Have you ever come back to a company after leaving (e.g. a few years later)? How did it go?

I left a company after 5 years because (in retrospect) I was starting to feel burned out about product engineering. I left for another product engineering job, thinking that my problem was with the product culture at my old place. Nope! Hated product work at the new place too.

Eventually a role opened up at the old place, working on a more dev-ops-y side, and I gave it a shot. It worked out well for 2 years, but after a re-organization cut back the scope of my work, I left for somewhere else.

Yeah. Only when the only reason I left was money and I negotiated for the appropriate money on the way in the door when returning.

Any place I've left for any other reason I haven't, and wouldn't, go back to.

I worked at the same company for almost exactly 12 years, I was so burned out that I didn't just leave to a similar role, I changed fields. After a year and a half I was nearly broke and went back to my abusive ex, despite a healthy pay bump I left again after a year and haven't done anything tech related since.

Please fucking don't. Think long and hard about why you left in the first place - you probably had a good reason.

My keycard didn't work.

Nope.