[Cthulhu_]

It feels like few people stay at one company for more than a few years these days, but then conversely, it also feels like companies are set up in a way that makes most people replaceable.

Note that my take is biased, I've been a "consultant" for most of my career which is a glorified temp, and you end up in projects and organizations that hires temps. I tried an old fashioned product company once, it wasn't for me (nothing in common with my colleagues who were 20-30 years my senior, and they and the company were happy just plodding along until retirement)

[mynameisash]

When I moved to the PNW, it was for Amazon, and during my interview loop, I asked everyone, "How long have you been at the company?" They all had pretty much the same answer: three months, five months, eight months, and some that had been there for a few years.

But I decided to get out of Dodge and interviewed at Microsoft, and I asked everyone the same question. The responses were shocking to me: five years, ten years, 12 years, 22 years. One person even told me that he hadn't been with the company very long: only 18 years. And he wasn't being coy.

I've been at Microsoft for more than ten years, and I still feel like the new guy. I started at the tail end of the Ballmer days, and I'm sure it was a real grind back then, but I'm glad to see a company that -- in my experience -- treats people well enough that they'll stick around.

[greggsy]

In complex technical environments, it often doesn’t make sense to have an in-depth expert assigned to every system. You get a consultant in to set it all up and get the gears moving, but you can often get less experienced, or more versatile, people in to keep it running.

Also, the demand for skills has been silly for the past 20-odd years, so there’s less incentive stick around, other than money. Loyalty rarely pays off, unless you’re talking shares.

[opportune]

Microsoft is one of the few companies that seems to do a good job allowing employees to rise through the ranks from top to bottom. Most of the Partners I have met were cultivated internally. Facebook is also like this, with the added bonus of allowing much faster progression for high performers than most other companies (I know someone who became an E6 Engineering Manager/Tech Lead 3 years out of college. I don’t think it was necessarily for “bullshit” either, his work was very fundamental and important to the company).

But this is rather rare and most companies have a soft ceiling for growth internally. At Google for example, for years they have been filling most Director positions externally, and so most employees find it very hard to get there and progress past that. Progression is also often subject to norms that make the sheer number of promotions required to make it high up in the company impossible.

[robertlagrant]

> but then conversely, it also feels like companies are set up in a way that makes most people replaceable

How else would you set up a business that's robust to people moving on to new things?

[Zelphyr]

I believe that if a company treats their employees with respect (automatically give them cost-of-living raises without them having to ask for it, for example) and like humans instead of cogs in a machine, keep them intellectually challenged and fulfilled, and give them a sense of meaning and purpose, then they're likely to stay much longer. If you're doing that then they're giving your customers the same attention. So maybe you have a thriving business that employees will stay at for their entire career.

Contrasting that with my experience I can name one company in 30 years that did that. As is so often the case in our society, everybody is doing it backwards and wondering why everything is broken.

[dustingetz]

startups are not set up like that

[robertlagrant]

That seems: a) far too broad - if an HR assistant can't be replaced at a startup, why not? and b) a calculated risk - for certain things key people are just necessary to begin with, and if they leave it causes a massive issue. Startups aren't choosing that issue; they are just hoping it doesn't materialise until they have the normal way of doing things in place.

[ponector]

Also the best strategy for the last 10+ years was to move around frequently. Change jobs every year (or two if you can change projects inside one job). As the result you have much more salary and experience.

But everyone will bullshit you to stay as long as possible with little salary rise.

But with current market it is better to stay for longer if you have "okay" project.