How I knew I was ready to quit my job

Over a decade ago, I was in a career I was not happy with. Everything looked great on the outside, but on the inside, I felt trapped like a hamster on a wheel. I struggled for years, staying in a job that I was miserable in, but that I stubbornly held on to. I was not yet ready to quit my job.

At the time I was keeping a journal that I wrote in every morning. “I am so unhappy at work.” I wrote, “I don’t enjoy what I am doing, but I don’t know what else I want to do instead. We are having another reorganization at work. Maybe things will finally change.”

As I was looking back through my journals, an entry that I had written 6 years before then caught my eye. “I am so unhappy at work…” it started and continued with almost the exact same words I had just written down. I felt stunned.

My mind was spinning. “How many years had I been feeling like this? And how many reorganizations had I been through that I thought would bring a magical change?

I realized that if I didn’t make a change now, I would still be sitting here 6 years from now writing the same thing. At that moment I decided that I couldn’t let that happen – I knew that I had to take action.

I am happy to say that it has been over a decade since I finally left my unhappy job situation and I am now in a career I love, helping other professionals discover and thrive in their ideal careers.

But how do you know if it is really time to leave your job?

There are 5 key signs that it may be time to leave:

1. The skills required for your work are not a fit for what you are good at.

We all have our unique set of strengths. Some people may be talented at relationship building, others at creating visions, or at creating processes or influencing others, or a combination of several strengths. Research has shown that if we don’t regularly get to use our signature strengths, we don’t feel fulfilled.

What are your signature strengths? Do you get to use them on a regular basis?

2. Your day-to-day work activities are not something you enjoy.

Just because we are good at something doesn’t mean that we enjoy it. I fell into that trap many times in my career, because I was getting the feedback that I was good at certain things and therefore encouraged to do more of it.

But the truth was, I didn’t really enjoy some of these activities. Again, if you want to be happy in your career, you need to be able to enjoy what you are doing – at least most of the time. What work activities do you most enjoy? It could be creating presentations, leading meetings, coming up with new ideas, teaching others, solving difficult problems etc. Do you get to do them in your work?

One thing to note: There will always be occasions when you have to do something as part of your job that you don’t enjoy as much. The question then becomes: Do you love your career enough to be willing to put up with those activities?

3. What you are working towards seems meaningless to you.

Just using your strengths and enjoying what you do is great – but to feel like your career is more like a vocation than a job, you also need to feel that what you are doing has a higher purpose. This is what makes a career feel deeply fulfilling.

What is meaningful to you in your work? Is it helping others grow, creating efficient systems that get things done more easily, making spaces beautiful, creating connections or something else? Are you able to find meaning and purpose in your current role?

4. Your work environment is negative

Sometimes you are in the right role where you enjoy what you are doing, but your work environment is toxic. This may be because of a manager who is not supportive, co-workers that try to sabotage you, or a work culture that is demeaning.

It’s easy to blame someone else or the environment. But it is ultimately you who gets to decide what you are willing to tolerate. You need to respect yourself enough to not allow yourself to be in an environment where you are being mistreated.

What is your current work environment like? Is your manager helping you grow, do you enjoy spending time with your co-workers and does the work culture reflect your values?

5. There is no room for advancement.

Finally, you may enjoy what you are doing right now, but there is no career path that allows you to grow further. Sometimes you may be able to create career path for yourself, even though there isn’t an official career path for your specific role.

However, if your company is simply too small or none of the other roles in the company are interesting to you, it may be time to make a change.

Can you see where your next role in your company could potentially be?  Are you excited by that possibility?

Pay attention to warning signs

In addition to the 5 specific signs we just discussed, you may see some general symptoms that will tell you that it is time to make a change. You may be dreading going in to work every day, noticing that your work is making you so stressed that you are taking it out on other people at the end of the day, or it may even be taking a more serious toll on your health.

These are all warning signs. Take a look through the 5 signs above to figure out what is missing for you in your career that makes you feel this way.

Life is too short to be unhappy at work. When will you give yourself permission to have the happy career you deserve?

Manuela loves helping mid-level professionals create a career and life they love through career exploration and leadership coaching. You can sign up here for her monthly newsletter with helpful tips and course announcements.