So you figured out that you need to leave your job and you need to leave your job now.
Great….
Congratulations….
You and about 20 percent of all other Americans want to leave their job. Here’s the thing that nobody tells you, your job is kind of like marriage, sure a divorce is the best thing for you, but you better think long and hard before getting married again, because you’ll probably marry the same type of person, and hate your life.
(if you haven’t figured out if you should leave your current job, read 5 Reasons To Leave Your Job NOW……)
Unfortunately leaving your job, unlike ending your marriage, except for all of you adulterers out there, requires you to first leave your job before trying on a new one. And therein lies the problem; most of us want to leave our jobs because we don’t like what we are doing. Yet if you ask most people who want to leave their job, “What do you want to do”, they aren’t able to answer.
Therefore all too often, people make one of two possible bad decisions after realizing that they need to find a new job. They either choose to pull a half-baked exit from their job (by leaving by dropping the mic and walking out or randomly applying to jobs and taking the first one that accepts them) or they choose to stay and be miserable.
So before you just continue doing something that you hate or risk once again being stuck in a job that you can’t stand, follow these 8 steps to ensure a successful transition to a new job.
1) Take a staycation
No not a vacation, a staycation. Take a week off and rest at home. Don’t make any plans. Don’t try to jam in a whole bunch of things to do. Just relax at home. During this time, do your best not to interact with work. This is your time to find your center and also figure out if where you live is where you are supposed to be living.
2) Make a list
Your job doesn’t completely suck. There are some things that you like about it. So make a list. On one side list everything you like about your job, on the other side list everything that you hate about your job, and in between the two write down what annoys you about your job. After you make your list go do something else. When you return come back to your list and rank everything that you put down from most to least.
3) Research different career fields
When you have finalized your list, you’re ready to begin researching different career fields. There are plenty of great sites that you can input what you like to do, and the website will output different career options. A great site to explore different career paths is www.mynextmove.org . Write down all of the careers that sound appealing to you (regardless if you think that you could get the job right now).
4) Make a pictogram
After you write down all of the careers that appeal to you, you need to figure out the steps that you will have to take to get into these career fields. The best way to fully comprehend what it’ll take is to create a pictogram (don’t worry if your best picture is a stick figure with boxes). A pictogram will help you envision the actual steps that you will need to take to get into your chosen career fields and how these steps will effect your life.
5) Make a list of your finances
List what you own. List what you have in mutual funds and in cash. List what you will have to pay to live every month (along with rent and food, make sure to give yourself some money to go out every now and then). This list will help guide your decision on when and how to move to your next career.
7) Give yourself a timeline
Set a timeline for yourself by which you will have completed all the steps required to get into your next career field and then give yourself a hard stop time by which you will leave your current job (regardless of if you have a new job or not).
8) Take a breath
After you’ve done all of this take a breath. Relax. Realize that you will have to go back to a job that you can’t stand. But be confident that you have a plan. You have goals set for yourself. You’re going to work to support what you want to do next. Make sure to continue doing a great job at work by not falling into the trap of doing the bare minimum not to be fired.