Leaving a job before the one year mark?

[James_0011]

Hello,

So I'm currently employed at a small software company and have been for about six months or so. This has been my first job since graduating university, and all things considered, it's not a bad job. However, I recently have been offered a better job working at a startup.

Has anyone had experience leaving a job after six months? It seems like too short of a stint to me, and I'm worried that if I accept the job offer employers are going to be wary of me in the future. I've read that 1.5 years is the minimum amount of time to stick to a job. Keep in mind, I didn't seek this new opportunity out, I was just contacted on LinkedIn and decided to explore the opportunity.

On one hand, my track record doesn't really matter as I plan to ere. On the other hand, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

What do you think? Thank you

[Tyler9000]

I've left a new job after only three months. Twice, actually. People do occasionally ask about it, and I just say that I respect the company I left but found that the new one was a much better personal fit both for me and the company and explain why. I've not found it to be a big deal, at least in my industry (mechanical engineering). Engineers move all the time, and if anything I think the interviewers appreciated the candid discussion about where I fit and where I don't.

If you think the new opportunity is the type of place you'd enjoy working for a while, I would go for it and not worry about it. It's not like you have a long history of job hopping like I do, and even then it's all about the messaging. Don't let the fear of answering a simple question years in the future deter you from making a positive career move today.

[EdithKeeler]

I would say, as someone who has had hiring responsibility, I would not be concerned if a person left a job after a short stint to take a better job.... as long as that second job lasted at least a couple years, I don’t want to see someone doing a lot of job hopping as it costs a lot to bring people on board—especially to just lose them in a year.

[BRUTE]

how much better is the new job? if it's 25% better or higher, it's probably worth it. less than that, maybe wait until a year and then trying for an even better one.

it probably makes a marginal difference, so if that marginal difference is made up by the new job, it's a go.

[phil]

I have seen this frequently in software, especially with first jobs. It does not appear to cause those people any problems later on in their careers. It is difficult to make a good call on a first job fresh out of college. So as long as you don't become a job hopper, this should be fine.

[Lemur]

We all have our reasons. I left a job after 11 months and I actually don't start my new job until next week. Reason was simple - reduced commute from 90 minutes to 30 minutes. Slight bump in pay.

I'd take the better job but I'd also caution in the "career game" try not to jump too much. Stick around for a little bit longer at the start-up imo. For my new job, I plan on making a 3 year go.

[inchicago]

I have been on the hiring end and have seen many resumes with short timeframes for jobs. Sometimes, the person hasn't specified that it was a temporary or contractor position. Sometimes, they just had a bad string of jobs that didn't fit. Sometimes they are just starting out in their career. And sometimes they truly are just a job hopper.

It happens in many jobs that you are told one thing and then the job is a whole other thing all together. Sometimes you just get a bad run with bad culture fits. So if I see a resume and there are five jobs in a row under a year, then yes, that raises a red flag. A couple here and there, no. If I see a job or two that is at least three years with a couple of short jobs, I would still bring that person to interview them if their experience was what I was looking for, to get the story.

The main thing is to not bash the employer if you left because of a bad supervsior or the company was a mess. Just simply say, this wasn't a good fit for me and rather than prolong this, I decided to move on. Good enough.

[James_0011]

Thank you for the feedback. I think I am going to stick it out for atleast a year to a year and a half. I feel really lucky to have his job, and don’t have a strong work history to begin with.

[Scott 2]

Some pros for sticking around:

There are often benefits that accumulate. 3 weeks vacation vs. 2. Ability to contribute to 401k. Vesting in dollar match against the 401k. Profit sharing. Etc. Someone who jumps ship every year or two, goes through those accumulation periods repeatedly.

The person changing jobs often has to spend money and energy on making good first impressions. Status symbols in the form of clothes and car, as well as bonding activities. Longer hours getting up to speed, proving themselves and learning the political environment. All the really fun stuff for an introvert

In my personal experience, it takes 1-2 years until someone is fully contributing to a team. I'm doing complicated white collar work, but the prospect of someone good leaving after a year is hugely frustrating. They have wasted my time and the company has probably lost money on them at that point.

This all assumes a decent company with opportunities.

[James_0011]

Thanks Scott.

Yeah as an introvert I don’t like those things either.

I also work in a white collar job, how long would you recommend sticking around before hopping?

I know that job hopping is mandatory if you want to maximize wages. What do you think the ideal length of time is? 2 - 3 years?

[James_0011]

I should also mention that the reason I want to leave is the location. I would gladly stay at job for longer if it was in an urban setting. I took this suburban job because it was my only offer coming straight out of college.

[Scott 2]

I've been slow to change employers. So far - 8 years, 2 years, 7 years. The 2 year company was full of problems. The 7 year company is my current, I'll probably hang around for years to come, because I've maxed out the responsibility level I am interested in, and they treat me well despite it.

I do not think a blanket recommendation can be made. It depends how the company treats you, as while as your personal goals.

My current employer gives above inflation raises, offers many promotion opportunities and even encourages employees to develop new products. Someone can do very well without leaving.

The 2 year company cut their 401k match, never even managed a performance review, and denied my direct request for a promotion based increase.

The biggest difference between the two companies, is quality of business model. When you are a private company making money in a high margin industry, it's much easier to treat employees well.


If you can get promoted to a senior dev or team lead, then do a year or so at that level, you will be highly desirable. More so if you can excel at work using high demand technologies. There's also a good chance if you are at that point, they'd be tolerant of remote work a couple days a week, which could make commuting from an urban center viable.

[JamesR]

Thank you for the feedback. I think I am going to stick it out for atleast a year to a year and a half. I feel really lucky to have his job, and don’t have a strong work history to begin with.

In the software development industry.. your skills & coding experience matters more than your work history.

You should be focused on working at companies that have great development practices.

Are there unit/integration tests? Are you using separate git branches for each new feature or bug fix and doing code reviews and continuous integration before merging to master? Does your team have senior developers that are doing a good job of educating more junior members such as yourself on best practices, on how to write maintainable code? Are you working on a code base that is several years old? How is the overall architecture of the code base?

If your current place is scoring poorly on that, then I'd strongly consider jumping to the startup.. Assuming the startup is better in that.

Also, job hopping around right after university is less likely to raise eyebrows considering there's going to be a bit of a learning curve for finding a job fit.