The dark side is probably joining a cool small tech company with interesting problems and work and cool people. As a result of your (& others work) it becomes successful and one day you look around and realize you no longer fit in -- it's become the big tech company you left and vowed to never work at again. Your peers don't care about tech in the same way and don't have the same passion as you, but are still there regardless and viewed as your equal. You feel as if they don't deserve their place, and many actually discredit your work with the benefit of hindsight and all of their 6 months of experience. Increasingly, your tenure is seen as a liability rather than an asset and you feel the distinct sense of an "old crew" vs. "new crew" forming as the people you know and loved are slowly replaced with new comers who are attracted to the success of the company, like a moth to a flame, but who you know would never have joined in the early days. You watch as design by committee takes firmly hold, insignificant straw man wins are the subject of great excitement, and processes replace unstructured trust.
Finally, after the company hires a "Director of UX" you realize it's simply not your thing anymore. You must make the hard decision to leave and never look back.
This gave me chills. You have to wonder though, how these nightmarish, big companies continue to achieve success and grow. Maybe software engineering, however shoddy, is just not that hard to make good enough.
Finally, after the company hires a "Director of UX" you realize it's simply not your thing anymore. You must make the hard decision to leave and never look back.