“Should I quit my job?” can be a difficult question to answer. You might find yourself browsing vacancies after a frustrating day, then wondering whether leaving would solve anything. Perhaps you know something needs to change, but you’re unsure whether you need a different job or a different direction altogether.
There may be plenty you value about your work, too: the people, the income, the expertise you’ve built or the flexibility it gives you.
Before deciding whether to leave, it helps to understand what isn’t working and what you would need instead. These six steps give you a way to explore that.
Step one: give yourself space to think
Career dissatisfaction often gets examined in rushed moments: on a Sunday evening, after a difficult meeting or when you’re lying awake worrying. It’s hard to think through a decision like this when you’re tired or still upset about something that happened at work.
Set aside some time when you’re less likely to be interrupted. You could write your thoughts down or talk with someone who will listen without immediately offering advice.
Start with:
- What has brought me to the point of considering leaving?
- How long have I felt this way?
- What still works well, and what has become difficult?
- What have I already tried to change?
Read back through your notes and underline anything that keeps coming up. Try to pick out two or three things you want to explore further as you work through the next steps.
Step two: work out what you want to change
Is it what you do each day that you want to change, or the circumstances you’re doing it in? You might still enjoy the work but have had enough of the workload, management or hours. Or the conditions might be perfectly reasonable, but you’re no longer interested in the work itself. Sometimes it’s both.
Ask yourself:
- If I did similar work somewhere else, what might improve?
- If my workload and working relationships improved, would I want to stay?
- Which parts of the work would I want to keep in my next role?
- What would I be relieved to stop doing?
Your priorities may also have changed. Progression, travel or responsibility might once have been appealing; now you may want more flexibility, time for family or a different kind of contribution. Or you might be ready for more responsibility, want to learn something new or need a better income.
What matters most to you now, and to what extent does your current job offer what matters to you?
Step three: notice what energises and depletes you
For a working week, make a few brief notes about the tasks and situations that make you feel interested, satisfied, frustrated or exhausted.
Be specific. Instead of writing “Tuesday was awful”, note what happened: three meetings with no clear purpose, an absorbing conversation with a client or a deadline you couldn’t realistically meet.
Consider:
- When do I become interested or absorbed in what I’m doing?
- Which tasks feel worthwhile, even when they take effort?
- Where do I feel that my skills are going unused?
- What repeatedly leaves me depleted?
Look at the circumstances as well as the task. Work you usually enjoy may feel very different when you have too much of it, too little support or no control over how you do it.
These observations are clues to investigate. They will help you describe more clearly what you want to keep and what needs to change.
Step four: take stock with a career SWOT
A career SWOT helps you organise your thinking under four headings: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
You can use it to explore your current situation and the options you’re considering.
Strengths: What skills, experience and personal qualities can you draw on? What do other people seek your help with?
Weaknesses: Where would further skills, knowledge or support help? Separate these development needs from problems such as inadequate resources or an unrealistic workload.
Opportunities: What could you explore within your current organisation or elsewhere? Consider different responsibilities, an internal move, another employer, training or a new direction.
Threats: What could make each option difficult? Include the risks of staying as things are, alongside the risks of leaving.
Write down what you know and what you still need to find out. For example, “I would have to take a substantial pay cut” might be a genuine constraint, or it might be an assumption you haven’t yet checked against actual roles.
You can find my career SWOT exercise among the free career tools on my website.
Step five: compare what could change
Review your notes and try to complete this sentence:
“The main thing I need to change is…”
Keep it plain and specific. You might write:
- “My workload leaves no room for the parts of the job I enjoy.”
- “I want to use my creative skills more often.”
- “The hours no longer work with my responsibilities at home.”
- “I’ve lost interest in the work itself.”
Then consider which options could address that problem.
Make changes within your current role
Could different responsibilities, clearer priorities, more support or a change in hours help? What would need to be agreed, and how realistic is that in your organisation?
Move to a different role or employer
Would similar work in different conditions meet your needs? Check the features that matter to you rather than assuming a new workplace will be better.
Explore a different career direction
If you want to change the work itself, what could you investigate before committing? A conversation with someone in the field, a short course or a small project could help you understand the everyday reality.
For example, imagine someone who enjoys helping customers solve problems but spends most of their week producing reports. They initially think they need to leave their profession. Looking more closely, they realise they want more direct contact with customers and less reporting.
Their next step could be to investigate roles with a different balance of responsibilities. Rather than “Do I need to leave my profession?”, the question becomes “Could I do more of the work I enjoy in a different role?”
Step six: make a plan that takes your circumstances into account
You may have invested years in building your career. Leaving can raise questions about income, identity and whether you want to start learning something new.
For each realistic option, ask:
- What income, flexibility and stability do I need?
- How would this affect my wellbeing and responsibilities outside work?
- What would I need to learn or arrange before making a move?
- What notice period or other commitments would affect the timing?
- What information am I still missing?
Giving yourself time to investigate can help, but planning to “think about it” can leave you circling the same question. Choose a next action and a date to review what you’ve learnt.
If work is affecting your health or making day-to-day life difficult, consider what support would help now, while you work out your next steps.
So, should you quit?
You may need a new job, a different career direction or changes to the role you already have. The purpose of this assessment is to help you identify what needs attention and which options are worth exploring.
If you’d like help making sense of your options, book a free consultation. We can talk about your situation and whether coaching would be useful.
