When do you know it's time to look for another job?

General
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Hi everyone,

What are some signs or signals that people used to evaluate when it’s time for them to look for another role? or different opportunity elsewhere?

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If you are happy at your current job and feel like you’re still growing in the role (i.e. it’s what you want to be doing), it is perfectly okay to not be job hopping even if the people around you are switching jobs. That said, I would ask yourself if the job you’re working is meeting your needs. To clarify this, here’s a few reasons I can think of.

  • The self-explanatory ones: too little pay, toxic environment, work-life balance is unmanageable, relocating, pivoting industries or going back to school
  • Salary Bump: There are statistics, such as this from the Federal Reserve of Atlanta, that track wage growth and categorize based on job switchers and job stayers. While the gap between switchers and stayers isn’t as big as it used to be, job switchers still tend to make more money on average. Whether it’s worth switching for the pay is entirely dependent on your own needs and wants though.
  • Feeling stagnant: After 2-3 years in a role, if the work feels repetitive and loses its sense of meaning/purpose, it’s a lot harder to muster the energy to want to continue working there. Jobs are work, and they have their ups and downs, but questioning whether the work is worth doing in the first place is a different thing.
  • Job security/Bad management: People get laid off a lot these days, so if you suspect that layoffs are inbound, then you should be looking. Related to this, while a bad manager can create a toxic environment, bad leadership at the top of the organization can impact job security if it gets to a point where they need to make cuts.

Ultimately, choosing to look for different opportunities is entirely dependent on what you want for yourself. If you’re not where you want to be, take time to be introspective and figure out how to get there. I would also say that even if you’re happy at your current job, it doesn’t hurt to take a look at what job postings are out there to see if there’s something better. It’s important to keep the job hunting and interviewing skills sharp in case you need to use them unexpectedly.

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