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  • #2322128

    When is it time to move on?

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    by debate ·

    Tell us what you think about deciding when to turn down a promotion or raise and start looking for a new position, as featured in Thursday’s Career Advice e-newsletter. Have you ever accepted a raise when you knew it would be better to move on? Whatdo you do when you feel like you’re wasting your time in your current job?

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    • #3416875

      What do you do?

      by tom.long ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      Run……..quickly.

      • #3416452

        Explain it to me again please

        by ksscout ·

        In reply to What do you do?

        If you are settled in the community, happy with the lifestyle, found a good church etc. why is it so bad to accept a counter offer? I am missing the point somewhere along the way. Please explain it to me.

    • #3416497

      Money doesn’t solve the issue….

      by sheilau ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      Have had positions before where the money was great but the company/job was horrible. I took a significant cut in pay to accept my new job over my previous one, and I’ve never been happier. Sometimes, you have to look past the money and do an inventory on your life. If you’re miserable, more money isn’t going to fix it.

    • #3416481

      quit whining

      by itguy ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      I am an IT Project and business manager. I have come up through the ranks and hold MCSE and MCP+I as well as security and Novell certs. I was laid off last October and cant “buy” a job. (Midwest is worse than other areas). Quit whining about having nothing to do. You are at least employed.

      ITGuy

      • #3415482

        It seems you are Whining

        by fluxit ·

        In reply to quit whining

        The debator asked a legitimate question. Your response was more like whining. I imagine you will have a job as soon as your unemployment expires. Imagine that! Perhaps you ought to try Florida where 911 devastated the tourism industry. There are no IT jobs here either.

    • #3416451

      When it no longer fits your needs

      by maxwell edison ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      When you no longer feel fulfilled, challenged, or otherwise satisfied with the way you’re spending your time on the job, then it’s time to move on to other things. Money should not be the determining factor. If one were to ask the questions, “Whatdo I want out of my job?” and “What do I want out of my life?”, the answers to both questions should lead you in basically the same direction. If you find yourself in the circumstance where the answers take you in different directions, then it’s time to reevaluate both, change one or the other (or both), accordingly and reestablish your goals and priorities.

      I think that a lot of professions are filled with people who are basically stuck in their jobs even though it doesn’t coincide with how they’d like to live their lives. And, for a variety of reasons, there’s not a whole lot they can do about it. But the “IT profession” (and that is indeed wide in scope) affords that opportunity. I think that it’s much easier for people to have it both ways.

      Maxwell

      • #3415553

        Never take a counter offer

        by tom_linv ·

        In reply to When it no longer fits your needs

        If you have found another job and turned in your notice to your current employer, never take a counter offer. It will only lead to a bad situation later. You will wonder why you had to threaten to leave to get the raise. Your employer will feel like he was black-mailed into giving it to you. It is better to have a clean break. Less problems in the long run for you..

      • #3415539

        Re: When it no longer fits your needs

        by kpfreelance ·

        In reply to When it no longer fits your needs

        That’s where I am right right now; I’ve got a CNE & a CCNA and I’m still stuck in a deadend 2nd tier support gig. I’ve got about 10 years experience in client/server support but no one will give me the time of day when it comes to an opportunity to work in network operations.

        • #3415522

          Don’t let anyone kid you…

          by tomsal ·

          In reply to Re: When it no longer fits your needs

          ..but luck often plays a bigger in hand in the opportunities one has than most people will admit. Most people want to sound like they are super talented or gifted and they are “the ONE” kind of deal when they talk about how they got that great job they have. “Because I’m just that good….yadda yadda”….

          Now before you (or anyone reading this) gets the wrong impression here- Hard work and determination has an ENORMOUS impact on swaying things into your favor. None the less though, I don’t believe I’m some gifted person or even some very smart person just because I know how to run a few software packages, configure routers and administer a network, etc. – it’s just stuff I do because we all have to work to pay our way in life so we needto do something we enjoy doing. That’s all it is.

          I know several people in the IT field (in the “real world” and the “online world”) and a good bit of their stories of how they landed jobs varies from hitting job fairs and mailing resumes relentlessly to networking (the social kind) with family and friends. I myself landed my current job from just networking with family and friends. The power of “my friend know’s this guy who’s dad is the VP of SOMEREALLYBIGCOMPANY, Inc….” is tremendous.
          I don’t believe anyone is better than me – and no one should believe that. Rather I admit that the people who know more than me or have greater skills than me – they worked harder than I do and are more dedicated than I at it.

          I doubt this little bit will help you any, but just letting you know….

          DON’T GIVE UP!!!

          good luck.

        • #3415487

          honesty finally

          by qba98 ·

          In reply to Don’t let anyone kid you…

          TomSal speaks truths that most people’s ego just won’t let them admit–not even to themselves.

          The fact is people get breaks all the time. Sometimes they get breaks for looking a certain way, knowing a certain person, or just lucking up and being at the right place at the right time.

          Truth be told, I?ve won wrestling titles largely because of the brackets at the tournament, or my opponent made a stupid mistake. I wasn?t so great. The job market is the same way.

          I?ve seen people with resumes so good it would make a grown man cry, and yet they can?t even get an interview. Meanwhile, some halfwit who will stay out of the way and satisfies the warm body requirement gets hired. I?ve seen it done, first hand

          One day your skills are in demand, the next day people won?t return you phone calls. It comes and it goes.

          Think about this:
          If Bill Gates were to die today, the world would continue without skipping a beat, believe it. And he runs one of the most powerful companies on the planet! What do you do?

        • #3415793

          My Experience

          by microtechcomputer ·

          In reply to honesty finally

          I worked at a company for 10 years and couldn’t get a decent raise to save my a$$. One day I walked in and quit on the spot and went to work for myself the next day. I have never regreted it and would never go back. I have more work than I can handle and it was all from word of mouth. I don’t have any certifications but then again who needs em if I am the boss. Clients really don’t don’t care if you can do the work at a fair price.

    • #3415480

      Work to Live

      by fluxit ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      There are two philosophies.

      Live-to-work is a poor choice because it is unfulfilling and you miss out on life. Just look at all the books out on devastated lives that realized their poor ways and turned thier lives around. Dr Phil is one amongstmany others.

      Working-to-live is desirable because you decide what lifestyle you desire today and in the future. Then you balance your efforts to achieve that deliberate goal.

      When your job no longer meets your goals or diverges from what you thought it was then its time to go. Many times after 6 mos on a new job thing change and you need to re-evaluate your directions.

      Once I was offered a opportunity to build a consulting practice. I jumped at the opportunity worked hard for about 1 year. I got a $5k payraise and a $5k bonus but two months later I was in a downward spiral.

      The owners decided to change course. All opportunity dried up. My moral went down the tubes and I began looking. Eventhough they urged me to stay before leaving.

      I still have my dreams but I am working towrd them in other ways.

    • #3415464

      Wasted 8 months?!?!?!?!

      by alexwva ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      I thought Nicks’ response was way off base. Here is a guy who says he wasted 8 months of his life waiting for his company to get into e-commerce. My question for him is in that 8 months what did you do to help out the company? Did you re-invent yourself and learn other programs or did you just sit there waiting? That is the mark of a good IT tech is to continue evolving and learn new programs. Let me ask this: did you do your research and explore for programs or solutions that may help the company in their current situation? At last check, that’s what you got paid for. If you’re not happy with that job, practice this line for your next job; “Would you like fries with that?”

      ….and so it goes!

    • #3415816

      Turned It Down

      by nevadatech ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      Several years ago I was frustrated with the prospects of the future with my employer after 7 years of my best efforts. I secured a better opportunity with another firm and resigned. The new job was in another state necessitating relocation. I wasextended a counter-offer that included a promotion and salary increase. It was tempting as I had a nice house, liked where I lived, had a son in school and my wife had a good job. It would have been so easy to accept the counter-offer, but I thought, “What will I have to do to get the next raise or promotion?” I turned down the counter-offer and moved on. A few years later my former employer emploded and is no longer in existance. Lesson learned: Don’t look back.

    • #3415782

      Wasting Time.

      by admin ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      In “deciding when to turn down a promotion or raise and start looking for a new position” I would say DO BOTH! Take the promotion AND look for a new position.

      Also, never waste your time or your career. It’s MY time I’m spending, no one elses. Just because they pay you to do things, it doesn’t mean they own you. If your personal mission is at odds with the people who pay you, find something else.

      BTW…. I agree with TomSal above. Keep trying no matter what. If you keep getting back up you’ll eventually get a good break and get what you want, or at least you will, as the Stones said so many years ago, get what you need. (but keep going after what you want!)

    • #3415757

      Mental Energy Drain

      by generalist ·

      In reply to When is it time to move on?

      I’d say that the time to get up and leave is when the job starts to create a mental energy drain.

      If your job has reached the point that it no longer gives you a mental boost, you need to start looking for a change even if you’re getting raises and/or promotions.

      And if your job starts draining you, look for something else immediately and bail out ASAP.

      If the organization is large enough or flexible enough, ‘bailing out’ could be accepting a lateral transfer. And if a raise or promotion is offered, consider converting it to a transfer if you like the organization but find your current job draining.

      At the same time, if the organization is mentally draining, look elsewhere, even if jobs are sparse. That drain may be affectingyour home life.

      As an example, about twenty years ago I got laid off from a company that had done several rounds of layoffs. My wife noticed that I was a lot more cheerful after I got laid off.

      • #3403370

        Your Situation Matters

        by wtbfocussed ·

        In reply to Mental Energy Drain

        Everyone’s situation is different. There are different variables at work in each person’s life so of course each will be handling this topic through their own perceptual glasses.

        I would personally love to be working right now. When I am working, no job is too small for me. I have worked with IT personnel who only want to do the jobs that would make them look good. They are not thinking about the company as a whole.

        Unless you are extremely experienced and can start your own companyany day, I do not see any point in whining. You have to try to do something positive to contribute to the company’s growth.

        On the other hand some companies don’t know how empower their workers; the employees are just another asset, and that isvery bad. Don’t worry these companies usually end up at the bottom of the rung.

        Once you can do your job and make a valuable contribution, I would encourage anyone to stick it out until they can find a more rewarding job and do so while they are still employed.

        It is not a good feeling to quit without a job or to be in the market looking for work. It is certainly not an image booster

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