r/DevLK • u/Existing_Host7040 • 4h ago
Discussion Job hopping in 2026 as an undergraduate, is it viable?
Hello everyone. I'm a 3rd year undergrad with 1+ years of experience in a small startup. I have one more year to get my bachelor's degree.
The company I'm currently working at is my first ever job and I'm currently an Associate Software Engineer. I recieve a 70k gross salary (with deductions about 63k take home). The company is relatively a very small startup, therefore very long hours, lots of work expected from one person.
I've come to realization that it's time for me to move onto a new job since I feel I can do a lot more in a place that would allow me to maximize my potential with a reasonable compensation for it. To my understanding, the work that I do in the company does not come close to the salary I'm receiving. I could be wrong here so please correct me if I'm wrong. To sum up:
- work/life balance is nonexistent (it's always past 10 p.m. when i get home)
- every single day, I work overtime well past the off time (this company does not compensate OT)
- my expenses are higher than my salary (since I also pay for my degree with what I'm earning, with my parents support)
- I'm not exactly faced with a lot of new challenges / exposed to new experiences but this doesn't factor into why I want to resign since I did learn a lot here because of the work I was given
- the work isn't difficult per se but very tiresome. There's no dedicated task management therefore I always end up getting the more tiresome work that includes research as opposed to my teammates without actually having any recognition
- I also do a lot of work that is not relevant to my role, but I guess this is expected from a startup
I feel that I don't have much of a future in this company and that it's time for me to move on since I'm really unhappy in this work environment. However, with the current job market I fear if it's a bad idea to resign.
I'm supposed to work through a notice period of 2 months, and no company would wait 2 months for me realistically due to the volume of candidates these days. I'm sure that I want to resign, but I'm unsure if it's a terrible idea during this time with the market declining. Should I hold on in this position a bit longer? With my current situation is it too risky to switch jobs?
Any advice would be much appreciated since I'm at a loss here. If I'm being truthful, I'm able to go through with this job if my compensation equated to the work that I'm doing. And I have also attempted to negotiate my salary to no avail.
Also I'm aware that working overtime without being compensated is my own doing, but the work culture here is built up in a way that refusing this would be considered "incompetent" and "not dedicated". Therefore my team mates also just go through with this, without ever raising their voice. One coworker who did this was basically rejected from the company, and eventually outsourced, and eventually let go(he was also less performant). I hope that explains why I want to resign immediately.


