1. The company is not growing and has no plans to grow. This is huge and probably swamps all the others.<p>2. The job is to maintain something old, and you get a sense there are no new plans for this product.<p>3. Is the software &quot;enterprisey&quot; in the pejorative sense: bloated, slow, over-engineered, etc. This might be a sign of a <i>stable</i> dead end job, and some people might want that. Leave these jobs to them.<p>4. Does the company either (a) promote from within, or (b) look good on a resume. If the answer is no to both, it&#x27;s not going to advance you. Note that a startup with growth potential may satisfy one or both of these-- if you join early you are likely to hit a high position if it succeeds, and a successful startup looks good on a resume.