get a 5-15 percent pay raise? I realized, though, that I didn&#x27;t have any hard data to back this up. Googling around seems to only come up with results in percentage of attrition rates, but with no timeframes associated with that data. Are there any studies out there that address this topic?
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jpgvm
I would say 18 months is much more common for good software engineers.

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peri
This isn't hard data, but amongst my friends in the South Bay it seems to be
about 1 year unless there's real promise of upside in the startup. It's just
hard to keep talented people if the company seems to be foundering in the
shoals, given that there is so much demand for good engineers.

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mimog
I don't know specifically about the Bay Area, but everywhere else in the world
having a bunch of short stints on your CV would be a bad thing. It also
doesn't take many 5 - 15% pay bumps before you have maxed out what anyone is
willing to pay you given your bleak CV.

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dpeck
FYI, when I see SE I immediately things Sales Engineer.

I think anyone who's worked with an "enterprise" focused business, startup or
otherwise, would think the same.

[https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&e...](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what%20is%20an%20se)

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karlkatzke
Funny, I think Systems Engineer.

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WalterSear
And I thought: Do they mean Sales Engineer, Systems Engineer, Software
Engineer or Senior Engineer?

