When You Should Change Jobs for Growth and Pay

I keep hearing that staying in one company for too long is bad for your career.

But I'm not fully convinced.

I've seen people stay for 5-6 years and still get good hikes and promotions. I've also seen people switch every couple of years and grow much faster.

So I'm curious what others here think.

Is it better to stay and grow where you are, or switch when you feel you've stopped learning/growing?

It doesn’t matter. Getting a promotion every 2-3 years is the best move. It can be at the same company, or at a different company, but you should be looking for a 20%-30% salary increase and a title bump every 2-3 years in your first decade of career. If you can get it within the same company then that’s great. If not, look outside.

Whether you stay or switch is irrelevant, upward progression is.

I think you laid out pretty clearly why it’s worth leaving. To me it seems like there’s only positives at the new job or at least no negatives. It’s got the same pto and rto but a decent chunk of more money and maybe less work if you don’t have to manage others.  

The only thing you would lose out on leaving is the built in internal knowledge or goodwill that comes with staying at a company for multiple years but since you said you aren’t learning anything anymore and they won’t pay you more it’s not worth much unless you are trying to get promoted. 

31 year old tired of the same sector I’ve been in for 12 years. When did you decide you wanted/needed a change what were you doing and wha did you go to? What led you down that path?

The job market is shit right now but in general, yes, you’re going to make a LOT more switching jobs. Staying at a job, you’ll probably get the annual 3-5% if you’re lucky.

Last year I led a project that resulted in a $70M revenue increase for our company. This was a project that many before me struggled with. I got jack shit for it. Fuck corporate - look out for yourself and don’t worry how they feel.

I'm 27 years old, and this is my fifth job since I graduated. Every move brought me a better salary, more reasonable working hours, and made a huge difference to my mental health. But whenever I go on any professional website or talk to older managers, I hear the same warning: 'You need to show some stability. Companies value commitment.'

The problem is, this 'commitment' thing doesn't pay my rent. The annual 3% raise is a joke when everything is getting more expensive. All my friends whose salaries jumped significantly, like 50% in two years, all did it by changing companies.

But I still have this fear buzzing in my head: Does this strategy have an expiration date? Will there come a time when hiring managers see me as just a 'flight risk' and toss my CV, even if my performance was excellent everywhere I've worked?

I'm just trying to understand what the rules are now. Should we grind it out at one place for 3 or 4 years just to look good, or is frequent movement the way you have to build your career in 2026?

I (26F) am genuinely curious about this. It feels like everyone around me either magically knew what they wanted to do at 22… or they stumbled through a bunch of jobs until something clicked.

For those of you who’ve been through it — How many times did you switch roles/fields before finding something that actually felt right? Was there a moment where everything just fell into place, or did it happen slowly?

Would love to hear your experiences. I think it would help a lot of us who are still figuring stuff out. 😅

Hi all! I need some big sister (or wiser) advice.

I’m 27 and have been at my current job for just under 4 years and I’ve reached the final round of interviews for a new role.

I’m currently making 78k New role is ball-parked at 95-105k (range up to $115)

The hesitation here is that I love my job, it does me well but I’m not learning anymore, and I’m not earning enough to justify staying without a promotion. It was my first real job out of university and I’ve been able to do a lot of exciting things.

Some additional tensions: my manager is on mat leave for another 4 months and there will be no backfill for her. I’ve already gone 3 months without a manager, and I’ve asked for a raise to make up for absorbing the extra tasks, but have been met with a big no.

More tensions: The company just went through a huge restructuring with some downgrades in titles, and clear separation between subordinates along with pay.

This potential job has the same vacation, same RTO policy, but will have more work ownership, in an exciting challenging way. New industry, more responsibility, and does all this without me becoming a people manager!

Looking to see what the group would recommend!

This is all a wild thought as no offers have been made and I’m still in the process of interviewing, but would love your thoughts!

It sounds like you know the right answer. The tension with your manager being on maternity leave—not your problem. If tables were turned they wouldn’t consider your personal situation—no need to sorry about their decisions.

I would leave. Always look out for yourself not the company when it comes to work. So happy for anyone that gets generous maternity leave but companies really should have coverage when people are out that long. So them being unable to handle that absense and then telling you no when you asked for a raise while you were doing work outside of your role's scope feels like a huge red flag. And imo salary bump from 78k to 100k is large enough and worth the change alone, you can invest or save a significant amount while still making some quality of life updates.

I always switched once it became stagnant

Depends on a lot. Nobody but you can answer it. Start applying and see what you get offered.

Personally, switching every 2-3 years has been far more beneficial for me financially. Raises never keep up with the market to acquire high end talent. And new companies don't take you for granted right away when they've been looking to fill a position for a while.

yeah i feel like you laid this out pretty clearly! sounds like it’s time to go if you get the offer. it was a business decision to not backfill the cover who left, it’s a business decision to deny your request for comp that matches your responsibilities, and it’s a business decision for you to leave for something that’s better for you in the short- and long-term.

unsolicited advice incoming: beating my drum that i always beat on posts like this - if you do get the new role (or another role!) and choose to leave - you don’t need to make it as nice for them as possible. keep it professional, don’t be an asshole, but you don’t need to sacrifice yourself with a super-long notice period or something else that might not be in your best interests. (not that you said that outright, but i saw another comment of yours about doing it in the best way possible, and just a big-sister reminder that their next steps are not your problem!!)

Crying every morning when you wake up and realize you have to go to work. I actually had a job that made me do that.

I work as an intern at a small company which doesn't pay much and you have to do alot of random stuff which I don't like(bussiness proposal etc,I am a graphic designer) but the boss say it good for us intern to learn alot of stuff which I don't agreed. When I am in the middle of design project suddenly there another random task which don't relate to my job. What the point of learning those random task when I don't even used it later. And recently there a policy for who come late,They deduct your salary and there no policy for OT.Ok I came to work late about 5 to 15mn because there is no bus and Im not late everyday but I work overtime up to 30 to 2hour.Sometimes even sunday.They already deduct 1/5 of my salary.I am an intern I don't even have much salary. Next month is my last month of internship .Honestly I don't like doing random task but I afraid my next job is like this. I don't like the way my boss think you need to know and do everything but I can't complain in front of him. Other new intern also speak up about that they are busy doing their work and don't want to do another random task because it slow their work and he wanted the work to done fast but still assigned another random task for them and of cause he say intern need to learn everything and he said the old intern doesn't even complaint about it. Of cause we complain but no one speak up because we know he believed in his Idea.Is it mean that is you are a leader your mindset always right?

I have been in my current position for over 8 years (too long, I know) and I've already committed to moving on, but just wrestling with staying in that particular field (hospitality) or going to something else entirely.

Just feels like my chances aren't great either way, given 8 years in a specialized area makes me essentially irrelevant.

Your mental health is suffering

Feeling drained every morning

Once you have to force yourself to go there, you're probably better off elsewhere.

For context, I graduated in 2025 and I’ve been working as a Graphic Designer for about a year.

While I was at uni, I tried really hard to get internships but never managed to land one. I also couldn’t afford to move to London to intern because I was working almost full-time just to cover my rent while studying.

About six months after graduating, I landed my current role as a Graduate Graphic Designer. The pay has actually been pretty good — I started on £23k, moved to £28k, and there’s a path to £32k. The role has been a great opportunity to kick-start my career, but I’m starting to feel like I want to explore other opportunities.

Because I didn’t do internships, part of me feels like I missed out on gaining broader experience earlier on.

Is one year of experience enough to start applying for new roles, or would it be smarter to stay another year? Would moving now be a bad decision?

Any advice would be really appreciated.

It’s not new. I got my first job in 1970 and retired 5 years ago. The ONLY way I ever got meaningful raises was to get a better job.

your body knows before your brain does tbh, i started getting stress hives every sunday night and my therapist was like 'soooo have we considered that this job is literally poisoning you' and i was like nope, guess not lol. took me another six months to actually leave, the sunk cost fallacy is a hell of a drug

When you ask this question

Hi! I am a network and systems technician, working for the largest telecommunications company in my country (I am paid the average salary for a company employee).The benefits are good, but I received another job offer that pays 20% more. The question is, will it look bad in my career to have changed jobs before the year is even over?

Thanks!