I've had this happen twice in my career. In the first one, I gave my employer the option of meeting the offer since I actually enjoyed the job. They said they c

I've had this happen twice in my career. In the first one, I gave my employer the option of meeting the offer since I actually enjoyed the job. They said they can only pay within a specified range for each role, which is another way of saying there was no room for advancement. The other company clearly valued me more, so I walked. The second one, the company was being bought out, and I knew what it meant when I was asked to train the new company to do my job, so really it was a moot point, and I walked. Your company will experience people coming and going all the time. Your responsibility is to you alone - you can't hurt a company's feelings. If you want to advance... then advance. Otherwise some time down the road you might consider it a dead end gig and kick yourself for not moving onward and upward when the opportunities were falling into your lap.