> "They think we are fungible"

Most software people do web front end or web back end or CRUD. Most of the rest do apps, whether mobile or desktop. What's non-fungible about us?

> I realised that I needed to interview my prospective employers as much as they were interviewing me

This is so important, and most of the “fit” problems working I’ve experienced are because I didn’t weigh something heavily enough in the interview.

If you are even the slightest bit concerned with an employer, that is a red flag in your long-term prospects there.

For example:

- If your future boss seems even a little clueless about the job itself, you may be lucky to find adequate structure or information available to do your job well.

- If your future boss seems guarded, they may be hiding something; they may not be equipped for the job or could be a psychopath.

- If they have greater than average benefits or the recruiter calls you a rockstar, it may be some form of hell, and you won’t find that out until a few weeks in.

- If more than one person seemed like they were afraid to say something during the interview and were very quiet, either the environment there will be weird or it may be a serious hell and/or there is no chance to be able to fill the shoes of the person that left.

- If you sense that they overestimated your ability or you overstate something accidentally in the interview, you may not overcome that as much as you want to believe in yourself. No, you can’t make up for years of experience with hard work. Your LinkedIn profile description must be essentially you, with the burrs removed and buffed up a little; It’s not just to get past a machine or recruiter.

- If anyone you interview with is an arse, even if they work in a different team, that’s not a good sign.

- If you are ___, and no one else there is, that may be a serious problem. This is age, sex, religion, politics, number of kids and ages, pets, what they do/don’t do socially, emotion, humor, tech stack, clothing, what vehicles they drive, style of workplace, and everything else that either you won’t like or they won’t like about you. Diversity is a sham if you’re the only one different, though I know that some may not ever realistically find a place to fully fit in.

- If you join when they’re hiring others for your team at the same time, and the business itself isn’t growing significantly, that can be a bad sign.

- Claims that they don’t fire people are a lie or a hope.

None of these are absolute rules, but find your people, and if anything doesn’t seem right or seems too good to be true, it probably is. Weigh that extra salary against the impact of having to find another job if you quit or are let go later.

We are fungible. Most software development is not rocket science. If any of us got hit by a bus tomorrow HR would send our next of kin “thoughts and prayers”, a flower and tell them how to collect our life insurance and then immediately open a req and get flooded with hundreds of probably good enough replacements.

It sounds like what you're arguing for is that companies ought to have employees that are irreplaceable. Wouldn't that impose a huge risk to the company? If said employee gets hit by the proverbial bus or leaves, the company should just fold?

Companies need to build systems where everyone is replaceable to de-risk the business and not because they don't get programmers.