[ Removed by moderator ]
Would you choose a team with exceptionally strong engineers if it meant facing the risk of being directly compared to them?
The team works on deeply technical problems, and I feel like there would be a ton of opportunity to learn and grow as an engineer. However, I’m afraid of being the newcomer in this domain and struggling to ramp up to their level. Since my company is famous for stack ranking, that adds a lot of extra pressure.
On the flip side, I could choose a more chill team in familiar territory with minimal growth, but I'm worried I won't end up gaining anything special. I'm at a point in life where I can handle longer work hours within reason, but I'm not sure how sustainable that path would be long-term.
Has anyone made a choice like this before? How did it turn out?
Edit: The stack rank risk here is pip to be clear
Posted Aug 12, 2026, 3:27 AM UTC