It’s the New Year. When is it time to change your job for the next higher one? It depends on a number of factors like: Your age. Ambition. Tenure. Prepared for new responsibilities? Are you a supervisor or individual contributor? Stay in your current industry? How much do you earn? What part of the country? And so on. There are many factors that a coach can help. But you need to make sure you’re ready to move up.
Here are some guidelines that may help you decide if you need to move on:
1. Your pleased with your progress, prospects, and doing what you like to do. That’s great. Congratulations, but you never know what the future will bring. Keep your resume updated, your skills at the cutting edge and test the market. There may be a major opportunity waiting.
2. You’re in your current job for 5 years and current company for more than 8 years. You owe it to yourself to look at the marketplace. Check out your compensation and organizational level to contemporaries, and potential opportunities where you are.
3. A new calendar or fiscal year. Usually this is a time when bonuses are paid, people seek better jobs or a new budget year opens up new positions. Take advantage of the business cycle within your industry
4. Something has changed that negatively affects you. It could be a change in your supervisor, the budget, the direction of the business or the management style above you
5. You’re a high potential performer and can do more. Sometimes your current organization doesn’t recognize talent or they have stopped their growth which hampers opportunity
6. You’re perceived as a low potential performer or your concerned. You may have had a performance review that surprised you given your contributions. Sometimes the goals changed and no one told you.
7. You have received an award from an association or completed a highly visible and successful project. High fives are in order. This gives you great visibility and accolades from your peers and “bragging rights” on your resume.
8. Miscellaneous. There are a number of things that gives you discomfort: Bosses, peers, other’s get the recognition that you should have gotten, you lack or lost your mentor, it just isn’t fun anymore, you were passed over on a recent promotion, the last pay raise was meager based on results.
There are many reasons why you need to periodically check the market. Careers, like life itself, will never stay the same for very long. It just takes one negative event to change your outlook or increase your vulnerability. While some of these events you can control, many of them are out of your control.
Be like the Boy or Girl Scouts: Be Prepared.
For a free assessment, send your resume to: wkaufmann1@cox.net
Want to discuss your career or next job? mygreenerfuture1@cox.net