how to know when to change jobs

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If you desire to grow your career, y'all demand to switch jobs. This doesn't have to happen externally; y'all can switch jobs inside a company many times, growing along the mode. But if you stay in ane position likewise long, you might become stagnant, lose the ability to develop new skills, or possibly fifty-fifty be perceived equally not motivated by your boss.

So, how practise you know when it's time to switch?

I hear that question all the time at Google, where I lead our Ain Your Career programme. Information technology's an endeavour designed to help Googlers increment their touch on and influence in their current roles and/or state their next role. When leading talks, someone always asks about when they should transition into a new function — which tells me that even if folks know they should switch jobs, information technology's non immediately articulate when to practise it.

There are four things you lot need to evaluate when considering a job change: Fun, Learning, Impact, and Personal life. Conveniently, that makes a relevant picayune acronym: F-50-I-P! So, permit'due south unpack it.

1. Are you having fun?

If you're skipping to work every twenty-four hour period, excited nearly your peer friendships, and a bundle of energy in team meetings as yous rattle off innovative ideas, so you lot're probably having fun. However, if yous reflect on your week and realize you haven't felt excited in a long time, and so it'due south probable that your piece of work has been suffering for a long time every bit well.

Not every minute of your workday needs to be fun — that's just impractical. But if y'all're non happy to be there, you lot won't exist motivated to succeed. Consider your final squad meeting, when a peer of yours proposed an idea to increase sales engagement past ten%. Did you want to bring together the working group right away and sink your teeth in, or did you silently scroll your eyes and remember, "We tried that and failed six quarters ago?" If the silent middle-whorl is happening, you're done with fun.

2. Are yous learning?

When you lot outset a new job, there are tons of new things to learn — new systems, new ideas, and new people. Just eventually those things dwindle, and you may not acquire every bit much on a regular footing. This is a problem: If you're not learning, information technology's fourth dimension to movement on.

How exercise you know when yous've striking that betoken? Maybe your task bores you and y'all don't see interesting new projects to work on. Perhaps you lot in one case asked questions daily, but now at that place's little left to ask. Your response to this is important. While some people take a fixed mindset, where they avoid challenges and prefer things to remain the same, successful people must develop a growth mindset — one in which they're constantly learning, viewing challenges as opportunities, and leaning into things they don't know.

If yous're not growing professionally, you're probably non getting closer to your career goals.

3. Is your Impact optimal?

The longer you are in your part, the more impact you may have through deep client relationships or subject field-matter expertise. However, but because you lot ain a space, that doesn't mean you're making an impact. In fact, it may exist the reverse: the longer you are in a role, the less touch you lot might accept.

When this is the example, your problem may exist motivation.

For example, a Google employee I've mentored for years used to come to our sessions bubbles with business organization ideas. He was new in his role and eager to prove himself. In a recent session, however, he seemed bored and indifferent to how he can influence his department's hereafter. He as well shared that his performance reviews have stagnated. Nosotros discussed if there was a link between his motivation, impact, and career growth, and he realized the reply was yes! When motivation wanes, affect tin wane. That's non good for the business, and information technology's non adept for your career.

4. What's happening in your personal life?

Loftier-achieving people often prioritize their work over their personal lives. They think that their personal lives can and should simply suit whatever their career needs. I recently posted a poll on LinkedIn about this, and, as unscientific as it was, the results were telling: I asked people to rank the factors that go into their decisions to switch roles, and "personal life" ranked last! Learning was 46%, Fun 22%, Impact xx%, and Personal Life 12%.

Simply you don't have to recollect that way. In fact, your career will thrive more over the long term if y'all do prioritize your personal life.

Overall life happiness should exist a prerequisite for any task. It saddens me when people tell me they've lost sleep over internal politics or that their friendships have suffered considering of gruelling hours and piece of work stress. Mayhap some people presume that because it's "work," it's acceptable for it to cause some unhappiness or be inherently difficult. Simply it doesn't take to be that mode. If y'all are unhappy, at that place are likely better roles out in that location for y'all.

There's aught worse than starting a new role and realizing you wasted the prior two years merely past staying two years also long. You can avoid being overdue for a task alter by challenging your Fun, Learning, Bear upon, and Personal life. That will ensure that you lot FLIP at the right time.