A routine personal assessment of your career goals and career path directly correlates to a successful and rewarding profession in corporate America. One must continually learn, adapt, network, evolve and progress. Once this cycle begins to stagnate, changes must be made to ensure continual knowledge development and job advancement. Since higher salaries are usually tied to advanced job positions, maintaining this cycle is essential in a person’s ability to increase their income producing power.
Daily Blog Tips posted an article entitled “7 Reasons to Quit Your Job” a few months back. The article discusses 7 reasons why someone should quit their job in an effort to pursuit alternative career advancement. While the article is well written and passionate, it is also completely one dimensional based on the “work for yourself” viewpoint the author takes. The points made are valid, but let’s face it, not everyone wants to go into business for themselves. Some people are content with the corporate America exchange of hours for dollars.
Self employment is only one of many possible courses for career progression. Thus, there are many other reasons to reevaluate your current job in a proactive effort to realign your career goals. After a thorough assessment of your current job position and your future career ambitions, here are 3 general reasons why you should quit your job:
- You Dislike Your Job – No matter how much you get paid or how elite your job title is, the ultimate question is, are you happy? A good majority of our waking hours are spent working. Life seems a bit of a waste if you don’t enjoy that time.
- You Are Not Learning – If you aren’t continually expanding your skill set and adapting to new technologies and processes, you will become an undesirable candidate for advanced job placement in the eyes of all employers. Never forget the old adage, knowledge is power. Your career progression relies heavily on your ability to master new skills.
- You Are Pigeonholed – If your employer classifies or categorizes you in a way that inhibits your ability to grow, it’s time to take immediate action. Pigeonholing means that your employer has set up boundaries around you. These boundaries restrain you from moving around within the company. Usually motivated by the inaccurate perception management has concerning an employee, these perceptions are usually all that matters when promotion time comes around. Are potential career opportunities with your current employer passing right over you? Are you being skipped over on positions you want to be a part of?
You are the only person that cares about your personal growth. It’s up to you, and only you, to make it happen. Be crystal clear on your personal goals for growth and be aware of how that growth fits into your employer’s objectives. Make sure you professionally convey these goals to the right people. Managing personal career growth is a continual proactive process of re-evaluating your goals and suitably aligning them to the goals of your employer. If you aren’t being proactive, you are being reactive, and you will be unprepared to take action when career growth opportunities arise. If you have been diligent and your current employer still resists your motivation… it’s time to move on.
Laura says
I am actually in the process of quitting my job for all three reasons.
Duck says
Managers care about getting the job done…usually the bare minimum
Good managers care about success…usually their own
Great managers care about the success of the team
For if the team is successful, the manager will always be successful…fostering success of your team mates only benefits you…build a team that covers all areas of strength and weakness and it will be successful…as a manager you should take your success and absolutley ensure that those that got you there are rewarded and bumped up as well…if not…then see “Good Manager”.
As a Manager your number one goal should be to take care of your people…and they will take care of you…and the cycle continues…
A great team will grow like a flower, engineers will blossom into managers….managers into Directors….personal and professional goals are always achieved if the team works together…more flowers (or oppurtunities) are grown…managers should look out for their employees growth…if not then see “Good Managers”
The team is the key to growth…so therefore every one should be striving for their and the team (along with fellow team mates) success…If the team concept is not stressed, followed and led then we are individuals…pety differences can spawn disent, thus crushing the team…
That leads to the addage of “of course there is no “I” in team…but there is a “ME”….
But as my saying goes 1 person is lonely, 2 people are a couple and 3 or more are a team…A team can accomplish more then the individual simply based on the individual has to sleep or gets sick and definitely does not have all of the answers…the individual spirt and creativity applied by several people on 1 team outpaces 100 individuals…try it.
Lizru says
What to do before you quit your job:
– get caught up on all your medical stuff while you still have insurance
– pay off credit cards if you can
– pay off your car if you can
When you quit:
– Quit nicely. Your last employer may be your first client.
– Tell the folks you worked with that you really appreciated how great they are. Nobody ever tells them this. It’s a great way to leave a company.
– BE SURE to have an email address and cell phone where people can reach you. Send this out to all your buddies before you leave.
Alice says
When you quit from a company do it more than nicely, do it respectfully – maybe in your career ascension you will work again in another position at that company.Maybe there will be the same CEO when you left and if you make a good impression to him – the distance between you and the company will be bisection.
Jacqueline Boss says
I think the main reason so many people stay in their jobs is fear. That and partly the fact that they just don’t know the alternatives. So I just started a blog to try to get the word out and help people realize that there are alternatives to employment. Here is a post I wrote on the same topic:the top 8 reason to quit your job.
MadMooby says
Lizru……very good advice on the medical thing. And minimzing debt before leaving, if possible (!!) is really important and will really limit the stress level of starting over in a new place.
Will says
I totally agree that “you are the only person that cares about your personal growth,” maybe some people have another couple of friends or family members who genuinely want you to succeed, but of course you’re the only one who can push yourself. Like Richard Branson says “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Will