The Hidden Reason Great Engineers Quit
And How to Give Them What Money Can't Buy
He was the best engineer on the team.
Wrote clean code.
Never missed a deadline.
Handled the hardest bugs with a smile.
One day, he handed in his resignation.
Not for a raise.
Not for a promotion.
Not even for a better title.
“I’m just not learning anymore,” he said.
Everyone Thinks It’s About Money
And sure, money matters.
No one wants to be underpaid.
And yes, some people will leave for a 20% bump.
But when it comes to your top performers?
Growth, not greed, is the lever.
Because if it were only about salary,
The richest companies wouldn’t be bleeding talent.
What 65,000 Developers Told Us
Stack Overflow asked:
“What makes you happiest at work?”
The #1 answer?
Learning and improving.
Not salary.
Not perks.
Not unlimited PTO.
If you’re thinking, “That’s just self-reporting. People say that, but don’t mean it.”
Consider this:
Companies that invest in learning see 34% higher retention.
That’s real behavior, not wishful thinking.
Here’s What Most Companies Miss
A bored engineer isn’t just less productive.
They’re a flight risk.
You might think:
“But we give them stability. Good pay. No micromanagement.”
That’s great. But stability without challenge is just a soft cage.
And the best engineers?
They don’t stay caged.
Some Push Back With
“Not everyone wants to grow all the time. Some just want to do the work.”
True.
But those aren’t your top 10%.
The engineers driving the most innovation?
Solving the toughest problems?
They want to stretch.
Stagnation hurts them.
To retain those people:
Let them touch new tech
Encourage experimentation
Don’t gatekeep learning behind job titles
Growth doesn’t have to be expensive.
It just has to be real.
The 10% Rule
One company gave every engineer 10% of their time to explore.
Critics said: “That’s a luxury. We don’t have time for that.”
But that 10% led to:
3 product wins
2 new business lines
A 40% improvement in retention
The lesson?
Time spent growing isn’t a cost.
It’s insurance.
If You’re Still Skeptical, Ask Yourself
Why do top engineers leave well-paying jobs at Google or Amazon?
It’s not for bean bags.
Or startups with worse hours.
It’s because they want to build something new.
To learn faster.
To move forward.
Final Thought
This isn’t about coddling developers.
It’s about understanding what actually drives performance and retention.
Growth isn’t a perk.
It’s a need.
So if you’re trying to keep your best people?
Don’t just pay them more.
Challenge them.
Teach them.
Grow them.
Because the moment they stop learning…
they start leaving.
This. Is. So. Well. Put.
Thank you, Daniil!
Failed managers chase stats, metrics, numbers that they can show off, because that is what grows them. By reflection, that is the only way they see that they can grow other developers. More output, more lines of code, or features delivered, more bugs squashed, more lines of code covered by tests, etc. If it's not immediately quantifiable, it's not worth investing in. Try telling this to such a manager and they will be looking to replace you well before you decide to leave by yourself. No matter how high a performer you are. The best thing to do is always leave. There's nothing more convincing than a wake up call leading everyone to question what the f*** they were doing wrong?.