[Clubber]

Yes, the general rule was to stay at least a year though. My first two jobs were a hair under 2 years each. The first one was an unbearably toxic environment, but that's typical of your first job. I learned a lot because I did everything: networking, database, reports, server config, applications, integration, support, etc. All from scratch. The second I learned a lot but got stuck in a rut once I learned it. This was my big name company. I then did contracting for a year then the dot bomb + 9/11 happened, contract expired and I was out of work for 6 months and miserable. I learned that it might be beneficial to stick around a place for a while that seemed stable. First job after dot bomb was 8 years (learned a lot but stayed 2 years too long), 6 years (learned a lot and left at the right time), then 2 years (didn't learn much, tried to right a sinking ship) and currently 5 years (learned a lot and it was a file -> new experience).

I did a whole lot of projects on my own time to keep up to date with interesting new tech and make some side money. Nothing really blew up though.