Should I change jobs or stay put?🤔

Five years after graduation, and I’m in my third job. Which is not too bad actually, but most of my friends are actually in their first or second job, so to them I changed jobs pretty fast. Yet my salary is still quite pathetic but that’s another story🥲

What made me decide to change jobs?

1. My contract ended. For my first job, it was never a super permanent role. It was renewed on a yearly contract basis, and at the end of my second year I decided I should look for something permanent.

2. I feel like I didn’t get job satisfaction. My second job was hectic, and I had to go around to different places in a day, working on some weekends, and I didn’t really like the direction that the company was heading. Nothing against the company, I guess this is just how the industry is, but I didn’t feel like continuing here, so I left this job after 10 months and took a break without another job lined up.

3. Now i’m on my third and current job, and I like my work and my team much better. tho the salary can be better🥲

So how to decide if you should change jobs?🤔

In my opinion,

1. When you feel like you don’t grow / learn anything new anymore🥺 For me this is quite a big thing, because we’re supposed to be growing and figuring things out while we’re in our twenties! so if you feel stagnant and bored with your job, you might want to consider moving companies or moving to another job in the same company

2. When you don’t like what you’re doing anymore🥺 It’s inevitable that senior management in a company changes over time, and your job scope might change too so you might find that your job is not what you want to be doing anymore. You don’t have to love your job, at least you should somehow like/enjoy it so that it’s not a complete dread to get up everyday. Life’s too short to be doing things you don’t like so it’s time for a change!

3. When you don’t feel appreciated🥺 This largely depends on your team dynamics too. Having a good boss and good team is so important because you can achieve more when everyone helps one another. My current supervisor lets us openly voice out our thoughts, helps us with the work, gives us credit in front of our boss, treats us lunch occasionally because we’ve worked so hard, and supports working from home (yay who doesn’t love wfh🙌🏼)

4. When your salary can’t feed you anymore🥺 We have different goals at different stages of life, maybe you have a mortgage to pay off, or you plan to have kids, but you can’t ever afford it on your current salary especially with the crazy inflation😢 If you really enjoy your job, and hope to stay in the same company but get paid more, speak to your boss about it! if this doesn’t work, you might want to try switching companies because usually they will typically give you a 10-20% pay bump when you change jobs!🤑

There’s always a risk when changing jobs, what if you don’t like your new job scope, or what if your new team dynamics is terrible, or what if you only found out the red flags after you join, etc. But these WHAT IFs shouldn’t be your only reasons to stay put in your current company! You should ONLY STAY if you like your current job, and not what if you can’t find a better job. worse case you’ll just leave your new job for another job and keep moving until you find what you want! sometimes i feel like the whole part on looking for a job / finding the perfect job / staying put or moving on etc is a bit like having a relationship😂

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