When to Jump Ship as a Developer

Stay in your job too long, and you could be killing your career.

It only takes so long to learn everything you can from a job. So once you’ve achieved that, why stay on?

It’s comfortable to stick with what’s familiar, but this can cost you big, particularly at the beginning of your career.

You lose the chance to move up fast: it often takes longer to get a promotion in the same company rather than jumping ship.

You lose the chance to up-skill faster: in my experience it only take a couple of years to learn everything there is to know from one particular job. If you then stay on for another 5 years, think about the skills you could’ve acquired elsewhere.

Having a career plan will help enormously in your decision. For example, your plan could be:

• Junior
• Senior
• Principal
• Architect

Then decide how fast you want to get there. Do you really want to wait 20 years?

If you just go with the wind, without purpose, it could literally take you twice as long. If you’re working in a team that has 5 Senior roles for example, and only 1 Principal role, it could take years before you get the chance to get that promotion, especially if all the other Seniors want to stay put.

Make a plan. Act to achieve it. You’ll know the right time to move.

Have your learnt everything you can from your current role? Is it time for you to move on? Comment below 👇.