work environment

[SteveDyson]

Hi,

It’s been over a year now since I joined the company. I am working as a senior software developer and I am the sole developer in the company. This job seems a job match to my skills but unfortunately I am not able to fully utilize my skills and there are other things have taken priority. It seems that my career is heading to more support role rather than doing development.

I have got a job offer and company is paying me the same salary but somehow I don’t like their work environment. When I went there for an interview it felt like a call centre (open) environment.

Does the work environment really matter as long as you are doing what you want to do?

Should i wait and look for a right job and company?

[Gargamel]

It is such a personal thing.

I have only ever worked in Open plan offices, I no longer care where I sit or much about the surronds. Obviously not working with nutters in close proximity is useful.

More important to me are the general facilities, good environment, showers, toilets on site facilities, decent coffee...

I want to see evidence that the business is investing in the quality of the environment. Nicely spaced desks, modern monitors, phones etc - that to me says progressive forward thinking management.

Take a job based on what your CV will look like two years later and whether you will learn, grow and develop your skills. The rest to me is reasonably trivial...

[anonymous-user]

It can vary so much and it can make a great difference to your happiness. Years ago I worked for 6 months (short term contract) at a large international company. The job was a reasonable fit for my skills and the money was OK, but soon after working there it became clear that nobody actually spoke to each other, at all. We had an internal messaging system (a bit like MSN messenger) which worked globally and was quite useful if you wanted to discuss something with someone in a different office, but I found that the people who sat in the desks immediately around me would use it to ask me a question, rather than simply talking to me. The effect was simply that the office was deadly silent, and extremely boring because their was zero banter or even signs of life. At the end of the contract I went to work for another company in a similar office, but which had a totally different, and much improved atmosphere.

[ewenm]

I work in software development in a large open plan office. I've found two disadvantages:
1. Noise - when trying to concentrate on a tricky logic problem the ambient noise is off-putting.
2. Availability - the open plan aspect means that I'm often interrupted in my PH posting work with questions. Most of the time that's fine but sometimes it can be annoying.

A solution to both of these is a decent set of noise-cancelling headphones - they reduce the ambient noise, help my concentration and discourage (but don't eliminate) casual questions.

[944fan]

To be honest, unless your skills are so specialised or you live in Timbuktu then wait for another role you do like. If you don't like the cut of their jib already I would wager you will hate it when you start.

I was a developer for 10 years before moving in to management. I could easily find new roles as a developer and now in management I find it increasingly difficult to find good developers. Experienced developers are in short supply so you shouldn't need to take the first opportunity to get out. Keep looking and pick a good un. I have jumped at the the first offer before and then left a year later because I didn't like it.