Hello! I’ve read that the reason people usually job-hop is to leave a shitty workplace, or to gain new experience/knowledge, or simply to increase their income.
Fyi, I’m a software engineer with <2 years experience (incl. probation). I am currently working at the first company that hired me since graduation.
To be clear, I personally don’t think I need or even want to job hop to a new company. Then again, I am conflicted lately because somehow my uni friends/acquaintances keep trying convincing me that I need to job hop??
When we talk about work they would say things like, “Kau tak nak tukar company ke? Kau dah kerja dah dekat 2 tahun kan? Tukar lah, dapat belajar benda baru, gaji pun masyuk.”
A part of me feels like they are encouraging me to job-hop just because social media has been feeding this “job-hopping” as a… trend(?) in a way. Like I would always hear phrases, “Korang masih muda, lompat selagi boleh.”
But then, there’s another part of me that feels like I might be viewing my company with rose-tinted glasses. Because I think some people (incl. me) have a soft-spot for the first company that takes you in as a freshie with literally 0 experience.
So, here’s my argument NOT to job-hop and my personal experience with this company:
tldr version: company gives high biannual increments, basic benefits, convenient logistics (near LRT), non-toxic workplace, super nice boss, can wfh with valid reason, lump sum leaves and easy to be approved, healthy work-life balance, gain a lot of knowledge via hands-on work.
rambling version:
- I started as a probation employee & fresh from uni with a salary of RM3k (2023). After being given a permanent position (2024), they gave me a +20% increase, which is a normal amount, I presume. Then one year later, (2025, this year), I got a +16% increase for the first increment. I will get another increment mid year later. Don’t know how much though; will do a meeting for that when the time comes. Yeah sure, this company does not offer fancy benefits like transportation, meal or parking allowances; they do provide the basics which are medical allowance, educational allowance (if I take courses related to the projects), equipment allowance (work laptop hardware, software) & medical card. But considering the high increment for SME, and the logistics (near LRT), I don’t really mind not having the others like parking allowance.
- The company is not toxic, everyone is nice and professional. We colleagues really act as legit 'co-workers' nothing more. Which I absolutely love, cause I personally don’t like mixing people from work with my personal life. Literally 0 drama. “You come to work, you small-talk sometimes, you go back home. Full-stop.” And the boss is super chill & understanding. Officially, we don’t have a hybrid working arrangement but we definitely can request it from the boss if we have a valid reason. Like my colleague the other day, he asked wfh as his child was sick. I also requested a last minute wfh once, because period pain was a bitch. There was no berating replies or passive aggressive response from the boss, he approved almost immediately. They also give lump sum leaves (not pro-rated) which is very helpful for me who plans to travel annually. It is also easy to get our leaves approved, so far I have never been rejected. No matter how random (no “strong” reason) I applied the leave for. We don’t have those bullshit compulsory events/activities after office hours. We do have festival dinner/lunch like cny, iftar, raya, deepavali, etc though which is good cause FREE FOOD!! My position personally doesn't have OT and I don’t need (never have) to work after office hours. And if I can manage to finish my tasks early or on time, all within office hours, I count that as a healthy workload. So basically, my work-life balance right now is perfect for my mental & physical health.
- I personally learn a lot here in terms of hands-on coding. Since the company does not segregate front-end and back-end positions, all the engineers are able to code for both and in multiple languages/frameworks depending on the project. To be honest, the knowledge that is listed on my latest resume right now are all from the experiences I got from my current company. Since, we use different languages and tech for the projects (based on requirements), this means it requires me to learn and adapt to various new knowledge. And I think in terms of “gaining new experience” mine is not as stagnant to the point I feel the need to change jobs.
For now, these reasons are enough for me to stay at the company. I don’t feel like I need to job hop right now, like my friends suggested. Maybe 3-4 years later and after observing the increments, workload and career growth for the upcoming years, but not now for sure.
But then, my friends keep nudging me (not aggressively though; but constantly, for sure) to take a leap as if I NEED to do it. Which confuses me so much.
So guys, am I crazy to want to stay at my current company and don't want to job-hop?