Today is Career Strategy #4, and this is the opposite situation of what we covered last strategy which was about the warnings of staying stuck in the wrong job.
The opposite side of that is changing jobs without knowing why and possibly hurting your career in the process and getting passed over for promotion and raises.Let’s dive in.
I am going to start with a personal question. How many times have you changed jobs in your life?
Fear not, there is no right or wrong answer.
Heck, I consider myself pretty conservative and risk-averse and even I have gone through several jobs, from baby sitter to cashier in a grocery store to a teaching assistant in graduate school and from working in a small start-up to building a great career in a Fortune 100 company and even there, I changed jobs at least a half dozen times.
The better question is: Why do we change jobs?
Do we just get bored or unhappy to the point that we go through the trouble of finding another job?
Is it a random decision or a well-thought-out plan as part of a larger strategy of advancing your career?
And the best question is: Why do we become unhappy in our jobs?
Because if we can understand what makes us unhappy enough to change jobs, then we have 2 options:
1. We can try and address the situation first before jumping ship and we may just solve it in our current job.
2. We can use the information to make sure it never happens again if we end up switching jobs after all.
This is how a professional careerist approaches his or her career and as of now, you are now one too so: Make your career moves with intention and well-thought-out plans rather than randomly or based on a whim or an emotional response to a situation.
When you switch your job with this reasoning, you can confidently explain your move and the reasons behind it and it won’t matter how many times you have switched jobs when there is a clear strategy and thinking behind it. It is important for your management to see it this way and understand why you have switched jobs in the past and how you ended up in your current role so that you won’t be getting passed over for promotion in the future.
The most common reasons that people switch jobs are:
- Making too little for the work and time put in.
- Hating the boss or the direct manager.
- Losing interest in the projects and initiatives.
- Losing respect and trust in the leadership.
- No longer identifying with the company visions and direction.
- No longer feeling challenged or stimulated.
- Disliking team members and co-workers.
- Getting passed over for promotion or raise (although this one is low on the scale!).
And those are perfectly good reasons to make you think carefully about your job situation but my point is this: Are you quite sure those are the reasons you want a new job?
Have you tried to fix the situation at your current job first? How can you be confident that the next job is not going to end up this way?
Escaping a bad job is never the final recipe for fulfillment and happiness. You need to examine yourself and your desires at a much deeper level for getting to the right job and advancing your career!
3 key questions for you before you change your job again:
1. When did this job stop making you happy and why?
Think back to when you first started to experience unhappiness and frustration with your current job. What changed? What was missing? What extra things did you have to do, if any? Examine the root cause and time frame when you stopped loving your current job. Reflect on these reasons.
2. What do you still like, love and enjoy about this job?
Frustration and unhappiness cloud your judgement so think about this carefully. If you had to break your job into small components that make up the whole, what would they be and do you still feel positively about any of them? For instance, do you still like the actual work or the bond with your team or the benefit of working certain hours? These are some of the things that you want to look for in a new job.
3. What will it take for you leave the next job and the one after that?
Ask yourself what would it hypothetically take for you to leave the next job that you want so badly right now?
This line of questioning helps you identify your limits and boundaries, as well as your values about what matters to you. Then you have this information to make a much more informed decision before seeking another job so that you don’t end up job-hopping around.
Until our Career Strategy #5, pull out a piece of paper – or start a mind-map or blank page – and start writing out the reasons you want to switch jobs by answering the 3 questions. And right now, start your professional careerist approach to this problem right now: Think long-term strategy as you think about your current job change.
When you approach your career and every single job this way, you are going to avoid career traps, and getting passed over for promotion and advancement will be a thing of the past.
And if you are ready to start thinking more like a professional careerist who wants to move up the ladder, I’ve got a step-by-step program that can help you achieve your career dreams. Learn more about it here:
Crack the Code to Get Promoted program
That’s it for this strategy! You will have your next exclusive tip in your Inbox soon.
Talk to you in the next strategy,
Farnoosh
Questions? Click here to contact me.
P.S.
If you made it here from Twitter or Google or a link from a friend, why not go ahead and get the whole package? This is part of Career Success Strategies for Advancing and Getting Promoted at Your Job, an email course on the fundamentals of what it takes to get ahead, get noticed, get promoted, and get rewards and raises at your job.
Find out more about the free course and sign up here.
