[steve_adams_86]

I'm not sure about the resume part. My experience refactoring legacy stuff into more modern stuff is actually a big talking point for my resume in my experience. People are always interested in why I did it, how I did it, why didn't I just build anew, etc.

Maybe that's because most jobs I apply for tend to have at least one 'legacy' system laying around that needs some help. But this is somewhat common outside of the startup scene.

Legacy in this case means an app that's maybe 7-10 years old, often written like everything happened on the back of a napkin. Sprawling, inconsistent, monolithic stuff. But not true legacy where it's written in Fortran or something in the 1500s.

At any rate, I think it's worth having refactors on your resume. I know I'd be interested in people who have done it - it's always such an educational experience.

[alexpotato]

Should have been more specific as to which industry I was referring to regarding the resume comment.

I worked for a big bank for 5 years supporting large trading systems. After the 3rd attempt to retire a legacy trading system by rolling out a new system, someone pointed out that if you are a mid level manager you don't get any resume points for refactoring old systems.

Hence, you keep trying to roll out new systems even if those systems have bugs like "switch all buy orders to sells" (true story).