How To Know When It's Time To Change Jobs

Understand The "Experience + Learn = Grow" Model For Success

It may be hard to hear, but if you aren't growing in your career, you're dying in your career.

The experiences you're having at work should be building up your skills, not dragging you down. Every couple of months, take a step back and look at the work you've done. Have those work experiences made you learn and grow into a better professional?

If they haven't, then you're not growing as a professional. That's a problem.

Make Sure Your Work Is Enabling You To Grow In 3 Ways

The experiences you're having at work should help you grow in the following three ways:

1. Financial - You want opportunities within your organization that will let you build up your income. You could be looking for a raise, or a promotion, to keep up with your personal goals. It's important to know if your company is giving you the opportunities to achieve this.

2. Influence - This is meant in terms of power and control over your career. The more influence you have in terms of the respect and the support from your peers and managers, the better. Successful experiences will help you earn their trust and respect.

3. Skills - You must stay relevant to your work if you want to be happy with your career. As you build up your skill set, you become more valuable to your employer.

If you feel like you're hitting a dead end in any of these areas, it's time for a change.

Make The Decision To Leave (Or Stay) & Stick With It

Once you've gone through the first two steps of this process, you know whether or not you've hit some major roadblocks.

If you have hit those roadblocks, you can do one of two things.

1. You could sit down with your boss and talk about what you can do to get back on track.
2. Or, you could make the decision to leave. If you make this decision, it's important that you stick with this decision and create a solid job search plan.

Final tip: It's always easier to find a new job when you have a job! We recommend you look for a new job while still employed at your current employer (aka don't quit before you have another job lined up!). That way, you won't feel desperate in your job search( employers can smell desperation a mile away) and you will also have a steady paycheck, enabling you to make the transition when you're ready.

At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide if it's time to leave your job. That's why it's so important to really think through this decision and decide if it's the right thing to do. Follow the tips above to make the right decision with confidence!

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