qtq80-PKWs8r

Four key insights about knowing when to make that next career move

If you aren’t intentional and nimble in making career decisions, then someone else will make those decisions for you and there’s a good chance their interests will not perfectly align with yours.

–Lauren Ewing

Some months ago, I had a discussion with a coaching client who was considering whether or not to pursue a job transition. The conversation went something like this:

Client: How do you know when it’s time to change jobs?

Me: Well, think back to the last couple of times you changed jobs. When did you know it was time to make a change?

Client: I usually change jobs when I’m unhappy with where I am.

Me: Ah, so your signal to move is when you start feeling unhappy or unfulfilled. How do you think that state of mind influenced your approach to finding the next opportunity?

Client: I felt trapped, and felt a lot of pressure to flee my current role, so I probably didn’t put as much thought into what I wanted for my next role as I would have liked.

Me: I want to reflect back to you the language you’re using–feeling “trapped”, “…pressure to flee”… a lot of negative energy surrounding the prospect of changing jobs. Let’s imagine an alternative scenario, one where you were not yet at the point of trying to flee your role, and where you had some time and space to consider your next step. What would matter most to you in that moment?

**end scene**

Have you ever left a job or company because you felt this same pressure to flee? Or, are you currently considering when might be the right time for you to make your next move? Here are four key insights about navigating role or career transitions that may help you answer these questions:

1. Continuously evaluate how you feel about your role. I’m a firm believer that you should be assessing your feelings about your job/career at regular intervals, regardless of how happy you are. I do so at least 2-3 months after every transition and about twice a year in general. Why? For two main reasons:

  • Our brains are naturally more drawn to negative stimuli, so it’s no surprise that some of us wait until we feel unhappy with our job to muster up the conviction to leave, and we may even spend plenty of time dissecting all of the things going wrong with the role to validate our desire to leave. But what if you went through the same level of analysis when you’re happy with your role? Through this “happy analysis” you’ll be able to identify the key ingredients of your recipe for a happy work life, which can be useful in a number of ways. First, it could help you better appreciate what’s going well in your current work situation that you’d want to be sure to maintain; second, it enables you to have clarity about what else you may need to pursue for your current work situation in order to enhance it; and third, it provides focused criteria for evaluating other opportunities and experiences you may want to pursue should you determine that the current situation won’t be able to fulfill the key ingredients of your recipe.

  • Following the “happy analysis” from the previous point, it is possible to have a job with which you are generally happy or at least satisfied but is not optimizing for things that are important to you given your current priorities (and remember, your priorities can shift and evolve). Continuous evaluation of your work life, especially following significant life events, will enable you to identify and optimize your position on your own timeline and not just when driven by negative feelings or circumstances. For example, consider these three scenarios for which a transition might be worth considering: 

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

No alt text provided for this image

2. Recognize your own tolerance for change. My appetite for making changes may be different than yours, and the same goes for my/your risk tolerance. While it’s tempting to ask others the “change readiness” question (e.g. “How do you know when it’s time to change jobs?”), you’re the only one who can truly define that for yourself. The easiest way to get to that answer is to study your own historical decision making patterns when you’ve been faced with similar circumstances. If you’re content with the outcomes of those past decisions, then perhaps you can try to replicate them. If you aren’t thrilled with how those past decisions panned out, then it may be time to try something different.

3. Know what you’re running toward, even when you feel like running away. Sometimes, we may find ourselves staying in a job for longer than we intended, unmotivated to make a move until something eventually happens that tips you over the edge and you become consumed with fantasies of fleeing far, far away from your current job. While this energy may be just enough to get you over the hump of starting your search for another opportunity, it won’t sustain you. What will sustain you is having clarity around what your vision for your career is so that you can consciously reexamine, pivot or reset your expectations and actions to close in on what strategy you should employ for your next job search.

4. Resist the comfort of complacency. In times of contentment, some of us may default to believing that when it’s time to explore a new capability area or pursue an advancement opportunity, our manager will be sure to tap us on the shoulder and steer us wherever we need to go next. While this certainly would be nice to experience, it’s not always a given nor should it be assumed to be. I often tell those considering a career transition that no one else will do a better job than you of managing and advocating for your career because you are more likely to consistently keep your interests front and center. If you aren’t intentional and nimble in making career decisions that are in your best interest, then someone else will make those decisions for you and there’s a good chance their interests will not perfectly align with yours. As such, be mindful of how much and to whom you outsource your career decisions and strive to place yourself in the driver’s seat as much as possible.

Final Thoughts

Wondering what happened with the client I mentioned? Through our coaching session they ended up realizing that they’re in a capability building state of mind now. They decided to continue exploring the mixed feelings they had about their current role and eventually embarked upon their search for another role with a much clearer idea of what they were seeking.

Ultimately, making career moves can go much more smoothly when you have clarity of purpose and plan, supported by a positive mindset. And even if you don’t have all of those things perfectly plotted out, then at least knowing what factors enable you to do your best work (your “happy analysis”) can help you to make the most of your current situation even if you don’t make a move. Any time invested in getting to know yourself better will be time well spent.