I'm about to hop after being at my current company for almost 3 years. I feel I've shown my ability to be a lead engineer, but there's no room in my department for a new lead. I've also expressed the desire to manage, but talks with my manager about this have dead-ended. We are getting a new manager in my team's chain, but I was told they would be coming from outside the company.
The sad part is our current lead is bad, really bad. He won't be moved or dismissed either. So despite leading several successful projects, I'll be stuck at senior. So, fuck it, I'm moving on.
I kind of feel that this doesn't happen as much for engineering positions, unless you're moving to a consultancy. However, consultancies are a different beast.
I've worked in a few different industries myself, and I feel it gives me a broader view of things. Regardless, most of the engineering orgs I've been in have a heavy NIH mentality. They don't really care what you did at other companies. I've often been met with resistance when I suggest techniques or particular stacks that I've used successfully at other companies. So your experience is often dismissed and it can create a good deal of frustration.
I do have friends outside of engineering that have used this to their benefit. One friend had a good amount of experience with merging multinational orgs from an HR (benefits, compliance, etc) perspective. He was hired by Facebook for this exact reason and got a handsome raise and more substantial benefits.
A broad experience might be good for soft skills/procedures, but I have yet to experience that in engineering.
The sad part is our current lead is bad, really bad. He won't be moved or dismissed either. So despite leading several successful projects, I'll be stuck at senior. So, fuck it, I'm moving on.