Episode 234: Job hopping and untenable counter-offers

Soft Skills Engineering

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

Questions

1. How can I stay at a job for a long period of time?

   I’m on my second job after graduating and as I’m approaching my first year at this company I’m already thinking of moving somewhere else. A similar thing happened at my previous job where I stayed for around 15 months.

   I feel that by switching companies so often I’m hurting both my personal development and future employability. At the same time the easiest way to get a better role or a raise is to switch jobs.

   What should I do? Have I just not been lucky enough to find a company that offers better career progression which would give me a reason to stay? Is the problem with me? How did you deal with this in your own careers? How about when you’re making hiring decisions - are you wary of hiring frequent job switchers?

   Great podcast btw, keep it up

2. Is firing the new counteroffer?

   A junior dev on my team confronted us with an offer he got from another company. He is already paid at the limit of his range, his upcoming performance review is “not great, not horrible”. The amount offered to him would put him in our lower senior range and there is no justification for that at all.

   He made it clear he is in a complicated financial situation (got his bank account emptied and credits maxed out).

   I don’t see a path to him getting close to the salary he got offered in the next year or even longer. We are not a company that fires people if they do not grow at a certain rate, but given his situation he is probably not going to stick around for long.

   He also made it clear he would like to stay if not for the salary, but now I am thinking it might be the best for the company to fire him, maybe even for him. Is that cruel, which other options am I missing?

   Given your eternal backlog of questions your advice is probably coming late, I would still be interested in it.

   Thanks for all the other advice, it’s both entertaining and very helpful.

   Best from Colombia