In at my fifth job in 32 years (not counting stuff in college). I stay longer at each successive job, leaving before mergers or (voluntarily) after major layoffs. In each case I moved on to a job with newer technology and more challenges that the one before.

This is both good and bad. Previously, it has shown employers that I am stable, and unlikely to leave at the drop of a hat. Now, it implies I'm inflexible or not up on the latest technology, or <&inser favorite excuse here>&. 8-)

I'm going to give you a piece of practical advice: You owe your employer your best effort, and nothing more. Programmers have become interchangeable cogs, as far as Pointy Haired managers are concerned. If you find a job that looks like it's more interesting or likely to let you learn something new, TAKE IT. You should be your primary concern, especially if you're younger (i.e. have fewer obligations).

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.