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How do you explain your reasons for jumping ship? (self.experienced_devs)

submitted 1 year ago by bcngooner to c/[email protected]

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I got a reply from a recruiter to setup a call later this week. I know one of the inevitable questions will be why am I looking to leave my current role.

Personally I want to leave because:

I have a junior role in the company and I don't see a way of reaching a mid level here.
The targets for promotion are constantly moving. The managers have changed a few times over the past 4 years and so have the appraisal systems.
I haven't been given any real projects since the last manager has started. Mainly whack-a-mole type security tasks. This is especially frustrating as I have worked on larger projects before then.
lots of senior engineers have joined, introduced a new product/application, and then left.
which leads to lots of firefighting and understanding how things were implemented due to the seniors poor documentation.
so I'm learning nothing on the job and I'm not working on anything special to talk about.

So would something like 'looking for new opportunities' be sufficient?

Ps. If you got this far, thanks for reading my rant. It has been locked away in my head for some time now.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Last 2 job changes I told the recruiters my current company is not paying competitively and the annual raises are below inflation. Then we agreed on my expected salary range. They got back to me within a day or two with offers and both times I was signing a new contract within a week.

They respected my bluntness and aimed to meet my expectations. I'm in the UK and I find that outside the hipster businesses or blatant venture capital scam startups, in tech, people respect being to the point and honest.

Sadly both times my existing employers couldn't afford to meet my new salary range when I got the counter offers, I would've stayed if they matched or exceed.

I'm also honest and to the point when interviewing and my interview to offer ratio is about 1/3. The other times they find someone cheaper or they're one of those companies that expect a full stack senior dev at mid tier salary. I never got ghosted or declined, it was always that I asked for too much money and I declined the counter offer.

Also, never complain about your current job. Instead say what you want/expect and mention that you're not getting it in the current role. I find that recruiters and interviewers address these expectations very early in the process.