When is the Right Time to Leave?

I need to get one thing out of the way first. #thegreatresignation is not a reason for you to leave and neither is seeing colleagues or friends leaving.

Your job, your career, your decision if, and when to leave.

In approaching the question, I recommend my clients look at both their current role and their career to date, and make an assessment of each of the following:

Sponsorship

If you have a mentor or sponsor who is working to move your career forward or you know that your boss or organisation has plans for you, you need to factor this in when assessing a move.

You need to think carefully about whether the benefits you currently get and will potentially derive from sponsorship outweigh what the new role is offering.

This is also a chance to review the plans and any promises that have been made and assess the extent to which the company has been keeping its side of the bargain.

Does your understanding of what was agreed or suggested reflect the current reality? It may be time to have a conversation about those plans or promises or re-negotiate in light of current circumstances. In any event, it’s important to critically test what is on offer in your current employer.

Opportunities

If there is increased attrition in your team or organisation, there will be opportunities as people leave and succession plans are put into action.

If your company is moving towards hybrid or fully flexible working, that may present options for you that didn’t exist 18 months ago.

Consider what is likely to change (both positive and negative) in your organisation over the next six to 12 months. How could those changes benefit your career or professional growth?

A bad situation for your employer can be an opportunity to grow given the right conditions.

Long Term Goals

Look over your CV and review the goals you had for each move you made. Check to see how those moves delivered on your goals. Consider also whether your goals on joining your current role remain valid today.

This is a useful exercise even if you’re not considering a move but essential if you are. If your goals on joining have not been met, you should give some time to working out what happened. What are the reasons your goals were not achieved or went out of date? This assessment will help you frame realistic goals for the next phase of your career and the new role you’re considering.

Values

Values in terms of work are the things that are important to you in your career and day to day working life.

As such, many of your work-related values will change over time and vary according to different contexts.

So, if you’re considering a move, take a look around your team, organisation, stakeholders, sector and portfolio of work responsibilities and ask how satisfied am I in my job now?

You should consider everything you think is important. Think about pay, benefits, working conditions, stability, security, flexibility, workplace culture and opportunities for your continued growth, professionally and personally.

Then assess the potential new role and organisation using the same criteria and see where the gaps, positive and negative are.