How are carbon and nitrogen different from each other when it comes to valence electrons

Carbon has six electrons (2 core and 4 valence), and can form four bonds with neighboring atoms. Nitrogen has seven electrons (2 core and 5 valence) (1s2, 2s2, 2px1, 2py1, 2pz1). So if you are following the rules, you might well assume that nitrogen would be able to form five bonds (after all, it has five valence electrons.)