Qfyilyi

Some context: I'm currently working in a large IT company for over 3 years. I have worked on 5 projects and have a new one currently.

Problem: 2 of my past projects are finished on paper (one of them about 2 years ago), but the business keeps nagging me weekly to add or change stuff. These get all logged as incidents and my manager just asks me to go with it. Lets say I put about 2 days work in them as of now. I'm honestly tired of it and don't want to keep working on them. I want to learn new stuff and keep past projects/tools behind me. I know these will always drop in front of me as long as I work here, since I was the only developer on both applications and no one would spent time on it as long as I'm there. (There is documentation of all this)

Question: would I leave a bad Impression if I leave my job for this reason. Could it give future employers the idea that I'm not willing to fix my own stuff or something like that? Would my current employer see it as running away from my "problems" and give a bad reference to my next employer?

It depends on how you answer the question "Why are you leaving your current job?".

If you state it as you have in your question, it might not give a great impression. However, if you boil it down a little more, you're really leaving because you want to take on new challenges and stretch yourself & your skills in a new environment. This is actually a good reason to move.

A good overall answer would be something like "I really like my current company, but I feel to challenge myself, develop new skills and reach my potential as a developer I'd like a new challenge".

Talk to your team lead/manager about this. State you keep getting these tickets for your old project and you're concerned that no one else is being assigned to them.

If the response is that "it's your project, you're the best person to deal with these", then point out that you can't be the single point of knowledge.

What happens if I go under a bus tomorrow?

In a decent team of developers, there should be the ability to share knowledge and work on each others code/projects as and when the need arises. Sure, if there's something complicated/urgent, then you're the first port of call. For the more mundane tickets, someone else should be able to pick this up.

You need to deal with this situation (or at least try) before moving on - you might well be faced with the same situation at a later date. I wouldn't use this as the only motive for moving on if you're otherwise happy with the work.

would I leave a bad Impression if I leave my job for this reason.

There is absolutely no reason to give this as your reason for leaving. Find another job, resign, say goodbye without pointing fingers at anything, it's just a career move.

First you have to aknowledge that maintenance is if not the bigger, one of the biggest parts of the software development cycle, see this post for example, this means that in your company or anywhere else you should expect to be doing maintenance of completed projects.
Second I think you should talk to your manager and ask if these tasks could be taken by someone else, but be prepared to hear a no, or no in the near future.
If you can't take anymore it's time for job hunting.

The majority of software work is maintenance and updating of existing applications and systems. Only rarely will you ever get to work on new green field projects.

However you have been in the same job for 3 years now, and 2 years is about average to stay in the same role/company. Just say you're looking for new challenges, to work with new or different technologies etc. If you stay in the same job, and unless you're working on some mission-critical niche software (here's looking at you, COBOL), then moving on to keep your skills up to date would be considered normal.

I think this is a very bad reason to leave your job. I get questions about older projects all the time, that's just like it is when you stay longer at one company.
A lot of projects are never really finished. It is in the best interest of the company to have the same person deal with issues that worked on the project. If somebody else has to deal with an older project s/he has to invest much more time which costs the company money.

If you actually give this as a reason for leaving it might convey that you are not acting in the best interest in the company, and that you will probably leave the new company again for the same reason.