When is the best time to change jobs?

A. When the unemployment rate goes down?
B. When your company starts downsizing?
C. As soon as humanly possible?
D. When you’re finally fed up?

All of the above are wrong.

A is out of your control, so you could be waiting a very long time.

By the time B starts happening, it’s probably too late. You can wait to get fired and take the severance, but the stigma of being “unemployed” is one of the hardest to overcome during a job hunt no matter how great you are.

C might mean jumping from the frying pan to the fire. Just because a new opportunity presents itself doesn’t mean it’s the best one for you. You may change jobs and then find yourself in the same situation 3-6 months later at a new company—external circumstances have changed, by your internal feeling of being frustrated and confused hasn’t.

D is usually when the desire to leave peaks for most people. Perhaps their boss blew up at them and pushed them over the edge. Or they got passed over for a promotion for the third time in a row. Or they came off of a busy season and got absolutely no verbal or financial recognition for the long hours and extra effort.

When do college athletes go pro?

Let’s look to sports for the answer to our question. When does a college athlete decide to enter the draft?

A. When they are a senior.
B. When they’ve had a terrible season.
C. When they’ve had a great season.

The answer is C. NCAA athletes usually go pro at a peak in performance regardless if they are a senior or not (with a few exceptions like Andrew Luck). If they had a lot of hype, but a bad season, they tend to wait until next season to prove themselves.

Why?

Because when you change careers at the peak of your performance, you capture the most value in terms of pay in the next place. If you try to change careers when your performance is low, your prospects won’t be as great.

Now back to your career…

D, when you’re finally fed up, is the worst place to try to change jobs from for several reasons:

1. It’s Shortsighted: While it may feel good in the moment to get over on your employer through low performance, doing the bare minimum, procrastinating, winging it in meetings, taking long lunch breaks, leaving early, spending hours on social media at work, or answering personal emails, it doesn’t serve you in the long-run. At the end of the day, it only hurts you and your career and traps you in a company or career that you no longer desire. High performance is always the most powerful place from which to change a career. When we see celebrities expand their brands and businesses, it begins by engaging in high performance and excellence in one space and then parlaying that excellence and reputation into another idea or industry.
2. No Recent Results: When we start a job, we do our best to impress. But after the honeymoon period ends and the realities of that profession and culture set in, our performance goes down. We start doing just enough to not get noticed. Over time this way of being catches up to us because we can’t point to any recent results that we’ve created for our company, clients, or colleagues. All of our resume bullets refer to events from the first year or two of the job. There are no new ones because we stopped trying after that. So now, when the interviewer asks you “What is your most recent success?” you regurgitate your job description and responsibilities like “I managed a team of 8 and a $1.2 million dollar budget,” but fail to state any real results like “I developed a strategy that led to a 23% increase in annual revenues.”
3. Low Negative Energy: By the time you get to D, your energy towards your job is pretty negative. While that energy may be directed toward your current employer it spills over into other areas of your life such as marriages, friendships, and frankly anyone you meet. Body language is a huge part of communication, so no matter how big you smile in interviews, potential new employers will sense your low energy level, especially when they ask you “Why are you leaving your current employer?” Nobody wants to hire someone who is in this place, just like nobody wants to date a person who just got out of a bad relationship. People on the rebound tend to look for a quick escape, not a long-term relationship.

Ask yourself, would you want to hire someone on the rebound who hasn’t proven themselves in awhile? Or would you rather hire someone who recently did something pretty awesome?

As an entrepreneur, I will take someone who has demonstrated success recently any day. Given that, if you are seeking to change jobs, but you hate your current job and your performance is getting worse and worse by the day, I challenge you to do something noteworthy.

An amazing recent result will be your easiest way out though it may require some hard work. The alternative is hoping that a new employer that you’ve never worked with sees how great your were (past tense) and wants hire you based on old accolades. Good luck with that.

Your current job is not your worst enemy—it’s the greatest asset you have in changing jobs. It’s is the only platform you have and you can either sink on that platform or use it as your launch pad for success. The choice is yours.

Wishing you more happy hours,