When I joined my last company I already knew I was gonna leave. I knew that the day will come at some point. I have already switched companies a couple of times before and there were several things that made me pull the trigger. I was at a different stage in life and as I evolved in my career I noticed how different my thought process was every time. I'll try to give a peak on what was going on in my mind while evaluating my options this time.
Before I joined any of my previous companies I had a mental model of what It would be to work there. How does it work inside? Am I ready for the new challenge? For every single company I had the same sorts of questions. Those questions started to be answered soon enough and, in my experience, that took months. A few questions were answered immediately and once I got to know how things worked, I started wondering about a few different things and, especially, about how fast the company adapt to changes.
What changes and at what pace was always an important factor I saw influence my decision on staying longer or shorter in a company. My expectations of how a company progress at multiple stages (processes, technology, people) change over time and the more involved I got into it, the more I felt I was able to estimate how things would be in the short term.
When it is about jobs, I do not enjoy switching for the sake of switching. There are too many things to mention in a blog post that influence my decision. I don't take it lightly and I give time to my emotions to settle. (We all have bad and good days)
Because staying at a company is not something with a deadline (unless you are in a temporary contract), there are different checkpoints where I evaluated if I was happy or not in the place I was. Although it is a pretty straight forward answer, the "what makes you happy" kind of question change per person and I can also tell you that it changed within me throughout the years.
I was very happy at my job, there were not red flags, I could have just stayed working there and accept the level of happiness I had. I also got to know what the company speed is at adapting and I could place myself into the equation and try to be a positive factor in it. There were some hints of progression but that was not satisfying me.
Personally, I needed things to move faster in several fronts. I just needed to be happier and that is what I am striving for.
After a couple of years I felt I was able to estimate that things were going at a different speed I wanted to go. Also to a different direction. The time where that misalignment was too evident came and with that also the decision to move forward to the next challenge.
People. But not in the way you are thinking. It is not that they kept me hostage or that they put some roadblocks that made it hard to leave. It was the other way around. The People I had the pleasure to share time with were too fun. I had a blast, learnt and enjoyed time so much with them. I made friends, the kinds of friends I know I am gonna be in contact with for my life time (sorry for them xD). In the end, everyone was so supportive, so friendly and kind. I am definitely gonna miss them A LOT.
There are some things that are not ready to be published, maybe this is one of those things. I'm trying hard to make sense of my thoughts... It is not easy, I'll keep trying. Probably the TLDR of this post is: