Job hoppers vs. People who stay put: who's happier at work?
This has been sitting in my head for a while, and a conversation at a cookout a few weeks ago is what finally made me write it.
My friend Matt and I have known each other since college. Same major, similar grades, and our first jobs were at very similar places. We're both 36 now. Matt has had 7 jobs in 12 years. I've had 3. He makes about $55k more than I do. On LinkedIn, he looks like he's crushing it. But a few Sundays ago, after his third beer, he told me he feels like he's running in place.
New company, same adjustment period, same 5 months where he has to prove himself, same office politics but with new names on the org chart. He said, "Every time I make more money just to feel the same feeling."
By contrast, I've been at my current company for almost 5 years (project management, a mid-sized industrial supplier in the Midwest). I know the org, I know the people, and I've helped build a few things I'm honestly proud of. But I'd be lying if I said I don't currently feel like I want a change. It's like the learning curve flattened out about 18 months ago, and now I'm just repeating the same playbook over and over. My wife keeps sending me job posts and I keep closing the tab.
Then I talked to my other friend Jenna, who has been at her company for about 11 years. Eleven years. And yet she doesn't seem trapped or stalled at all. She's moved between teams within the company, basically shaped her role herself over time, and she genuinely seems happy with what she does. I asked her if she ever thinks about leaving, and she looked at me like I was asking whether she was planning to move to the moon.
So now I'm looking at three people.
Matt jumps from job to job and has money but no roots. I stayed where I am and have roots but feel like I'm standing still. Jenna stayed where she is and somehow has both. What is Jenna doing that Matt and I aren't?
I keep coming back to the idea that maybe it's not about the strategy itself. Maybe it's about whether that strategy fits the person. Matt might be the kind of person who likes movement and new problems, but he keeps jumping to the same type of companies, so the new feeling wears off quickly. And maybe my problem isn't that I have to leave; maybe I need to find what Jenna found: a better way to grow inside a place that still suits me.
But how does someone know that? Because the phrase "know yourself" is nice, but it literally doesn't tell you anything!!!