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Is it time for a career change?

​People look for new jobs for many different reasons; some job hunts are necessitated by life transitions, while in other cases people are looking for new opportunities or are ready for a whole career shift. These motivations are often a result of long-term considerations, not snap decisions. It’s a bit different however for people who are experiencing issues at work, and after a particularly bad day decide to hunt for a new job. In this instance, it’s less about finding a new opportunity, and more about getting away from a negative situation.

It’s important to remember that discontent in your current position isn’t always an all-or-nothing situation i.e. I stay and be miserable or I get a new job. It’s perfectly possible to scope out the options available to you as you weigh up your current job, and we encourage people who are in this position to come and speak to us. It reduces a lot of stress for individuals when they are fully aware of the process involved with leaving their current position and getting a new one.

Making a decision with all the facts upfront is important in the current, employee-centred job market. Employers are actively seeking people and as soon as your CV goes out, you could be surprised by how quickly you’re contacted for an interview – you may even end up with an offer within a week! Individuals who come to us after a negative few days or weeks at work may not be aware of just how rapid the process can be from the initial application, to having to make a hard and fast decision between the familiar and the unknown. That said, recruitment agencies can slow down the pace for candidates – but equally, we don’t want people to miss great opportunities!

We’ve frequently seen people being offered a new position only to receive a counter offer from their current employer in a bid to make them stay. This is a familiar response to losing a trained, valued employee in a tight employee market. Whether employees experience greater job satisfaction or a renewed sense of being valued after this counter-offer is difficult to gauge – as human beings though, we often choose the familiar over the unknown. When it comes to the crunch, people can find it very difficult to make the tough decision between staying with the people they know and have worked with and a completely new prospect, even if the new opportunity would be better for them.

Those who aren’t 100% committed to finding a new job can be easily swayed by their current employees’ counter-offers. This is why it’s so important for employees to really think about what they want – and what their criteria for employment are – so they won’t make snap decisions based on what’s the easiest option, but rather make the right decision for themselves.

The prospect of beginning again can be a daunting, yet exciting one– fitting into a new culture, building up new relationships with colleagues and leaving the comforts of what you know. However, if you go into the job-hunting process aware of this, but also aware of what it is you really want from your career, the experience is more likely to be a positive one.

It’s a delicate balancing act. We spend most of our waking hours at work – and in an ideal world, nobody should be spending that time doing something that makes them unhappy. Our motto here after all is ‘love what you do’ – we’re passionate about ensuring people are placed in the right position for them. Too often people put up with jobs they don’t like because of fear of the unknown. All rewards come with risk, but we can help you to reduce those risks by giving you the full picture of what a job search entails – so you never miss the best opportunity for you, even if that means staying put!