When is the right time for a new job? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Hal Gregersen, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of Questions Are the Answer. They talk through what to do when you’re advancing in your role but itching for change, an outside job offer is making you question your current situation, or you’re considering going to a smaller organization for bigger responsibilities.
From Alison and Dan’s reading list:
HBR: Don’t Quit Your Job Before Asking Yourself These Questions by Priscilla Claman — “Is it time to quit my job? This is a question we’ve all asked ourselves at one point or another. Most people wait until they feel they must leave their job or organization, and that puts them at a disadvantage. They might end up choosing an ‘exit job’ rather than the right next career step.”
Book: Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life by Hal Gregersen — “Questions have the curious power to unlock new insights and positive behavior change in every part of our lives. They can get people unstuck and open new directions for progress no matter what they are struggling with. Reframed questions, in whatever setting, turn out to have some fundamental things in common. For one thing, they have the paradoxical quality of being utterly surprising in the moment they are asked but in retrospect seeming obvious.”
HBR: Is It Time to Quit Your Job? by Amy Gallo — “Everyone has bad days at work or even long periods when they feel disheartened about their job. But how do you know the difference between ordinary, occasional dissatisfaction and a genuine mismatch? How do you know when you’re truly ready to move on? And how do you then get out gracefully?”
HBR: Job-Hopping to the Top and Other Career Fallacies by Monika Hamori — “It’s easy to be distracted by a better title, a bigger pool of direct reports, or other trappings, so when making a switch, always consider what the next move might be and to what extent the current move will help or hinder your ability to achieve longer-term goals.”