Career Planning: Weighing the Decision to Change Jobs

Career Planning: Just because you are unhappy with your current job does not mean that you should get a new one. There are reasons to stay where you are even though you believe you might be happier somewhere else.

Are You in the Wrong Job?

If you feel unappreciated, are you in the wrong job? By unappreciated, I mean that you experience these things.

Your turn has come up for promotion, but the promotion goes to less qualified peers.
Your company brings in management from the outside for jobs that should have.
Your peers repeatedly get credit for the work you are doing.
Your boss takes credit for your work.
Your pay raise is smaller than the pay raises everyone else gets.
Everything people say about you is negative.
No one asks you to join in at breaks or after work.
You believe that nothing you do makes a difference.
You feel like an outsider.

Reasons Not to Change

Lost benefits: Companies increase vacation time and other benefits with the length of time people stay at a company. time.

Marketability: Companies become concerned about hiring people who lack stability in their employment history. The best employers lower the risk of investing time and money in hiring, onboarding, and training employees who don’t have the ability to stay and grow with a company.

Stress: A job search is stressful. Furthermore, the first three months you are in a new job, employers are forming an opinion of you. The pressure to perform at once is stressful.

No Guarantees: Changing jobs does not guarantee that you will be happier. You may find that the next job solves no problems. You may be rushing from rut to move to another rut.

Additionally, changing jobs often means leaving friends and familiar routines to go to a place where you do not know anyone and where the people, the ways of working, and the culture are completely different.