I am actually thinking a lot about changing my current job at a reasonably big fintech company.
Background: I am an intermediate developer who joined this company about 1 and a half years ago. Before that I worked at another medium sized local company for about 6 months, and before that I worked 1 and a half years at a local start-up which was my first job as a dev.
Reasons for leaving current job:
- I feel like no manager / senior engineer cares about my growth here. I have not had a 1-on-1 in 5+ months (my team finished our last project, my previous manager jumped ship even before it, and after that there was an organizational re-shuffle and the manager in my new team is soon leaving so he DGAF, with no replacement in sight). Senior engineers are too busy to even think about it. If it continues this way I am sure I'll be overlooked for promotion next review cycle (I know promo is not guaranteed but with no Manager to work with towards promo and put up my case to higher ups promo seems really difficult)
- I am absolutely NOT loving the current project (it's basically replacing old code with new, and by old I mean 20-25+ years old code which no one in the org knows how it even works).
- I do NOT like the tech stack in the new project (it's Java, a language I did not want to work with. The previous project was with JS which I was more comfortable in). Ideally I would love to work with Rust or Elixir or JS/TS.
- Despite finishing the previous project on time, my team got paltry raises and 1 promo (from a junior to mid, which is seen as auto in the company).
- I want to work hands-on on a fast-paced project and build something cool, deploy it, feel closer to the users and the product, rather than being a small cog in a huge wheel.
- I want a remote job, the company is bent on hybrid, which while not enforced strictly, I am sure they are monitoring which will come into play next performance review.
I realize my current job also has positives:
- pay & benefits are good
- work life balance is good
- no pressure most of the time
- teammates are good (it's more siloed work now in the new team where I feel some engineers hide information from others just to get the edge, but overall good teammates).
Changing jobs too frequently will also make me look bad to future prospective employers, but at this point I am just not feeling the connection to the project and to the team anymore, with no one to talk honestly to. (and coz of recent organization re-shuffle zero chance of change in project). My original plan was to leave this company, if I had to, after getting a promo, but that now feels very distant, and with me being demotivated, even more so.
Am I thinking of switching too early?
Like others have said, eighteen months is fine. As is any other time unit - unless it forms a pattern. Leaving a job after two days is fine as a one-off, but if you consistently job hop every six months your resume will raise eyebrows in a bad way.
That said, two years give or take is pretty common in our industry. Nobody's going to raise an eyebrow at 18 months.
Some interview advice - when they ask why you're looking, don't discuss things the company is doing wrong. It makes you sound negative and I've witnessed more than one interview board that decided not to hire somebody based largely on their complaints about their old job! A lot of your points above are already listing out things you want, which is great! Use those! For the rest, flip your concerns around and discuss the positive aspect you're looking for.
E.g. instead of something like, "My managers don't care about my career development", say something like, "I want to find a place where I can grow my skills to the next level".
Finally, the job market isn't as crazy hot as during the pandemic, but it's still not horrible. There's work to be found, even if the salaries aren't as high as a couple years ago. If you want remote work, focus on SMB companies, a lot of them are happier to let go of renting real estate vs Fortune 500 corps that own or have 20 year leases on idle real estate.
Best of luck to you!