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Discussion on: What's the longest you've stayed at a job you were unhappy with?

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Rick Booth

3 years in both my first and second job. The first job was in a completely different industry to what I'm in now (Chemistry, now in Dev) and at the time, going straight from school to this job and getting pretty good at it, I was afraid of taking the leap to change industries, considering I didn't have nearly enough dev experience to get a full time role.

I then got an apprenticeship in general IT, completed it in no time and self taught myself ruby-on-rails to a level where I could move over to dev. Unfortunately they underpaid, didn't sanction staff who took the micky with deadlines/work/time and didn't promote any sort of progression, you just got on with your job, building small features, fixing bugs and solving helpdesks. I had no real indication of where I was in terms of skill level, only that I was quite a bit further than the rest of the team. I decided 3 years was long enough for a company that didn't treat their employees very well so moved on!

In hindsight I wish I'd have moved on earlier, as I could definitely be on a better salary now. I've learned not to get too attached to companies and look out for myself a bit better.