I recall a regular piece of advice for software engineers: “change your job every two years.”
There’s innumerable Google results for this, even from as recently as 2022 — but none of them really seem that high-quality?
I’m really, really enjoying my current (somewhat unusual, hard-to-replicate) position; am about a year and a half into it; but I also don’t want to relax into that and have it cost me in the long-run, career advancement wise.
So, what’ve y’all been doing? Especially in the post-pandemic/fully-remote world, does that advice still apply?
2 years are a bit extreme. I think 4-5 years is a good option. But if only if I don’t like the company (culture, people, policy, etc.) or I don’t see any advancement in my career.
If the company offers no real growth technical, responsibility or compensation yes
I feel like you should be careful trying to just optimize for the most money.
2 years seems really short, like your boss would just finally have you producing good code and knowing all the specific pitfalls of a certain codebase and then the door slams shut behind you.
I come from a different culture, but I’ve found 4 years is the right cadence for me. If you’re keeping your nose to the grindstone and doing what you’re supposed to, it seems like about every 4 years everything ends up changing.
Doesn’t even mean leaving. Often it means advancement.
I don’t know, if I can get a really nice pay raise by going somewhere else and am not getting any pay raise where I am despite finally being able to “produce good code” I’d be angry and want to leave. You should do good work, yes, but this mentality of the fact that you have some degree self sacrifice being somehow more important than salary is naive and exploitative as well. If your company values you then you pay should reflect that. It isn’t charity. (Unless you actually are working for a charity but that’s different haha.)
If your skill set is just getting up to speed, that seems limiting to me.
I know I’ve ignored many resumes with people who jump jobs every 2 years because those first 2 years you’re getting paid to be varying degrees of incompetent and useless within a team. Moreover, someone who leaves every 2 years will never be in a position where they actually have to deal with long-term problems.
If you don’t think you’re getting paid enough, well enough go out and do some capitalism. But going into any given job with the intention of quitting almost immediately to optimize your pay, I don’t think that’s necessarily the right way of doing it either. Employment is actually a 2-way street in good companies.
The real answer is “it depends”, but that said, I think when you’re early in your career you will advance faster, and increase your compensation more quickly by switching jobs.
I do also think there are advantages to see how different organizations and industries tackle similar problems.
But if you have a job you’re happy with, are getting paid fairly, have a good manager/team, then I wouldn’t just change jobs for no reason.
As you get later in your career though I do think it’s easier to get promoted to more senior/staff/architect roles from within. Taking on a high level leadership position at a new company comes with its own set of challenges that are not the same for a tenured engineer that gets promoted.
Don’t leave a good place because of FOMO.
I have worked 5+ years at my first work place. Good WLB, growing skills, promotions, good people. Most people who left tried to come back.
Why do you think staying can cost you career advancement wise? What are your goals?
What is unusual about your current position? If your current position is very nieche or skills are not transferable, that could become a risk for your career.
