Recognising you are dissatisfied with your current role is often seen as the trigger to looking for a new role. But is it truly a sign you are unhappy with your job? Is there a guarantee that your next one will be better?
Firstly you need to assess your current situation and establish how terminal your feelings are towards your current job – both in the short and long term. Ask yourself these core career decision making questions.
Short term questions
- Does your salary fit within current industry standards?
- Are you happy with your line manager?
- Is your workload acceptable?
- What are your current benefits? And how do they benchmark against other companies?
- Are there any rewards for exceeding your KPIs?
- Where is the company located is – is the commute too far?
Long term questions
- What are your long term career plans? Is there room for progression in your current role?
- Are there training and development options available?
- Is your work/life balance what you wanted it to be?
- How stable is the business you are working within?
- Do you feel the culture of the business matches well with who you are?
- Do you understand the businesses aims and missions?
If your short term questions are negative but there are options for the longer term, then your long term career options are achievable and you just need to address some of your short term issues. A lot of weight is put into titles, location, and salary and if you use these as your core motivator then you are likely to move to a new job and quickly experience the same problems.
If the over-riding response to these questions is negative and you really feel you’re stuck in a job that’s going nowhere, then it’s definitely time to move on. However, it is important to make sure that when that next offer comes along that you are able to gather as much information as possible so that if you were to ask yourself the same questions again – would they all be positive?
A career decision needs to be balanced – do not jump at a big salary increase, or a position closer to home – these will not provide long term job satisfaction. You have worked hard to build your career, so make sure you are confident the next job will be a good one.
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