Thinking of changing jobs? Read this.

Are you thinking of changing jobs?

If you are, please stop, reflect and review!

This piece addresses the need to conduct a review and provides working guide for addressing the 5 key areas for job happiness.

We have all been there, we had a bad day; our colleagues irritated us, our boss annoyed us and our customers were even worse. We have had enough of this, we are getting a new job!

Humans are emotional beasts and this reaction is perfectly understandable.

However, it is an irrational response and it can cause huge problems in our careers if we allow it to take control of our next actions. In our 10 step guide to getting your dream career, we outlined the problems faced by people with the dreaded “jumpy CV” and by those who cannot rationally explain the reasons for leaving their last employer.

Note: telling a new employer you left a job because your co-workers or bosses were idiots makes you look bad, not them

The internet has made searching for a job very easy. This creates massive problem for people.

A quick version of the story goes like this; Harriet has a bad day, Harriet is annoyed, puts her job on several job boards and applies for 5 jobs in the space of an hour (if she doesn’t get distracted by Facebook). Harriet calms down and goes to bed.

The following morning Harriet’s CV lands on the desks of 5 recruiters (probably more) and they are all keen to talk to Harriet about the wonderful job opportunities they have on offer. Harriet is at work and yesterday’s problems have not gone away, Harriet gets emails, calls and texts from the recruiters about all these wonderful job opportunities, Harriet has had enough of this, she does not need her current employer!

Harriet speaks to the recruiters, she hears all the great things about these new jobs and arranges interviews. Let’s stop the story there, the rest is fairly predictable.

What has happened here?

Harriet has acted emotionally and though this part is understandable it is what follows that creates the problems. It is just too easy to make the change.

The promise of the new challenge, the feeling that it will all work out better this time, the (slightly) increased salary and the excitement of the new opportunity are all very alluring. But where is Harriet in 6 months’ time when the initial excitement of the new opportunity has faded?

The likelihood is, especially if she has been really irrational, right back to square one. Except with a worse CV and another excuse to give to prospective new employers.

This happens. All the time.

We have not told this story to tell people to stay in jobs that they have genuine reasons for leaving; rather, to encourage people to take stock and rationally analyse their position before taking action.

We have developed a decision making tool, which you can download here, that will help you review your current position’s good and bad points.  Take an hour of your time and invest it into going through this guide and examining how you feel about the different aspects of your current job.

It will provide some really valuable insights.

One thing that marks out people in highly paid positions is that they have all battled through a tough time in their career and made the decision to take short term pain for long term gain.

If you are explaining why you left during an interview you may be asked what actions you took to try and rectify the situation. If you are able to demonstrate that you took ownership of your position and tried to change it before you decided that you were ultimately not going to be successful you will have demonstrated leadership qualities that will resonate with the person interviewing you.

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal of greater benefit.”

This is a quote from Napoleon Hill, author of the renowned book Think and Grow Rich, but it could have been said by any great business leader or high achiever.

Giving up when things get hard will not pay off in the long-run so you must be sure that you take the time to stop, reflect and review before taking action!

Go through the guide and if you decide that you will benefit in the long-run from a new job, get to work on creating your own future here.