Abinaya
How do I know when it is time to leave my job
for my career #doctor #engineer #teacher #scientist #dancer #leader
13 answers
Dave Ramanauskas, Agile Consultant, CSM, CSP
Dave’s Answer
I agree with Jessica's advice and I'd like to add a few more things:
- How do you feel when you wake in the morning to go to work? Are you energized and at least optimistic about the day ahead, or do you dread the day ahead?
- How do you feel on Sunday night as you wrap up the weekend? Are you feeling rested and ready to head into work the next day or do you look forward to Monday with a sense of dread and anxiety?
- How do you feel about your daily work? Do you feel anxious and stressed most of the time or do you feel empowered, competent and relaxed about your work?
- Do you feel that you fit in the company culture?
- Are you respected for your work and opinions?
- Do you have good working relationships with your manager and colleagues?
These questions are about assessing your role in the organization and your emotional state regarding your work. Don't underestimate how you feel about your job, there is plenty of research that points to the harmful effects of stress and anxiety on the job. Happy employees are more productive and engaged.
What if you did a SWOT analysis of your situation, SWOT is a tool that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a scenario. It might help you do a somewhat objective assessment of your situation. Take a clean sheet of paper and draw 4 columns, and label each column Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats and list the items of your job that apply to each category. Then assess- are there more weaknesses than strengths? More opportunities? Are there threats of a layoff?
Finally, I recommend a great book entitled "Decisive", by Chip and Dan Heath. It provides some useful decision making tools that could help you think beyond "Should I stay or should I go?"
I hope that helps- good luck in your decision making. Leaving a job is a huge decision.
Zach R. Becker
Zach’s Answer
Is your supervisor/manager misleading or manipulative? Have you brought the topic to upper management? If nothing changes leave.
Andrew McDonald
Andrew’s Answer
- Your company is disreputable
- Your management is very deficient in the way it looks after its people
- Your company has very limited opportunities but you could find a job with a company with better prospects
- You have found yourself in a role that doesn't match your skills and your appetite for challenging work
But remember:
- All jobs have difficult aspects. The grass may not be greener on the other side. All companies are rewarding you for the value you contribute.
- Leaving because your boss is jerk may seem like a good idea, but there may be opportunities to move to a better team at the same company
- Other companies in the same field are under the same pressures, so be certain that you are looking at a better company
Do compare companies fairly. A company with much better benefits may expect another hour a day from you. You might be happy with the trade off, but you should know what you are getting into.
Shawn Arendale
Shawn’s Answer
Evaluate What It Would Cost You To Stay In Your Comfort Zone/ Research If A New Job Is Worth The Move/ Get Real About What Really Matters To You/ Figure Out If You’re Staying Simply for the Sake of Staying
Karen Manalia
Karen’s Answer
Vic Wong
Vic’s Answer
Janelle Woiwor
Janelle’s Answer
Alex Blitstein
Alex’s Answer
Jessica Jacobs
Jessica’s Answer
Deciding when it's time to leave your job is a tough decision. Here are some guiding questions to help you make your decision:
- Have I done everything I can in my role?
- Is there room for me to grow personally and professionally?
- Have I spoken to my boss about taking on more _ (responsibility, work that excites me, fill in the blank for what you're looking for)?
- What are the benefits of leaving?
- What are the benefits of staying?
- How does my decision effect my short and long term goals?
- What do I want to do when I leave this job? Will I be able to do that with the experience and knowledge I currently have? If not, how do I get that experience and/or knowledge?
These are just a few of the questions I have asked myself in the past. Good luck, I'm sure you'll make the decision that's right for you.
Hi Jessica: I appreciate your insightful advice. I too have asked similar types of questions in the past when I left a job. Thank you for sharing.
Sheila Jordan
Carlotta Rickert
Carlotta’s Answer
One of the best pieces of advice I have been giving is to "make sure you are running TOWARD something and not AWAY from something". One has a tendency to make poor choices if they are just running from something, versus running toward something that is inspiring. So though this may not directly answer your question, it is good food for thought to review as to the why you are thinking about leaving your particular job. Good Luck!
Bharathi Krishnan
Bharathi’s Answer
If you are in comfort zone with your current work, you may have to think about it. Because comfort level will never allow you to learn more.
If you are not learning atleast one new thing per week / month , then you may have to think about change.
If you are taking more leaves without reason, obviously you are loosing your interest on your job . So thats the perfect time to change .
I hope it helps , Please ignore which you don't like.
Sabrena Lampley-Talbert
Sabrena’s Answer
