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I arrived in a big city not long ago, after being in a relatively small city.

I keep seeing and being contacted for many amazing opportunities. They are only job advertisements and not actual offers as I refuse or ignore them and do not go through with interviews.

My current job is very good and I know it's best to stay at least a couple of years before moving on elsewhere. However, I can't shake this urge of wanting to try everything and feel restless at the idea of so many potential opportunities.

For those of you who work in big cities. Do you feel the same way? How do you manage to not get distracted and tempted by all the opportunities around you?

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    Are you actually being contacted with offers or are you just being advertised jobs? There's a big difference between "We want you, and we'll give you X to do Y." and "We have this job you can apply for, doing Y to earn X."
    – Anthony Grist
    Mar 20, 2019 at 19:50
  • You are right, I am advertised for jobs, not offered jobs. I will edit the question to make it more clear.
    – zlandorf
    Mar 20, 2019 at 19:55
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    It's worth remembering that recruiters are little more than sales people - They mostly work for their clients and candidates are little more than raw material, a means to an end for them to hit their targets and earn their bonus. If you look on them as cold calls then you won't go far wrong. I work in the software industry and I'm at the point where I automatically delete anything which starts with "Hi, hope you are well" unless I am in the market to change jobs at that time.
    – Old Nick
    Mar 21, 2019 at 9:27

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two years ago, having been with a company for 20 years circumstances required a change of jobs. I put my CV out to a number of agencies and job boards. I found a new position within a week but have been receiving enquiries from agents, often as many as 3 a week, saying that they have a position for which I would be a suitable candidate. I am happy where I am now and file them in :BB: (for those of you that remember the Intel ISIS operating system).

Remember that the agent makes money when you are recruited to a new position and the first stage of that process is to persuade you to change jobs. Spamming suitable candidates with what they hope might be tempting offers is a cheap first step.

You don't have to be based in a city to get lots of job offers. I am based in one of the most rural/lowest population areas of England and still get many offers.

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Just realize the grass is not always greener on the other side. I once had the question asked of "You seem to move jobs every year or 18 months....why should we hire you, knowing you'll likely move on in a year?"

I Had moved every year or so for more money, or because the company changed technologies and I wanted to stay Microsoft. And, as it would happen...I stayed in that position for about a year before the new CTO decided we needed to move from .NET to Java. Nothing against Java, but my experience was .NET and I didn't want to throw away several years of experience.

But the point is, once I found a position to settle down in and stay for a few years, it was a good thing. It looked better on the resume to see 3+ years and I started to appreciate the company for more than a paycheck.

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  • Have you changed companies since then? I guess for me it's kind of the technology, the salary and the conditions that make me think of changing at the moment. There are many companies hopping onboard the remote work train and I think it adds a lot of value to one's job.
    – zlandorf
    Mar 20, 2019 at 20:28
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    I have, yes. I stayed there several years until making a career change. I'd still be there if not for that.
    – Keith
    Mar 20, 2019 at 21:24
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One should always be open to new opportunities, but you should have a system to select which one's are worth pursuing.

If you have been living in the city for a while, you start adding all sorts of things to your list when evaluating an opportunity. First and foremost is probably the salary, but then there are also things like work on weekend or not? What will my travel time and cost be? After all in a small town, 15 miles seems extremely far away, but in the city that's still considered relatively close by many standards. If you work far away, for a while the commute may be fun and exciting, but after a while the novelty will wear off and you will wish you worked closer to home... You get the idea.

After a while, people tend to find their own criteria when evaluating new job opportunities. For most people, if you enjoy your job and you earn a good salary, there is no reason to pursue every job ad you come across.

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