How long have you been at your current job and how much longer will you remain?

Unscarred1985

I am currently unemployed and have been for about 3 weeks- I quit voluntarily.

My background is in Financial services- I got a degree from the University of Massachusetts in Finance & Accounting. I did the Corporate thing for a few years up until recently when I left - I honestly didn't really like it or never did and finally had reached the point where I wondered what I was doing with my life. I've always liked computers, and had taken Computer repair back in highschool (long time ago) so they aren't totally foreign to me and I figured it's now or never. I started studying for the Comptia A+ exam a few weeks before I left my job (I'm looking to take 901 exam by the end of this month) and I am set to go back to school in a few weeks for an IT degree (Luckily most of my previous coursework carried over so it's not going to take very long to get). Once I get a few classes under my belt and/or I pass the Comptia A+ exam I am going to try to see if I can find some sort of entry level job in order to acquire experience.

The posts in this thread and the rest of the forum have been very informative and helpful as I try to figure things out and have a concrete "destination", so thank you.

aderon

9 months currently

Company is going through a lot of changes, so depending on how those pan out, anywhere from a month to like 2.5-3 years lol.

typfromdaco

I am 2 years into my current position with a County government. The people are great and I am getting to work with some new technologies. I expect that I will stay for another 18 years so that I can retire at 50 with a pension in six figures, that is pretty hard to walk away from.

UnixGuy

blargoe wrote: »

...
Since my pay and benefits are significantly above market for my increasingly outdated skill set, it is unlikely that I will be going anywhere for a while until I find something that is a low enough pay cut with an increase in exposure to current technology to justify a move.

My skills were close to yours, trust me you don't really need a job to give you that exposure. Choose something you wanna learn, and it's all possible now with cloud instance/VM labs.

Wanna pick up amazon aws? just get some CBT nuggets and start practicing, it'll give you all the exposure that you need since you already have experience. Same goes for Puppet, etc...anything really. 3months+ of studying and you're sorted!

Datcyde

Moved to Texas for a new job. Left 9 months later because of it being really disappointing. Been at new job for 7 month and love every minute of it. They are giving me the full ride for school (WGU), and any certs I want. I'll stay here for a good ten years to see where my career is before deciding to move.

DatabaseHead

Datcyde wrote: »

Moved to Texas for a new job. Left 9 months later because of it being really disappointing. Been at new job for 7 month and love every minute of it. They are giving me the full ride for school (WGU), and any certs I want. I'll stay here for a good ten years to see where my career is before deciding to move.

Wow - Committing to 10 years because of a WGU bachelors and certificates?

LordQarlyn

Finishing up my second year, started as IT Supervisor, but after I got my CISSP was promoted to IT Services Manager which was a huge raise. Would like to complete another year, because I would have the three years ISACA requires for the CISM. After that I want to go into a full time full fledged information security job.

alanclarc143

All most 3 year in same job and before it 1 and half year as a coder. before that I was new comer is a different company for 1 year.

Eightn9ne

7 Years in November. My first IT job out of high school.

Did 2 years in help desk then got promoted to Systems Admin in 2012. Still here as a System Admin and don't see myself going anywhere tbh. Next position is Team Lead and there's no way I'm taking that even though I've been offered. Great team, great environment, great boss etc. Pays the mortgage so I can't complain

Datcyde

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Wow - Committing to 10 years because of a WGU bachelors and certificates?

This new place is amazing. As long as I'm in school, I'll be there. Family men have to grow roots at some point.

volfkhat

Datcyde wrote: »

...I'll stay here for a good ten years to see where my career is before deciding to move.

Yeah,
such an outcome would be the exception to the rule...

TheFORCE

5 months at my current role. No plans for making a move currently, it might change in 2-3 years. I think that's my expected norm on really integrating yourself in the organization.

greg9891

I've been at my current role for about 8 months, and 1.5 years at another company before that. I recently got MCSA Certified and have asked the windows engineer to help out with some of his tasks. If he doesn't let me help I will probably look for something else like a junior system admin.I currently work as a IT Technician and I don't see my self being in this role for more than 2 years.

DatabaseHead

Nothing ever stays static, nothing....

I've seen guys working for a company for 10+ years and get kicked to the curb. No job and then transitions into a series of short termed efforts finally landing a role.

It set him behind years in his career. I refuse too allow myself to get stagnate in regards to the work place.

@Greg, my money is on him withholding but that is from previous experience. Every once in a while you get someone who has a passion to share and when that arise make sure to really foster and appreciate that relationship.

My last 3 jobs including the one I am in have been very helpful for my growth. I've been very blessed in those regards.

EANx

Stagnation is bad. It's less about if you're working for the same organization than experiencing new things, opportunity for advancement, respect and decent salary adjustments. People who find that unicorn should be careful to consider if the grass really is greener elsewhere.

greg9891

Eightn9ne wrote: »

7 Years in November. My first IT job out of high school.

Did 2 years in help desk then got promoted to Systems Admin in 2012. Still here as a System Admin and don't see myself going anywhere tbh. Next position is Team Lead and there's no way I'm taking that even though I've been offered. Great team, great environment, great boss etc. Pays the mortgage so I can't complain

Nice!!!

bertieb

2.5yrs, and hoping it's no more than a couple of months of servitude left. It's definitely time to move on

DatabaseHead

EANx wrote: »

Stagnation is bad. It's less about if you're working for the same organization than experiencing new things, opportunity for advancement, respect and decent salary adjustments. People who find that unicorn should be careful to consider if the grass really is greener elsewhere.

That scenario is most certainly a Unicorn.

In regards to Eightn9ne

I've seen articles from HR executives that show that anything greater than 2 years in the same role shows you are actually going backwards in pay. In fact here is one linked at the bottom.

Couple of quotes from the article...

"Workers who stay with a company longer than two years are said to get paid 50% less". --Side note on this one, recent HR data showed the person who is transitioning jobs from company to company makes a median increase at 15 - 20% whereas a yearly role over is ~2.4%. You do the math.....

“In terms of managing your own career, if you don’t change jobs every three years, you don’t develop the skills of getting a job quickly, so then you don’t have any career stability,” Trunk tells Fast Company. “You’re just completely dependent on the place that you work as if it’s 1950, and you’re going to get a gold watch at the end of a 50-year term at your company.”

The article goes on to state that job hoppers actually possess a higher learning curve and learn more because of the exposures to different environment, this is absolute fact.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3055035/you-should-plan-on-switching-jobs-every-three-years-for-the-rest-of-your-

Eightn9ne

The only time I ever felt 'stagnant' in my role would probably be when I was doing Desktop support during the first 2 years before I got moved into Systems Admin. I knew that getting into a Systems/Infrastructure role would be a challenge so I did my CCA followed by the CCAA a few months later just to prove myself which it did (we're Citrix heavy orientated). During that time as a Desktop Admin, I was ready to pack my stuff up and leave since I wanted something new rather than doing Help Desk duties etc.

Ever since being a Systems Admin, I've been exposed to a lot of experiences that I probably wouldn't get else where (travelling to Europe and NA meeting the other Infrastructure team. Taking part in global projects, migrations etc.) I've only just recently returned from Beijing migrating and moving our BJ office to a new site location. With all the exposure I've been getting, I've managed to also just recently obtain my MCSA in Server 2012 as well as my CCA-V and I'm about to sit my CCA-N next week as well. I've also got the VCP6 and CCNA exams targeted in my sights (not sure when I'll sit these though but I do plan on doing them). I've also got AWS training coming up in the next few months which will keep me entertained as well.

In terms of seeing if the grass is greener on the other side, well I can't say I've experienced it but there's one thing for sure and that I'm certain of is I'm not hanging around for a 'gold watch' after x amount of years or some fancy award and that I'm pretty happy where I am and the amount of exposure I'm getting. As long as I'm happy and getting exposed to new things every day as well as yearly pay reviews, what's not to be happy about?

DatabaseHead

Rule number 1, don't let us or anyone make your decisions for you.

I'm just providing data that I read from time to time. I think some of it is embellished and other pieces of it are quantifiable and prove to be worth something.

On the flip side of that, every few months you'll see a veteran come on here and post something about how they made a grave mistake because they got too comfortable at a job. Most recently was this desktop / sys admin guy who stayed at the same company for 10+ years and was regretting it. Wrote out this massive piece. Not implying this is or will be you but it's worth noting.

UnixGuy

Actually @Eightn9ne you seem to be getting great experience, and if you're being trained and exposed to cloud-based solutions, then this is really the *new* stuff in the market so you're not really stagnating.

I think stagnation is working with outdated technology doing repetitive work - this will make you less employable, but if you are in a busy and ever changing environment that embraces *new* technology then staying can be a good idea where you get to move up. Service Providers can be a great place for this because you get to do/see a lot. Some positions in banks/telcos can be as good...depends!

100k

This thread has been stuck in my head since the first post. Not to jack it but requesting a quick objective opinion by the TE fam. The question I keep asking myself is, should I leave this job where there is no growth but decent pay this year or wait until after I get my raise and bonus in February. Not even sure if a new job will pay much more than what I am making now but the experience that could be gained...I am working on completing my VCP6 and would get that first before leaving. I feel I know the answer but its an unconformable truth.

DatabaseHead

A lot depends on how much your bonus pay out will be......

It's not uncommon at all to wait around for the bonus before bouncing.

100k

DatabaseHead wrote: »

A lot depends on how much your bonus pay out will be......

It's not uncommon at all to wait around for the bonus before bouncing.

At a minimum $5k max up to $7.5k.

xxxkaliboyxxx

10 years - US Army
11 Months - US Army Corp of Engineers
6 Months(present) - Energy Company

Next job will be 3 months according to my trend.

DatabaseHead

xxxkaliboyxxx wrote: »

10 years - US Army
11 Months - US Army Corp of Engineers
6 Months(present) - Energy Company

Next job will be 3 months according to my trend.

If we didn't have the 3rd child my wife would be working full time and I would be jumping on short termed efforts.

3 reasons why

Experience you gain is tremendous
Bill Rate is usually higher on short term efforts
You get breaks in service from project to project.

Eightn9ne

UnixGuy wrote: »

Actually @Eightn9ne you seem to be getting great experience, and if you're being trained and exposed to cloud-based solutions, then this is really the *new* stuff in the market so you're not really stagnating.

I think stagnation is working with outdated technology doing repetitive work - this will make you less employable, but if you are in a busy and ever changing environment that embraces *new* technology then staying can be a good idea where you get to move up. Service Providers can be a great place for this because you get to do/see a lot. Some positions in banks/telcos can be as good...depends!

Yep! That's the thing. The exposure to new technologies and equipment where I work can get overwhelming sometimes but it's great! Especially if you management thats in there's mid 30's always encouraging new ways and forking out $$$ for new gear that'll help the company out.

Don't get me wrong though, I have thought about leaving a lot of times purely because of thinking and asking my self 'am I missing out on other things out there?' And not because I thought I was stagnant at my role.

I do look at the job market from time to time and what I'm getting paid is already similar (sometimes more) to what else is out there and majority of the stuff that I find tend to be pigeoned hole responsibilities which I'm not really keen for since it'll probably bore me .

I think when the time is right and when I do finally tell myself 'hey I'm bored and I'm not getting exposed to anything new and everything's getting repetitive', then I think that's when I'll start to bounce.

DatabaseHead

I try to look at the market as a whole and not scope into one black swan. It's how I am wired......

Most people make their biggest gains hopping from company to company, this is fact. There is so much data out there on this topic, it's unreal. Like I stated previous, 15 - 20% median gains from job to job while the COL yearly is ~2.4%. Do the math.......

Each individual is responsible for managing their own situation and if you are a head of the curve and learning a ton, hats off keep moving forward.

NavyMooseCCNA

Fourteen months and I would jump tomorrow....

Clifton125

I have been 17 months in my little section.