Is there any reason why I should NOT change jobs even though I really want to?

This is a great question because we like to focus on the potential upside to switching jobs, but it can be easy to discount the downsides.

I've seen a phenomenon happen where someone will start to burn out at their current job and become jaded about the company. It can be easy to accumulate negative experiences with the company the more time you've spent at the company. They'll switch jobs, and then they'll experience the exact same issue after a year or two. And, the cycle will continue again and again with their next jobs.

You can miss out on career progression if you make too many lateral switches in your career. If you switch companies, but you end up at the same level, you can potentially delay your promotion for 2+ years because you have to prove yourself at the new company. If you stayed at the current company, you have a long list of projects that you've worked on at that company, so there's more reason for you to get promoted.

Note, the above isn't relevant if there is a true fundamental issue with the company, like if you are working in a toxic culture or the company isn't moving in a positive direction.

The fact that most people in tech change jobs every 2-3 years says a lot: most people find one or many problems with their company or team soon after joining.

My hot take here is that problems are in fact normal, and while you shouldn't put up with a really bad work environment, no team is perfect. If you change jobs you WILL stop the top 3 issues that you faced at your last company. But there will be 3 NEW top issues that replace them. It's simply a fact.

Consider an alternate approach based on this: instead of rolling the dice on a new exciting opportunity with unknown problems, what about tailoring your current company or team to your interests and strengths? This has been my experience at a smaller start up, where staying just a few years gives you seniority. Mileage may vary, but by sticking out some "tough" times I feel I ultimately built up a better job for myself than I could apply for. The fact is you can't make changes to the people, process, product, and tech structure overnight, but overtime you can move towards what gives you energy. And the fact that this takes time is exactly why it may make sense to give yourself some room to be uncomfortable while you see if you can customize your current role for yourself.

One analogy here could be like focusing a telescope. There is a big dial that gets you 95% of the way there. If that dial isn't right, you're hopeless when you are fine tuning. But if you only use the big dial, changing jobs, the thing you're trying to focus on will always stay blurry anyway.

Here are a few more examples of what gets better with time:

• Dog food failures - but also see the impact of massive multi-year successes. I had a feature successful 3 years ago, and I just checked analytics to see it's been fired 158 million times for users!
• Challenges and being uncomfortable - even with process and people but not tech, can be a huge learning opportunity as long as it is not too much. But it can teach you about yourself, human nature, and how to succeed even in an environment that isn't exactly how you'd design it.
• Building trust over a few months is great, but working with a company for 4 years can build relationships beyond what is possible in the short term.

And careers are very long, so personally I'm about to turn 30 but I’m optimizing for being a founder in 10-15 years from now by continuing to learn and grow as much as possible early, and then the compound interest of my knowledge will pay off later even if I’m not maximizing earning now.

One very tactical reason not to change jobs: golden handcuffs. If you joined Nvidia 4 years ago, the stock has gone up more than 10x or more in value 💸

In these cases, a stock grant you might have received a few years ago could be life-changing money if you stick around. This is a totally valid reason to stay!

There are also 2nd-order effects that are often overlooked here: many early Facebook employees went on to do interesting things: investing, building companies. The collection of people you meet and stay in touch with can likely turn into collaborators later on.

So if you're at a startup or other company which is truly a "rocketship", you should think twice before leaving.

(of course, you should balance this with your personal life and how demanding the job is)