I think I stayed at my job too long

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see absolutely no liability for staying that long. Normal people will see that long tenure as an asset.

Somehow the internet has convinced millennials and younger that jumping jobs every 18 months is not only okay but is a career asset. They're delusional, and once they hit their power years in early 40s-late 50s, alot of them are going to find out how dispensable they are.

I've had a lot of different jobs and the career asset isn't moving a lot, it's the skill and career growth that unfortunately can be very difficult to get in some fields if you stay in the same place. If you can get that growth without moving, great. But the issue with staying someplace for 18 years isn't that you stayed there for so long, it's that you may or may be employable more broadly--you've never had to figure this out. A lot of senior employees lose their good jobs and struggle to find something new because much of their value was organization-specific, they don't have great networks, and they don't know how to job search. And there's not a way to test this other than by actually looking for a job.

The problem is that for any job with a challenging skill set, you're not going to develop that skill set in less than 3-4 years. So if you're job hunting every 2 years, you're not getting the skill and career growth that you say is important. Or if you think you are becoming an expert in a job in less than 2 years, then the job must not be very difficult.... which means you'll be disposable in your 40s when you're expensive. I don't think you need to stay 18 years, but i'd want to hire the person with 18 years tenure before the person with 6 jobs at 3 years at a time. ALso, i get that some companies don't provide opportunities to grow and develop, but if you're two decades into your career and been at six different employers and never once landed somewhere where they gave you upward opportunities, then i think that speaks volumes too.

It’s not uncommon to see many ppl in the 6-8 year experience range outperform people with 20 years of experience.

Unless you are a brain surgeon, most corp jobs can be learned within 2-4 years.

Yes “learned” in 2-4 years. So if you leave at three years, you’ve just completed the learning stage and are leaving before you apply yourself in the job as a fully experienced person. In other words, you’re always leaving before or essentially just as you become an expert at your job. You’re never actually at your job when you’re truly the expert.

You are sooooo funny. in my case I am expert in my job on day one. And usually by year 2-3 I am bored as nothing to learn and repetitive, in fact my work product often starts to slip by 18 months. I had a job ten years and eight years as both were cushy. I literally learned nothing and barely worked in both those jobs after year two.

I am not super smart or anything I just like to learn, be around smart people, not be bored and enjoy my job. I am at year 2.5 my current job and want to bounce. Once you had a lot of jobs and are older all the same.

I realized this last week. I was at a conference on a panel with three other people from three different companies and in the past I worked at all three of them. I felt like I was only one who knew all the moving parts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you truly are being paid a competitive salary, then stay put.

But I find that shocking if you’ve been at the same company for 18 years. Everyone knows that you get the big jump in salary if you were able to willingly leave on your own terms.

Or maybe look at jumping with the market is better. Again, I would be shocked if your salary is competitive.

Really hard to say more without knowing your role, the type of company for which you work, and in the industry.

Her salary has basically doubled over 20 years — im guessing she avoided becoming director or business development. Her $50k salary would be $90k now, making $200k is a nice progression but my spouse made nearly the same progression on the GS scale over that same time.

So for new employers the will see someone resting on their laurels, probably tagging long with one or two contracts and doing her job well, but thats it. Probably could get another contracting job, but you give up stability most likely without a big pay raise.

What exactly is toxic about your job? Anyway to mitigate?

The naïveté. Stability in the private sector is an illusion. Just because she’s stuck around (or flown under the radar) for so long, doesn’t mean it’ll always be like that.

And sorry that’s not an insanely impressive salary progression. It’s actually perfectly middle of the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you truly are being paid a competitive salary, then stay put.

But I find that shocking if you’ve been at the same company for 18 years. Everyone knows that you get the big jump in salary if you were able to willingly leave on your own terms.

Or maybe look at jumping with the market is better. Again, I would be shocked if your salary is competitive.

Really hard to say more without knowing your role, the type of company for which you work, and in the industry.

Her salary has basically doubled over 20 years — im guessing she avoided becoming director or business development. Her $50k salary would be $90k now, making $200k is a nice progression but my spouse made nearly the same progression on the GS scale over that same time.

So for new employers the will see someone resting on their laurels, probably tagging long with one or two contracts and doing her job well, but thats it. Probably could get another contracting job, but you give up stability most likely without a big pay raise.

What exactly is toxic about your job? Anyway to mitigate?

The naïveté. Stability in the private sector is an illusion. Just because she’s stuck around (or flown under the radar) for so long, doesn’t mean it’ll always be like that.

And sorry that’s not an insanely impressive salary progression. It’s actually perfectly middle of the road.

Actually I compared the salary progression with a Fed salary, so yeah middle of road by definition

But being in an established contract and known quantity by a contractor is usually more stable than new hire at random private firm.

[Anonymous]

A lot of managers don’t practice what they preach, my manager turned down a referral because the candidate job hopped, said candidate worked at her first job for 7 months, it’s a school sponsored intern (something European companies have until you turn 27), she is British and only took it because they sponsor her visa to work in NY, second job for 4.5 years before leaving to care for her relative.

Then manager turned around to hire a kid who had a 2 years, 1.5 year and 1 year tenures at 3 companies out of school. 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And usually by year 2-3 I am bored as nothing to learn and repetitive, in fact my work product often starts to slip by 18 months. I had a job ten years and eight years as both were cushy. I literally learned nothing and barely worked in both those jobs after year two.

Why made you stay so long at your 10 and 8 year jobs?

I just made it past year 3 and I want to get out. I'm terrified that if I don't do so now, I'll be stuck here forever.

It sounds like you let yourself get stuck for many, many years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And usually by year 2-3 I am bored as nothing to learn and repetitive, in fact my work product often starts to slip by 18 months. I had a job ten years and eight years as both were cushy. I literally learned nothing and barely worked in both those jobs after year two.

Why made you stay so long at your 10 and 8 year jobs?

I just made it past year 3 and I want to get out. I'm terrified that if I don't do so now, I'll be stuck here forever.

It sounds like you let yourself get stuck for many, many years.

People get stuck because every day life takes too much effort. Changing locations, dealing with different maybe longer working hours, if working parents its a huge disruption and only worth it for a giant increase in comp or maybe more WFH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And usually by year 2-3 I am bored as nothing to learn and repetitive, in fact my work product often starts to slip by 18 months. I had a job ten years and eight years as both were cushy. I literally learned nothing and barely worked in both those jobs after year two.

Why made you stay so long at your 10 and 8 year jobs?

I just made it past year 3 and I want to get out. I'm terrified that if I don't do so now, I'll be stuck here forever.

It sounds like you let yourself get stuck for many, many years.

People get stuck because every day life takes too much effort. Changing locations, dealing with different maybe longer working hours, if working parents its a huge disruption and only worth it for a giant increase in comp or maybe more WFH.

WFH sucks, if you are relatively senior, you are stuck with all the work while the juniors slack off. and you get paid 30% below market.
It only works if you have an established team and everyone gets along.

[Anonymous]

You should apply to other jobs and see what happens.

I stayed at my last job 10 years. I made a love 6 months ago and am so happy with the change. When I was interviewing, the one consistent question I was asked was why I was leaving after so long. Be prepared to have a good explanation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see absolutely no liability for staying that long. Normal people will see that long tenure as an asset.

Somehow the internet has convinced millennials and younger that jumping jobs every 18 months is not only okay but is a career asset. They're delusional, and once they hit their power years in early 40s-late 50s, alot of them are going to find out how dispensable they are.

I've had a lot of different jobs and the career asset isn't moving a lot, it's the skill and career growth that unfortunately can be very difficult to get in some fields if you stay in the same place. If you can get that growth without moving, great. But the issue with staying someplace for 18 years isn't that you stayed there for so long, it's that you may or may be employable more broadly--you've never had to figure this out. A lot of senior employees lose their good jobs and struggle to find something new because much of their value was organization-specific, they don't have great networks, and they don't know how to job search. And there's not a way to test this other than by actually looking for a job.

+1. I left the federal government after 9 years because I knew if I didn’t leave soon, I would probably never be able to. Loyalty is great but people underestimate how much you can learn in a new organization and, conversely, how fossilized your thinking and practices can be staying in one place. It’s not just job-specific skills but also seeing what practices work or don’t, what cultures are better or worse, etc. These things are especially important at a management level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see absolutely no liability for staying that long. Normal people will see that long tenure as an asset.

Somehow the internet has convinced millennials and younger that jumping jobs every 18 months is not only okay but is a career asset. They're delusional, and once they hit their power years in early 40s-late 50s, alot of them are going to find out how dispensable they are.

I've had a lot of different jobs and the career asset isn't moving a lot, it's the skill and career growth that unfortunately can be very difficult to get in some fields if you stay in the same place. If you can get that growth without moving, great. But the issue with staying someplace for 18 years isn't that you stayed there for so long, it's that you may or may be employable more broadly--you've never had to figure this out. A lot of senior employees lose their good jobs and struggle to find something new because much of their value was organization-specific, they don't have great networks, and they don't know how to job search. And there's not a way to test this other than by actually looking for a job.

+1. I left the federal government after 9 years because I knew if I didn’t leave soon, I would probably never be able to. Loyalty is great but people underestimate how much you can learn in a new organization and, conversely, how fossilized your thinking and practices can be staying in one place. It’s not just job-specific skills but also seeing what practices work or don’t, what cultures are better or worse, etc. These things are especially important at a management level.

And I should add that I moved internally every couple of years during those 9 (that was the culture). But it wasn’t the same benefit and growth as going somewhere completely different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should apply to other jobs and see what happens.

I stayed at my last job 10 years. I made a love 6 months ago and am so happy with the change. When I was interviewing, the one consistent question I was asked was why I was leaving after so long. Be prepared to have a good explanation.

How much did you bump your comp?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see absolutely no liability for staying that long. Normal people will see that long tenure as an asset.

Somehow the internet has convinced millennials and younger that jumping jobs every 18 months is not only okay but is a career asset. They're delusional, and once they hit their power years in early 40s-late 50s, alot of them are going to find out how dispensable they are.

I've had a lot of different jobs and the career asset isn't moving a lot, it's the skill and career growth that unfortunately can be very difficult to get in some fields if you stay in the same place. If you can get that growth without moving, great. But the issue with staying someplace for 18 years isn't that you stayed there for so long, it's that you may or may be employable more broadly--you've never had to figure this out. A lot of senior employees lose their good jobs and struggle to find something new because much of their value was organization-specific, they don't have great networks, and they don't know how to job search. And there's not a way to test this other than by actually looking for a job.

+1. I left the federal government after 9 years because I knew if I didn’t leave soon, I would probably never be able to. Loyalty is great but people underestimate how much you can learn in a new organization and, conversely, how fossilized your thinking and practices can be staying in one place. It’s not just job-specific skills but also seeing what practices work or don’t, what cultures are better or worse, etc. These things are especially important at a management level.

How has comp growth and stability? Did you lateral out in your 30s or get a big bump when left?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see absolutely no liability for staying that long. Normal people will see that long tenure as an asset.

Somehow the internet has convinced millennials and younger that jumping jobs every 18 months is not only okay but is a career asset. They're delusional, and once they hit their power years in early 40s-late 50s, alot of them are going to find out how dispensable they are.

I've had a lot of different jobs and the career asset isn't moving a lot, it's the skill and career growth that unfortunately can be very difficult to get in some fields if you stay in the same place. If you can get that growth without moving, great. But the issue with staying someplace for 18 years isn't that you stayed there for so long, it's that you may or may be employable more broadly--you've never had to figure this out. A lot of senior employees lose their good jobs and struggle to find something new because much of their value was organization-specific, they don't have great networks, and they don't know how to job search. And there's not a way to test this other than by actually looking for a job.

+1. I left the federal government after 9 years because I knew if I didn’t leave soon, I would probably never be able to. Loyalty is great but people underestimate how much you can learn in a new organization and, conversely, how fossilized your thinking and practices can be staying in one place. It’s not just job-specific skills but also seeing what practices work or don’t, what cultures are better or worse, etc. These things are especially important at a management level.

How has comp growth and stability? Did you lateral out in your 30s or get a big bump when left?

Decent bump when I left (went from like $140k to $180k, five years ago) but now about $100k higher than what I would be at if I had stayed ($285k vs $185k). And I’m not capped now like I would have been if I were still there, so this differential will grow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see absolutely no liability for staying that long. Normal people will see that long tenure as an asset.

Somehow the internet has convinced millennials and younger that jumping jobs every 18 months is not only okay but is a career asset. They're delusional, and once they hit their power years in early 40s-late 50s, alot of them are going to find out how dispensable they are.

I've had a lot of different jobs and the career asset isn't moving a lot, it's the skill and career growth that unfortunately can be very difficult to get in some fields if you stay in the same place. If you can get that growth without moving, great. But the issue with staying someplace for 18 years isn't that you stayed there for so long, it's that you may or may be employable more broadly--you've never had to figure this out. A lot of senior employees lose their good jobs and struggle to find something new because much of their value was organization-specific, they don't have great networks, and they don't know how to job search. And there's not a way to test this other than by actually looking for a job.

+1. I left the federal government after 9 years because I knew if I didn’t leave soon, I would probably never be able to. Loyalty is great but people underestimate how much you can learn in a new organization and, conversely, how fossilized your thinking and practices can be staying in one place. It’s not just job-specific skills but also seeing what practices work or don’t, what cultures are better or worse, etc. These things are especially important at a management level.

How has comp growth and stability? Did you lateral out in your 30s or get a big bump when left?

Decent bump when I left (went from like $140k to $180k, five years ago) but now about $100k higher than what I would be at if I had stayed ($285k vs $185k). And I’m not capped now like I would have been if I were still there, so this differential will grow.

Also, yes, left in my early to mid 30s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And usually by year 2-3 I am bored as nothing to learn and repetitive, in fact my work product often starts to slip by 18 months. I had a job ten years and eight years as both were cushy. I literally learned nothing and barely worked in both those jobs after year two.

Why made you stay so long at your 10 and 8 year jobs?

I just made it past year 3 and I want to get out. I'm terrified that if I don't do so now, I'll be stuck here forever.

It sounds like you let yourself get stuck for many, many years.

My ten year job I came in as head of a department with a nice office. I liked the people and I had a second in charge who basically ran dept. I was figurehead who spoke at board meetings, met with regulators I was way overpaid for amount of work I did. So I stuck around over a decade till company bought out. Got a big buy out.

I had two eight jobs actually. One early in career lower pay but super cushy, super easy, great benefits, no chance of layoffs. I was single, dating, going out with friends, going on vacations. They paid my MBA. But I quit as reached point thinking of getting engaged, buying house.

My other 8 year job extremely demanding. Like 12-13 hour days, travel, very high profile, got promoted several times. But reached peak of promotions and wife pregnant third kid I decided to get out to a less stress and higher paid job,

Since then every 2-4 years jump. All good things come to end. Let it be on my terms.

I am end of career, so joining boards, speaking conferences, being a thought leader on AI, Cyber, Risk, Strategy interest me is preventing brain rot.

My brain rots by year three of a job so need stimulus. And yes pay me a lot I will stay a long time but my brain will still rot.