Yesterday, a senior manager at the company I work at sent an email to my department to inform us that her employee will be leaving to further pursue her career. Not too long ago, a director in my company also sent out an email to inform us that her employee will be leaving the company to pursue her academic pursuit. 

That got me thinking about the average time that people usually stay at the companies they work at. So, I went out of my way to analyze the situation more clearly:

• Both are female
• Both are in the their early twenties
• Both are leaving to pursue their academic pursuit
• Both have only been at the company for two years

Are they leaving because of the company? And they’re merely using the excuse of pursuing their career as a way to mask the fact that they want to leave the company? Or are they simply leaving because they want to pursue higher education?

At this point, I started thinking, at what point will I leave my company? When I started my job, I told myself that I’m only going to stay here for two years at the earliest and three years tops. 

Regardless of whatever reason they had for leaving, what matters is that they’re pursuing something much better. I wish the best of luck to them both!

I’ve only known them for nine months. 

Average Number of Years that People Stay at a Company

After a quick google search, I learned that the average number of years that employees stay at their company is 3.2 years. 

Was that surprising? No, not really. 

First of all, you don’t want to leave early and often. It’s going to show on your resume and employers are going to question your authenticity for wanting to work at the company.

Second, you don’t want to work at a job too long because it’s limiting your capabilities. Well, as long as you’re not working the same job over and over again,

The most senior people at my company have been working here for 25-30 years. Can you believe that?!

So, How Long Should I Work at My Company?

I’m going to say it depends. But I’ve realized over the years that this answer sucks. It doesn’t help. 

Instead, when someone offers an answer, you will either realize you don’t like it, it’s not true, or it is true. 

So I will say, at most you should stick to a company for at least three years. This is ample time and opportunity for you to be efficient at your job. 

But at What Point Do I Leave? What if I Want to Leave? When Should I Leave? How Do I Know When it’s Time to Leave? 

These are questions that might’ve run through your mind. Don’t worry. I’ve got a perfect list of answers for you in this post.