Should I stay or leave my current company?

I must say, I'm quite envious of your situation – I could use something like that in my life right now!

The benefits you've mentioned – company culture and teammates – account for half of what makes a job enjoyable.

Here's how I would approach your situation:

1. First, assess your salary. Are you in the 70th to 80th percentile with a good work-life balance, or do you aspire to reach the 90th percentile at the cost of reduced personal time? If there's a significant gap between your current salary and your target, and you're at a stage in life where you're ready to work hard, use your extra time to either prepare for an upward move or to switch roles at your current level at a different company.

2. If you're satisfied with your salary and enjoy working with your team enough to stay, consider the following options:

   1. Evaluate whether you're the only one with a lighter workload or if it's a team-wide situation. Understand the extent of the workload deficit and collaborate with your tech lead to set priorities. This will help you gradually expand your responsibilities. As you become more comfortable, start seeking out more challenging projects. I haven't had much luck with managers myself, so I'm not sure how much a manager can assist in this, but if you think it might help, it's worth a try.
   2. If the overall company culture is positive but you feel your current team might hinder your growth due to the nature of the work and lack of opportunities, consider switching teams within the company to find work that aligns better with your career goals.

As Rashmi alluded to, you are in extremely good position. It's vital to recognize that and channel that positivity and energy into growth action.

I strongly believe that unless you're very deep in your career and aren't prioritizing it at all (this is the case for many older folks raising a family), you need to keep on growing - If you don't, you will eventually fall behind and stagnate (no cushy job lasts forever). Given that you're a mid-level engineer, I think it's safe to assume that you should keep on improving yourself and becoming a stronger engineer (and this is exactly what we built Taro to help with).

That being said, it's also very important to realize that switching jobs isn't the only way to bring growth back into your work life. Here are the options you have, ordered by my preference:

• Create your own scope - Not getting enough work or challenging projects? Make your own! If your current workload only takes 40% effort, you have a valuable resource most engineers do not: A ton of free time. The best engineers don't need to be told what to do; they're able to come up with massive, high-impact efforts by themselves. In fact, this is what I would expect of a senior engineer and especially of a staff engineer. We made a nice playlist about this topic here: [Taro Top 10] How To Create Scope As An Engineer
• Switch teams - Some teams simply don't have the scope to produce enough meaty projects for its engineers. The good news for you is that your company has 5,000 employees so I'm sure there's a ton of teams. If internal transfers are feasible for you, definitely look into them. Here's a good playlist about that: [Taro Top 10] How To Find A Good Engineering Team And Company
• Find a new job - This is a last resort because the market is awful as you originally alluded too and interviewing just sucks in general. Your current company also seems to be very chill and good (which most companies aren't). If you are going to look externally though (it's probably worth it putting out some passive feelers at the very least), check this out: [Taro Top 10] Finding A Tech Job

Overall, my advice is to look internally first before looking externally. You should really exhaust the internal possibilities before starting the interview grind. People seriously underestimate how hard it is to find a company/team that has nice people, is relaxed, and doesn't burn you out with toxicity. The vast, vast majority of tech companies suck. Never forget that.