How do I know if I should quit my job?

Efri · 1 min read

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The question isn't whether to leave. It's what you're leaving toward.

Because "I want out" tells you nothing. Everyone wants out sometimes. What matters is whether there's a specific thing on the other side or just the absence of this.

Things worth checking first:

Is it the job or the feeling? If you'd feel the same in a different building, you'll take it with you.

Have you actually tried to change it here? Most people quit without ever having the conversation. Sometimes the thing you want is available and nobody knew you wanted it.

Is there anything left to learn? If you can predict your next twelve months exactly, you're done here whether you leave or not.

Can you afford it? Not a small thing. Quitting with no runway turns your next job into a decision made from panic, and panic picks badly.

Quit when you've got somewhere to go, or enough runway to look properly. Quit without either and you'll take the first thing that appears, which is usually a worse version of what you left.