Ready to Embrace a New Role, 5 Ways I Knew to Ditch the Old One
Who knew an innocent comment could lead to an introspective spiral…
Story Time!
Okay, recently, I was having a conversation with a mentor of mine at work.
I’ve honestly been a mess thinking about work lately. I’ve always been a person that doesn’t really shy away from a challenge. I also usually know where I’m headed career-wise.
Now, I don’t mean the juvenile, “You won’t jump off of that cliff” or things that aren’t realistic. I mean I like an intellectual or physical challenge every once in a while. Working on a cool project, doing a 30-day yoga challenge.
I love being challenged. I love growing. I love learning new things.
So, back to the conversation I was having. I’ve been teetering back and forth.
Wondering what I should be looking to do with my career.
Should I be looking to make as much money as possible no matter what the job is? Eh, probably not, that’s not sustainable and I’d be miserable. Should I just look for challenging and compelling work at the risk of less pay or instability?
That’s not really like me either.
Luckily, I feel like I have mentors who know me better than I know myself sometimes.
One of them was asking how I was doing in a new-ish role. A stray comment that wasn’t really malicious rang a little loud to me.
“You seem like you’re getting really comfortable in your role.”
See usually this would be a throwaway comment. Not that they didn’t believe in me. More so that, I just got this role a year ago. This was supposed to be a challenging leap, not something that I’d be able to “handle” after a year.
I tried to brush it off but for some reason, it really bothered me.
This was my first reason. I was comfortable, very comfortable. This was a strong one but, the few that followed were just as powerful.
* If you don’t have time for a story, I’ll hook you up with the reasons here!
Can We Have A Chat?
I wouldn’t say that I’m a shy person by any means. If I have to speak to someone I’m unfamiliar with I try to find common ground and have a conversation.
One thing that I take advantage of at IBM is that we have a ton of intelligent people around.
Something that I personally believe in is that a great way to figure out how to do something is by asking someone who already knows.
The pairing of these 2 things has allowed me to have amazing conversations with some really insightful people.
So… I started asking all of them the same question.
When did you know it was time to leave? For a new job or a new role?
Now, you’re probably thinking what a wild thing to go asking people at work.
As if it wasn’t bold enough I asked my manager too 😂
(I ask the tough questions so you don’t have to 😉)
This got a number of responses. Some of the ones that hit a little differently sounded like these.
“Sometimes it’s because of a life change, sometimes it’s because you need a challenge, sometimes it’s for pay. Figure out why you’re asking and you’ll probably have your answer.”
“You’ll know it when you have a lot of free time all of a sudden. Or a lack there of”
“You don’t have that spark coming to work, you have nothing to get excited for.”
And then these two were my personal favorites.
“The fact that you have to ask means it might be time…”
“I’m not telling you you have to, but I think you should leave your role.”
Easy enough, I think it might be time.
Are you sure?
I’ve known I needed a change for a while to be honest. The fire that at one point was a massive roaring flame was kind of getting by as a little ember.
I was going through the motions and was just so efficient that others could see I’d gotten past the challenges I thought that I’d have. Where I thought they were in front of me, I had actually blown by them.
It took me a little time to pull together all of my reasons to switch.
Let's pull it all together for you!
- I was really comfortable in my “new” role. — Now there’s nothing wrong with being comfortable. For a lot of people that’s the goal. If you’re looking to grow, comfort is complacency.
- I wasn’t really passionate about anything that I was working on. — If you’re gonna be subjected to working for 45 years of your life it can at least be something that you’re interested in 😅 Indifference isn’t good here.
- People close to you can see something is off. — This one depends on your relationships with other people. If you have good confidants ask if you can vent. You might find out a lot about yourself.
- I couldn’t give a firm path for my career from that point forward. — I didn’t know where my career would go from that point. I didn’t feel like I was exponentially growing in my role anymore. I didn’t have to jump into new territories to learn and stay ahead.
- I was going through the motions. — This one may have been the worst of all. I wasn’t in control. I woke up. Went to work. Came home. Then just tried to muster up enough rest to do it all the next day. That’s not a life I want to live. We needed a change.
Where do we go from here? Well, I'm not 100% sure. For now, I have a new role to look forward to. That’s exciting enough for now!
For you, go have a chat with someone you trust and see if you run into any of these signs.
If you do. It might be time for a change for you too.
I hope that you enjoyed this article! If you did please hold down the applause button as long as you can 👏🏽 (Really! Hold it! 😉)! Leave a comment to let me know your thoughts! Share with a friend or colleague! If you’d like to hear more from me please follow! Finally, please buy me a beer to keep me motivated! It all means the world to me! Cheers!
Check out another one of my articles if you have the time!