Why Your Best Engineers Are Interviewing Elsewhere, CodeGood
17 days ago
- #engineering-culture
- #employee-retention
- #organizational-hierarchy
- A senior engineer left a SaaS company because his technical judgment was ignored, leading to system failures and high engineer turnover.
- Organizational hierarchies filter out bad news, preventing executives from knowing about issues until they become crises.
- Skip-level conversations between executives and junior engineers can provide early warnings about problems.
- Engineers often leave due to loss of agency, unpayable technical debt, or meaningless work, not just compensation.
- Replacing senior engineers is costly, with expenses ranging from $275K to $395K per engineer.
- Early intervention and direct communication can prevent engineer attrition and save companies millions.
- Compensation is sometimes cited as a reason for leaving, but deeper issues like disengagement are often the real cause.
- Creating channels for unfiltered information flow helps executives address problems before they escalate.