Does this feel like the right time in your life to be changing job?

We have all had a bad day at the office.  In fact, we have all likely had bad weeks.   We all experience peaks and troughs in all jobs but is this the right time for a move.  Too much flip flopping in your career will send big red flags to future employers about your tenacity and work ethic.  No one will want to employ someone who seems to just cut and run when the landscape gets rocky.

That said, the time to move onwards and upwards by seeking a new job, new level, new company, better salary will arrive for everyone at some point.  It’s a very personal decision, and not one that can be based on a checklist.   But if you have noticed the following signs for a while now, maybe it is time to consider pastures new and it is the right time in your life to be changing job.

• Same old, same old – you aren’t being challenged

You feel and know you can do your job and do it well, but it doesn’t stretch you or utilise your ‘best skills’.  If you are wanting to do more but remain stifled by the confines of your current job, it sounds like you have outgrown the role.  Talk about how you feel with your line manager and suggest ways you can add value and go beyond your current remit.   Take the initiative to your employer and hopefully they will take note and help develop you, but if this isn’t an option or you know it simply won’t get better, cast you net wider.

• Company culture – you just don’t feel like yourself

You hesitate to speak, you don’t feel you can laugh out loud and struggle to be yourself at work, finding yourself playing alone.  Nobody likes that feeling.   If you are in a new job, then give the dust time to settle, but if the culture doesn’t improve and isolates you, it is time for a change.   Perhaps you are feeling like a small cog in a rigid structure and would feel more at ease in a small boutique.  Equally you might be sick of grinding away in a company that isn’t going anywhere and want to spread your wings into an established brand and clear career path.   Be honest and take the leap, don’t suffer.

• Different visions – your personal goals can’t be met

You have a clear vision of where you want to go and yet your boss has completely different ideas.  If what is important to you is being ignored and the path in front of you is not one you want to be on, consider getting off at the next junction

• Feeling invisible – your hard work is constantly overlooked

Are you consistently going above and beyond, adding value, smashing targets but know that all your hard work is going unnoticed?   If you have tried to bring this up with your employers and it’s fallen on deaf ears, take your brilliant self elsewhere

• The wrong tin – it’s not what was sold to me

Promised training opportunities which don’t exist?   Promised exposure to different things that aren’t materialising?   Promised promotion at six months?   And the last you heard about the promise was at the interview when the job was sold to you?  Has the job simply proved to not be the one that was sold to you?   Your employer may not realise this is the case, so it is worth sharing your feelings, but if things don’t change and you can’t get the buy in, look elsewhere where employee satisfaction is hopefully higher.

• Monday blues – dreading the working week

Everyone has a Sunday slump from time to time but if every Sunday evening is met with a sense of anxiety and dread, you need to take stock.  Don’t go to bed every Sunday with a feeling of doom and gloom, address it

So, if any of the above resonate, be the master of your own destiny.  You can take all the advice in the world about how things might get better if you stick at it, but only you will know if that is something you are willing to do.  If your gut is screaming at you to make a change, at least hear it and do some research.  The grass isn’t always greener, but the chances are it might just be.  So, if now feels like the right time in your life to change jobs, DO IT!