How long should you wait to apply for a different job at the same company (employee, applying)

[mjohnson4381]

I've been thinking about applying for a different job at the company I'm working at right now. The problem is that I've only been in my current position for about 9 months and I'm wondering if trying to leave it right now would look bad...like it's something personal against my boss or I didn't "pay my dues" long enough.

I've checked the employee handbook, there's no rule about how long you need to stay in one position before applying for another, so I'm okay in that respect. And, if I was in an entry-level job, I probably wouldn't be so worried about how it looks to apply for another job. Entry level jobs tend to not require much training and people understand if you want to explore other options/move up. My current job pays decently, I have five years experience in this industry/line of work and I'm not even sure if the position I want to apply for is a step up or if it's more of a lateral move. But I really, really don't like my current job. I have three years of developing experience, I'm pretty good at it and that's what I'd really prefer to do. My current job is more like a business analyst position. I spend so much time comparing one Excel spreadsheet to another that I want to scratch my eyes out some days. And I don't even want to talk about how I feel about Access.

I keep thinking that I should wait at least a year before applying for a developer position, that other people will think I owe that to my boss. I personally think I've already created enough value to justify leaving. I've made some pretty cool things and solved some problems that even my boss couldn't figure out. And what if there is no developer position open after I've been there a year? It's a relatively small company, so I don't imagine there will be a lot more openings coming soon. I'm not sure if I'm over-thinking this or what. Any advice would be appreciated.