Is it me or lots of people don't like to change jobs- especially when you should.

[Zeze]

I think the general rule of thumb is that when you're young (20's) you leave the company after 2-5 years which should catapult you to a far better position.

Because of skillful resume writing, selling what you know, and leaving the old company's cozy perception of you behind, looking for a new job after 2-5 years can net you some big jumps in salary or a promotion.

The only exception is if your current work is giving you an incredible growth already.

I left my old work after 4 years. I nailed some interviews and hired to a position equivalent to my ex-boss. This would have never happened if I had stayed there. It was way too crowded, nobody was vacating, and I just simply out of their 'circle'.

I see some of my coworkers' FB and they're still doing the same thing after 3-4 years. Same position, same salary. One of them moved to Chicago, but stayed with the company and became an Account Manager- a sales job that's a lateral movement at best.

Another one quit the company to get a law degree. After 3 years, he went BACK to the same company and got hired as a Contract Specialist. We work with them all the time, and they're paid about 60K at most. Why on earth would you go BACK with your corporate experience and the law degree? There are so many better things you can do.

If you're still young (22 to 29), I strongly encourage you to hop between jobs and cherry pick to advance your career. Your company doesn't give a shiet about you, only you should watch what's best for you.

 

[purbeast0]

im on my 4th job out of college at the age of 31 now.

my first job i was at from 23 - 28. my salary increased about 20% the entire time i was there.

i then landed a new job where my salary increased 25% what i was making at my first job. unseen circumstances after about 1.5 years at that company made the new company i worked for lose the contract, and then another new company that came into play hired me since i was one of the key people. i got a HUGE raise after they tried to lowball me, and my salary increased about 50%.

i stayed with that company for about 8 months while looking for a job pretty quick, because they SUCKED as a company. since july i've been working at a new company, making like 11% more than i was at the previous company.

my salary has literally more than doubled from when i left my first company to where i am at now. had i not made the move when i did i don't think i'd be making what i do now.

i still know guys working at the first place i went to out of school, who started when i did. they've been there over 8 years and is their first job out of school. i'm positive they aren't making much at all compared to what they could be in our industry. and i know for a fact they aren't learning a damn thing cause they are still using old tech.

 

[vi edit]

Sometimes there's more to work than pay. Especially if you have a family or live in an area with limited options. It's a massive pain in the ass to buy/sell a house, pack up a whole family every 3-5 years, search for school districts, rip your kids away from their friends, ect. Because that's essentially what would have to happen for my wife or I to swap out jobs.

Plus there are other things like getting fully vested in retirement plans, actually starting to understand what you are doing and just simply chasing a buck. Where does it stop?

There's value to knowing an organization, the people in it, making friends and connections and ultimately being known as a "go to" resource when the shit hits the fan.

 

[SunnyD]

Sometimes it's not about the money.

 

[Zeze]

Sometimes there's more to work than pay. Especially if you have a family or live in an area with limited options. It's a massive pain in the ass to buy/sell a house, pack up a whole family every 3-5 years, search for school districts, rip your kids away from their friends, ect. Because that's essentially what would have to happen for my wife or I to swap out jobs.

Plus there are other things like getting fully vested in retirement plans, actually starting to understand what you are doing and just simply chasing a buck. Where does it stop?

There's value to knowing an organization, the people in it, making friends and connections and ultimately being known as a "go to" resource when the shit hits the fan.

I definitely agree with the latter part. But first reasons don't usually apply when you're young, which is why I specifically stated 22-29 yo~.

 

[bignateyk]

I've been getting about 6% a year for the last 7 years out of college. I'm having a hard time leaving behind my cushy job with 7 weeks vacation for some shitty corporate gig with 2 weeks vacation and a little extra salary.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I've been getting about 6% a year for the last 7 years out of college. I'm having a hard time leaving behind my cushy job with 7 weeks vacation for some shitty corporate gig with 2 weeks vacation and a little extra salary.

That's the position I am in currently. As I've discussed in other recent threads, I could probably make more as a consultant but is the additional stress worth it? Is it worth giving up 6+ weeks of vacation and all my perks and benefits?

 

[Slew Foot]

I moved around a bunch and then ended up starting my own company.

 

[rcpratt]

I was hired in 2010 at a salary much better than I would have received elsewhere, and in less than three years my salary is up about 20% total.

I'm not in any rush to go anywhere. There are still plenty of things that I can do here on my current employer's dime that will greatly improve my marketability.

 

[Murloc]

family

nowadays people in their 20s don't have kids until late in that decade or even later, especially if academically educated.
I think that's the kind of people OP is talking about.

 

[Baked]

Yeah, you should probably switch partners when you're young too.

 

[bigrash]

I always recommend switching jobs when young, but sometimes you just luck out with an excellent job with excellent perks, and it's not worth it to move on in that case.

 

[brianmanahan]

sometimes people hold out because of pensions

for example, a place where a friend works has a pension that will pay you (1.5 * years worked * highest salary)$ / 100 per year in retirement. do the math, even if you ended up at a paltry 100$k there after 30 years, you are getting 45$k per year in retirement from the pension. that kind of payout would on average be worth somewhere around 1$ million (modeling after a %4 withdrawal rate, assuming 20-25 more years of life left).

 

[brianmanahan]

That's the position I am in currently. As I've discussed in other recent threads, I could probably make more as a consultant but is the additional stress worth it? Is it worth giving up 6+ weeks of vacation and all my perks and benefits?

6 weeks of vacation???

 

[brianmanahan]

also, it is probably hard for a manager to understand, but many people are happier with lower responsibility positions. not less skill, but less managerial responsibility.

i loved it when i wasnt in charge of people and didnt have to plan work 6 months in advance. most every day was exciting and relatively stress-free, just solve the problems at hand and then on to the next ones. as i got opportunities to advance i took them, since they seemed as much ultimatum as they did opportunity.

and what happened? i get paid %20 more, but i my work enjoyment is probably %10 of what it used to be. i dont like most of what i do, it is just not what i really enjoy doing. i deal with with crap that i never had to worry about before and have to constantly keep up with what other people are doing PLUS worry about what i need to get done, for %20 more money which i really didnt need. tbh i would just like to go back to my old position, but that's not an option.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's not all about money and advancement. If you are happy where you are, and there is nothing threatening your future such as the possibility of layoffs, then why change?

In my case my job is one of the few in this city that pays as much as it does. In fact IT jobs in general are rather scarce unless you want to work for one of those small companies that runs around town fixing computers for $10/hour. No thanks.

Rather stay with the same company while I accumulate seniority and a pension. Been at my company for about 5 years, so every person that was hired after me would need to be laid off before I can be, so I'm in a pretty safe situation too.

That said, it's always good to keep fresh on skills so you can deal with the possibility of a mass layoff, being fired, etc...

The higher end a position is, the more stress that comes with it, usually. So it's always good to settle for what you like, and what allows you to live comfortably. I make 60-70k per year at my current job and live more than comfortably. Sure if I really wanted to I could try to look for a 100k exec type job but do I really want to deal with all that stress? Not really.

My current job is also shift work. I would probably take quite a lot to convince me to go back to 8*5. I have so much more time to myself with this job, I can actually enjoy all the money I make. To put it into perspective, I work for 15 days, on the next schedule. (80 days)

 

[Jeff7]

Sometimes it's not about the money.

This.

- Where I'm at now, I'm largely shielded from the office politics that lie beyond the office door.
- My supervisor has been there, done that - he did the kind of work that we do now, so he understands how it goes. Sometimes you can get a project 99.99% of the way done in just a week, but it's that one little portion that prevents it from working, and you can spend another 3 weeks just trying to find that one goddamn little problem. (Oh yes, it can get frustrating sometimes. )
- The people I work with in the department are competent, helpful, and modest.
- It's a small business, so I do end up feeling rather useful. I've worked at large (retail) companies already, prior and during college. With those sorts of jobs, you can end up feeling like no one would really notice if you suddenly disappeared.
- Hourly pay, not salaried, and the weekly hours are pretty reasonable.


That aside, it's just difficult to properly "shop" for a job, and then if you do shop around too much, you're a "job hopper" and thus no longer desirable to employ.
Then you start to age, and then you have nothing but decades of worthless valuable real-world experience, not the "innovation from fresh college students" that everyone seems to be looking for - at least as far as some employers are concerned. Oh, and fresh college grads are also willing to work cheap, so there's that, too. Valuable experience costs money; with everyone after short-term gains at the expense of the long-term, no one's willing to pay for that experience, because training is free.


Advancement: I don't mind learning new things, but I know I don't want to do management, at least not now, or any time in the foreseeable future. If I wanted a job that involved dealing primarily with people, I'd have gotten some manner of business degree. Or else gotten a job at a daycare center. (Sometimes, there's not a whole lot of difference between that and managing a department. It depends on who you end up with.)

 

[Markbnj]

As you get older security becomes _much_ more important, and it making a big change becomes a _much_ scarier proposition. If you're, say, under 30 with no mortgage and no children then this is really something you'll just have to experience to understand. You probably can't imagine being that timid about it. But when you have all those responsibilities you become deliberative about career moves.

 

[Sonikku]

The only thing people hate more than change are things staying the same.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I've never really understood the drive for career advancement, beyond increased salary. If you enjoy doing peon tasks and you make enough to support your lifestyle, why change anything? Not everybody wants to manage others time.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i'm looking for different jobs because i don't like the one i have, and i don't like the future that i would have.

there's one job that is potentially awesome. the job description reads like my resume. the employer is hiring for long-term growth, realizing that they need to educate new hires before the senior engineers retire.

my current employer lacks this foresight greatly, and the job is not very fulfilling. it's lucrative in the sense that i do what i would consider very low-stress work for kickass pay, but i actually want to put my degree to more use than what i do in my current position.