I turned down a counter offer.

[Beet]

I recently made a decision, which while I'm happy that I made it quickly and decisively (since usually I don't) I still have nagging doubts about. Basically, last week a former coworker of mine contacted me to let me know of an opportunity where he works. I went in for an interview, and got an offer almost immediately. Monetarily it is very slightly better than where I am now (3-4%) but in terms of the job itself it is a much more satisfying position, so I accepted right away. However, when I went to resign from my current job, my boss blew me away with a 19% raise plus a 16% bonus. He also offered to switch me into a more fulfilling position.

I turned him down. The main reason is that the job I'm going to be taking would still be better in terms of my career development than what was offered at my current position. I've been at my current company for a long time and it's really small and doesn't offer as much interesting work. I've been promised a more fulfilling position several times, but nothing has materialized. So I guess there's a lack of trust issue too. Also, I haven't always been treated very well by my current boss. I feel they engage in favoritism and have tended to favor certain other employees' career trajectories over mine.

But another reason is that I read a lot of advice online saying that one should not renege on accepted offers and one should not take counter offers because you can't trust your employer any more. But I still doubt whether I did the right thing. I feel a lot of the online advice was written by recruiters who hate counter-offers/reneging because it means they don't get the recruitment fee. It may be giving people a biased view of whether or not to accepted the counter offer. What do you think?