Is it possible to work in one IT project (product) for more than 5 years and not degrade professionally?

Question

Career in IT

The average duration of work of a specialist in one IT company is no more than 4 years. At Google for over a year. The data differs by country, but the trend is the same (my question is attached to it): a specialist works in a company for 2-3 years and leaves. For different reasons. Some of them are objective (technological development), some are subjective (the desire to develop, the search for better conditions). My question is: is it realistic to develop for 5 years or more in one product project and not degrade? And not just stand still, but develop? Arguments why "yes" or "no". For real examples I will be especially grateful. I am a representative of an IT project, in which there are many old-timers, including me. It is interesting to compare our experience with the experience of other specialists.

Answer 1

In one project it is possible, in another it is impossible; One programmer can do it, another can't. If a person wants to develop, you will not stop him. If he doesn't want to, don't force him. The project can help or hinder, but in itself it is almost not a determining factor. Actually, you yourself confirm this with your bio:

Despite the long term of work in the project, I find new interesting tasks that do not let me get bored.

In general, it is more realistic than not, if there is at least some desire to do it.
It is impossible to give any concrete arguments here, because the projects are all different, the people are all different. But this will not prevent now five to ten people from writing answers that are completely opposite in meaning, which will boil down to what I wrote above.

Answer 2

My question is: is it realistic to develop for 5 years or more in one product project and not degrade?

Of course it's possible, why not? That's just a person with a change of work will progress faster and it will be easier for him with this

Answer 3

If the tasks are complex and diverse (especially if you are lucky and sometimes there are creative ones), then there should be no degradation. As an option - to code something of your own ("pet-project") in your free time, to study some things. In general, as long as there is no burnout, you should not worry)) That's how you burn out, there is degradation, and all other carbohydrates.

Answer 4

If you have already worked on several really different projects, got an idea of ​​different options and architecture and organization of work, then you can find a complex project that changes, expands and works in it all your life.
Yes, you may not know all, all, all the features that have appeared on the market, but if your product is complex, you will still use either analogues or, on the contrary, have your own interesting expertise.
ps Look at Torvalds - has he degraded?

Answer 5

If the project really develops, then the developers who work on it can develop. And if you only do what you add and remove fields in forms, then you can degrade in a year.

Answer 6

Very much depends on how you work and what experience you get.
If you do the same thing day after day with minor changes, you are unlikely to develop.
If during this time the company has increased several times, you regularly get promotions, constantly learn new things, implement new ones, lead pet projects, advise colleagues from other projects - then, perhaps, you will not degrade.

Answer 7

there is some kind of substitution here. what does it mean to degenerate? after working 5 years and 1 month on one project, you can easily pass an interview for another.
about those four years. let it be just a number for you. do not try to draw far-reaching conclusions from it.
correct answer: yes. can.

Answer 8

If you are in product support, then there is definitely a ceiling that you will run into in six months, a year, or two years, depending on the knowledge and place that you had at the start.
The average duration is no more than 4 years - this is a consequence of the poor performance of personnel services. Too lazy to think about how and where it is better to use a specialist after the completion of a project stage. As a result, they are lured and tortured by the selection of people from outside. And specialists who have already been tested and integrated into the company go to their neighbors or to other industries in general.

Answer 9

It depends on the leadership. In general, a constant change of work is not an indispensable condition for growth. For example: there are times when a person working at a factory turns from a simple turner into a factory director. There are such cases in nature :) Draw conclusions.

Answer 10

For the most part it depends on the size of the company, its mustiness and development
For example, I have been working with a small company for seven years, it has grown from three people to 20+
Twice the main product was completely rewritten from Ruby to Ruby Machinevents and then to Go
Started from one server now 50+ servers scattered around the globe
You can also develop well with a small company, when no one can really interfere with you because they don’t fumble and you can do and change everything you want, as long as it works
You can develop perfectly in a large company, for example, like mail ru , I have one friend from the university still working there.
It won’t work in small ones where you have technical control from above
It won’t work in musty ones, it’s usually where there is an old product that the client already has external or internal and suits them plus or minus, but in general it doesn’t allow it to be properly updated or rewritten, then you sit there on the forms, move the fields and correct old bugs

Answer 11

I agree with @d-sem
In cool projects with a strong IT team, you can work at least all your life, and at the same time grow all the time.
In such companies, the management itself sends employees to conferences, conducts trainings, and encourages professional self-development. Often there is a regularly updated library of professional literature (I know, in times of widespread remote work, it’s not very relevant)).
And there are offices in which employees have been boiling in their boiler for many years and do many things using old-fashioned methods.
In one of these, in 2021, in all seriousness, I told the so-called team leader that there is such a wonderful thing as web sockets, which, by the way, didn’t appear yesterday, and that there is no longer a need to hit the server with Ajax every second to find out about updates. He listened very incredulously.

Answer 12

If you are sure that the essence of the issue lies in the plane of degradation, and not in the fact that you are tired of everything, then YES 100% dergrade and even before 5 years.
We must learn to separate both home and work. Also, you can separate the project from your development, because you can really develop only by doing something for yourself, studying those things that you want, and not that you have to work on. But this only works if you are really interested in it and do not think that the work should develop you. You have to develop yourself.

Answer 13

it is very difficult to work on one project and develop quickly, because each project has a life cycle, development is gradually replaced by support, growth and development slows down, as a result, if you want growth, you need to change projects, usually it is easier to switch between projects within the company.
P.S.
in terms of position and income within the company, such growth is very slow, so we also have to change the company.