Sunday, April 11, 2010

Dos & Don'ts while job change

One of the most disturbing element of your otherwise peaceful work life is the news that some colleague of yours is leaving the present organization with a hike of X%.Suddenly a whole list of dissatisfaction from nowhere starts floating in front of your eyes and you loose your mental peace. The more is that percentage hike figure, the more you loose your good night sleep. Changing a job becomes your prestige issue. There is nothing wrong in changing a job, but if there is not enough reason to leave your present job & if you have not thought well about your future job, you will be in further mess & if you continue this for 2-3 times, you will soon find yourself in no man's land where every road in front of you seems to be blocked. So this is what I feel every one specially the young ones MUST do & MUST NOT do before changing your present job.

Dos #1: Ask yourself what would be the exit criteria for your next job that you are considering taking upon.I was simply stunned when I was asked the same!! We become so obsessed with the excitement of leaving our present job and going to a new place, we hardly try to see a little further. If the exit criteria for my present job is as same as that of my next job, it is of equal probability that it would be the same for my next to next job,too.And if we keep on this job hopping, the reason could be either we are escapist, or we don't know what we want or we just want to have short cut always.But irrespective of the reason, there is only one outcome and you will simply find yourself lost.

Dos #2: List down what all is causing pain in your present job, what you did to rectify them and what you are looking from your next job.Believe me, there is a difference between thoughts roaming around our minds and penning them down.Only when you write them, you will find many of the obvious issues you thought is actually no longer an issue, it was just one of your random thoughts. When you are completely sure that there was nothing more you could have tried to solve the existing issues, then only you should look for a new job, otherwise mostly the problem is with you.

Dos #3: Always have a plan for your career and if it is not for your entire career, it should at least be for the next 3/5 years. And you will change your job only if it is aligned with your master plan.Some time people change jobs with the intention of changing again within 1-2 years, nothing wrong if it helps you reaching closer to your target, otherwise just changing the job for whatever reason without any plan will not lead you anywhere.

Dos #4: Remember the golder rule "You will not get everything".So, be prepared for surprises in your next job. Other than your pay cheque, there are lot of other aspects in your present job, which has intangible value but we just don't realize them because they don't reflect in our pay slip. Don't get yourself disheartened if you miss any of them in your next job. You get some, you loose some, that's the way it is.

Dos #5: Think of this.To take a big leap forward, it helps if you first take few steps backward and then jump in stead of jumping from the same place.This is so true in life as well. If you need to sacrifice here and there while changing your job, it is fine as long as it helps you reaching the target as per your plan. Don't try to get everything.Every individual is different, give weightage to what is important to you and if you get them, go for the change.

This post is already long enough, so I would talk about the DONTs in my next post.

P.S. The above Dos are in no particular order. My sincere thanks to all those people from whom I have learned whatever I am talking here otherwise neither I have enough professional experience to be seasoned nor I am formally educated on this subject.

P.P.S. This is my first post after almost 6 months.When you have a jam packed work schedule and a new born baby at home, I guess you hardly have time to even breathe:)

17 comments:

  1. Only yesterday i was thinking that you are not posting for a quite few days.

    Anyway you said it clearly.
    Post recession this job hopping is a most common scenario happening here and there.

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  2. Thanks for the post. It is really helpful for me !

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  3. A good post after the long break. Any advice for people who want to move but can never do it for x number reasons?

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  4. Welcome back Mustaf! I thought you packed your bags and left blogdom. Anyway, nice to see you back with a bang. A very insightful post I must say. And congrats, young-papa! :)

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  5. The post was worth the six-month wait.

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  6. Congratulations for your new-born..

    Welcome Back to Blogging...

    Nice post...I have shared the same with my friends..

    Aparna.

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  7. gr8 post Rehman..
    i waiting for Don't also.. very informative

    thanks

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  8. @Aliullah,

    Yeah,today the moment we have spent more than 2-3 years in an org, we start feeling something wrong with us and we must change!! This attitude itself has to be changed.

    @Abhijit,

    You are most welcome.It is my pleasure :)

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  9. @The Holy Lama,

    Thank you. Frankly I did not get your question clearly. Could you please may be rephrase it?

    @Destiny's Child,

    I would be lying if I say that the thought of packing my bag did not come into my mind. But I thought blogging helps me personally in many ways and anyway as my kid will grow up, responsibilities will only increase. So may be learn to handle them from now itself :)

    Anyway, thanks for your appreciation.

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  10. @Prashant,

    Is it so? thanks a lot.

    @Deepthi,

    Thank you sister :)

    @Kamal,

    Thank you.

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  11. @APARNA,

    Thanks for sharing it with your friends. Please share if they have any other opinion, it would help us in learning too.

    @Chanchal,

    Thank you.The Don'ts I have already posted it yesterday. Please check it and let me know how you find it.

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  12. Thanks this post..
    keep writing your blog will be more attractive. To Your Success!

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  13. Guys, I don't know how many of you are active in this space any more, as I see that lot of people I used to follow had written their last post quite a long time back. Please do share your new blog address if you are still active. As for me, I am trying to revive my blogging, also started a new blog on my son and his activities here http://chronicleoftinylittlesteps.blogspot.in/ Thanks.

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