Not being eligible for a promotion at your current company doesn't mean you can't get a promotion. I've switched companies 4 times so far in my career. Let's c

Not being eligible for a promotion at your current company doesn't mean you can't get a promotion. I've switched companies 4 times so far in my career. Let's call entry-level "entry." The first one came with a double-level promotion (entry+2). The next one came with a demotion (entry+1), although they paid me more. I went on to get promoted twice at the new company (entry+3) working on-site. After that I stayed at the same level moving to the next company (entry+3) working remote. Then going to the next company I got another promotion coming in (entry+4). So I've only been promoted within the company twice, and my other two promotions were from switching companies. I'm getting good performance reviews, but it's looking like entry+5 may be a ways away for me at my current company. I've already been contacted by a recruiter offering me a chance at landing an entry+5 position with another company, but I value the culture and the type of work I'm doing at my current company more than the level-up. In particular I can work from home most of the week and come in for meetings here and there. Early in your career "N+1" is important, but at some point there's a lot more to your overall quality of life than simply chasing the next "N+1." I know some truly miserable people who constantly obsess over getting promotions, and getting those promotions often doesn't seem to make their lives any better. Some of them have just ended up getting bigger mortgages, and now they're under constant pressure to keep performing at the level they clawed their way up to just so they can make their payments.