Good luck I quit.

You must be prepared to follow through. Always Be Interviewing. Give notice, move, level up, rinse, repeat.

How often can you do this without it being a problem? I'm trying to make it past a year at current job, it definitely requires discipline to see it through. I don't want to be a job hopper but there are always shiny new opportunities.

When the economy is good, less than 1 year at a job seems excessive hopping.

When the economy is worse and employers can choose, even 3 years look like "job hopping individual, will jump ship as soon as economy turns around and he can get $1 more somewhere else".

Just decide if you optimize for comfort or money, and make sure you have a few months buffer for the bad times.

I don't really hop, but I don't have a great track record because one job wasn't a good fit, then I freelanced / contracted for a while, etc, then landed at another job that wasn't what they promised it would be in the interview, etc.

How do you keep the interviews on the DL? The few times I've moved positions it's been a nightmare trying to keep my current boss from figuring it out.

Schedule them at lunch, do them before work, have a doctor's appointment to go to, there are a multitude of excuses you can give.

It's business, they aren't your friends, you don't need to tell them the whole truth.

The difficulty I Found was when there were 5 in short order - they start to notice your absenteeism.

"My dog is having health issues".

By this point, do you really care?

Absolutely, it could fall through. Don't be prepared to jump until you know you're going to land softly.

why keep it secret make it known and maybe they just give you that raise

Then you're a flight risk. Laying that out like that let's them know you've got one foot out the door and the only thing keeping you there is bribery.

Isn't that how business works?