Advice for a senior dev that's choosing between career stability vs sanity
I'm currently a Senior Full-stack Dev with over 10 years of experience.
Towards the end of 2025, I have noticed that I have started feeling burnt out. My project is shipping fast, the growth of the actual app is also at a rapid pace, and with that comes the increased workload, demand, and time. I feel like I'm on my toes every time and I don't remember if we ever had a "chill" sprint this year. I wanted to stay longer in this company but this feels like it isn't sustainable for me in the long run.
I'm considering getting a new job and have interviewed recently but I would fall along the lines of a "freelancer" because they don't have an office in my country and they don't have the benefits that a regular office employee gets in my country
Pros:
- fully remote and full time contract
- Salary is 50% more than my current pay
- employer is based in a Nordic country so I know their work ethic and habits. Had experience with a Norway-based company and I had a good time there
- good work life balance
- flexible shift
- 25 days PTO
The biggest con I think, personally, would be that this job is a VueJS/Laravel stack with heavy emphasis on front end. Currently I am an Angular/.NET dev and have around 5 years of experience with .NET. I have experience with Laravel and Vue before for around 2 years and I don't mind getting back to it.
With that, in my current company, this is the setup:
- been here for 3 years
- hybrid (in the office once a week)
- with good HMO / insurance, and the usual employee benefits
- I am well established with my team. I can feel that I am reliable and I produce good output. I like my boss (which is rare for my experience lol)
- good upper management support
- overall, I know I have stability in this company despite having AI
- BUT I'm just burnt out and I don't think I can sustain this for the next 2 - 4 years. My health has declined a bit too.
Dilemma:
Do I choose the stable job I have right now or take the risk and go to a new environment?
I'm worried about my experience in .NET, this helped me build my career. and I like .NET too lol. Laravel is okay for me, but I have noticed more .NET related job openings and bigger companies tend to use them. Would it hurt my future chances if I deviate from it now?
The flexibility and chiller workload is also tempting me. I'm in my 30s and I'd like things to be a bit calmer since I already hustled in my 20s.
What do you think?