Is There More Risk In Staying At Your Current Job Rather Than Quitting It?

It always surprises me when I speak to people who are considering their employment alternatives.  The gravity, which holds them in place, is weighty.  Changing jobs or even careers is venturing into the unknown. 

My belief is that talented people are often trapped in situations that don’t make good use of their talents.  The gravity that holds them in place was born of the industrial age.  You remember, the age our parents lived in.  the one where the father went to work and held down the same job for the same company for an entire career. 

Technology has allowed talent to become a more dominate market force.  Longevity and loyalty count for little when considering employment prospects.  This is great news for the silently repressed masses of talented people. 

But talented people have to be willing to step up to the plate to.  Too many talented people feel stuck in their jobs.  They think the risk of leaving is great and the risk of staying is small.

There is risk in staying.  There is tremendous risk.  When you stay in a job that does not utilize and appreciate your talents, you risk living an entire life unfulfilled.  You risk the prospect of failing to fulfill your potential and, in some cases, your destiny.  You risk sending the wrong messages to your family and children about what is important.  Many fail to realize that the information age has already turned the marketplace upside down.  The risks associated with jumping off the cliff has become dramatically less.  The risk of staying put in the wrong job has become much greater. 

Comments

[Aaron]

The two biggest hurdles for lawyers who feel 'stuck', particularly at big firms, seem to be prestige and money. Had I been interested in chasing either of those when I finished law school, I would have nowhere near the quality of relationship I currently have with my daughter. If it matters, there's a substantial chance that I would also be making less money. There's a 100% chance I would be working more hours.

I am reluctant to add that I'm not supporting myself by doing the type of work that is most fun for big firm lawyers to believe beneath their dignity, as I don't want to reinforce that particular mindset. I state that only to emphasize that you can do quite well as a lawyer without doing anything you consider, for whatever reasons, to be distasteful. You can even do well without doing anything that resembles traditional legal practice. Sure, it can take a while to get established, but to me it's more than worth it.

If you can't overcome the idea that you will "lose prestige" if you quit a big firm to work in a job that will in the long-run (and perhaps in the short-run) be a much better fit, I leave you with the words of (fictional) psychiatrist Niles Crane: "I like lawyers. They have great health insurance and they never get better."