There are many reasons to stay at a job. But there are also many reasons not to.

I feel like some of them are obvious – your manager’s a jerk, your career path is limited, the work isn’t something you enjoy, etc. But one thing that I think a lot of people miss, because it’s not obvious at all unless you’re doing it, is that if you stay at a job for a long time, you’re going to progress, both in terms of titles and money, very, very slowly.

A friend of mine stayed at their job for something like 8 years. We started at roughly the same experience level. After 8 years, I’d changed jobs 4 times, and gone from an entry level designer to running my own team. My pay had gone up roughly 5x. Theirs had gone up between 1-3% per year, and they’d had a title change maybe once every 3-4 years, going from “entry level” to “senior”.

I’m not being self-aggrandizing or trying to brag, here. The fact is that if I’d stayed at that job, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near where I got. Each jump, I got a 20%+ salary increase at minimum, and a title jump + increase in responsibilities.

Yeah, it’s scary. Yeah, it’s sometimes frustrating. Yeah, you need to essentially re-establish your credibility at every job you go to. You need to interview. You need to keep your resume up to date.

Sometimes you leave a job because it’s a dead end. Sometimes it’s a bad fit. Sometimes you get laid off or the company goes under. But sometimes you leave because you can move a hell of a lot faster by doing so.

No manager will ever look out for you the way you will look out for you. And I’m not suggesting you have to be mercenary and self-serving above all else. Far from it. If you change jobs frequently, one of the best tools in your arsenal is for everyone who’s worked with you to LOVE working with you, and want to work with you again.

But one of the biggest reasons I hear people don’t change jobs is that it’s “scary” or it’s “a pain”. But would you do it for a 20% raise? That title change you’ve been wanting for years? I imagine that investment would be worth it. Companies don’t have any loyalty to you. They’ll lay you off in an instant without any regrets if they have to. They aren’t your family.

Treat them like a team. Kill it while you’re there. Watch out for better opportunities. Take them when you can.