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Which makes cancelling the project an easier decision. In the beginning of my career I was only accepting short term projects, so I learned to always leave the code in a state where anybody can pick it up. I still code in that way, but I know it makes me more replaceable.

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If anyone at any company judges an engineer who crafts code that is easy for other engineers on their team to immediately pick up and start work on as more replaceable, that person is hopelessly incompetent. That would normally be a basic skill every engineer is expected to pick up before getting too far in their career.

If anything, an engineer with a clear tendency to try to write themselves job security is the one that should be replaced ASAP.

I would immediately dismiss an engineer who codes with the goal of "being unreplaceable". That's a nightmare scenario. Our job is to leave the code as ready to hand off as possible. Engineers who do it well are given bigger and better things.

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