How can leave my comfortable old job for a new one?
Like many other devs where I work, I am staying in my current job for 3 reasons:
1. RSUs
2. Inertia
3. Limited experience in the current in vogue tools/technologies
Reasons 1 and 2 are not good reasons to stay, but reasons 3 requires a bit more prep/work to rectify.
I would really appreciate any advice HN can provide about how I can use the next 4-5 months to upskill and get interview fit?
What are you trying to get out of a new job? Are you worried your tech skills have atrophied due to your current employer's tech stack? What space are you interested in heading into?
I think answering these questions might help the rest of HN provide more relevant insight. If you're just chasing a larger paycheck, I think the best bet is still MANGA/FAANG. No lack of documentation out there about landing jobs at those companies.
I did this after 4 years at BigCo. It helped to set a reasonable deadline for when I wanted to hand in my notice, then I worked backward to set milestones for myself (e.g. identify a round of companies of interest by X date, apply by Y date...). I ended up missing my "deadline" by a bit, but it got me off my ass.
I think there a few things that could help. One is to respond to recruiter emails, even if it is just to say "sorry not looking to change right now, would love to check back in a couple of months," even if its a company that you're not 100% sure you're interested in. If you have time, do an informational call to learn about culture / team / etc. Who knows, maybe you'll get excited enough to interview (item #2 in your list). Regardless of interest, I think once every 6 months or so it is a good idea to go through a full interview loop with at least one company. Interviewing is a skill that is largely unrelated to your day to day work, so this is probably the best way to practice. It also gives you a rough sense of what companies are paying (item #1) and what skills/technologies they are looking for (item #3).
Maybe an unpopular opinion, 3 is a bit unimportant, if you're hired for one tech skill, it's not a good place to work IMO. The dev-marketing-blogosphere often outpaces reality. Everyone blogs about -- with lots of exageration, no doubt. Nobody blogs about .