Some people get lucky enough to figure out what they want to do for money very early in life. They might have a shining ideal of what job they want and the path they can take to get there. This doesn’t happen for everyone, though.
Others spend many years trying to figure out what they want to do. In the meantime, they might take the first job that’s available to them to make ends meet. If they find that they have an aptitude for the work they’re doing, they might move in that direction for convenience.
However you got into your current job and career, though, a time might arrive when you feel like you want to make a change. There are several reasons why you may make this decision. Let us talk about some of the more common ones right now.
You Feel There is a Lot of Discrimination in Your Career
There are entities like the EEOC and California’s DFEH that try to prevent employee discrimination. These organizations are crucial since they can be all that stands up to companies if they try to fire employees unjustly.
Whether you have these entities backing you or not, a time might come when you feel like you no longer want to be in a particular field because it is not friendly to you. It might not welcome you because of your gender, race, sexuality, religion, or for some other reason.
It’s illegal to fire someone or not to hire them because of the reasons we mentioned, but just because it’s illegal, that does not change an entire industry’s attitude sometimes. If you’re dealing with daily comments from coworkers, exclusionary tactics, and so forth, that kind of behavior can wear you down as the months and years roll by.
You might simply feel like you can’t deal with it anymore, and changing from one company to another won’t fix the problem. You could decide to pursue another career path entirely. Maybe this exclusionary mindset will not exist in another field.
You Have an Opportunity Elsewhere
You may work for a company for many years, and you like it there. You might reach a certain place, though, or a particular position, and you don’t think that you can ever advance any higher than where you are.
It’s not always easy to admit that to yourself. Maybe you like your boss and coworkers, but you know that if you stay there, you will never make any more money than what you’re getting right now, and you will not attain any more prestige, either.
If that’s happening, and another company offers you a job, you could decide to go with them. You might decide it’s the best move for your family because of the additional money you can make, and it’s the right move for you because of the new job title you can enjoy.
You’re Tired of Your Career Path
You might decide to go with another job or an entirely different career path because you’ve been doing the same thing for a very long time. Maybe you have worked doing essentially the same thing for multiple years. If you love it, that might be enough for you, but if the passion is not there like it used to be, that might be the impetus you need to quit and look into other options.
Your career can plateau if you’re not careful. When it does, you might find that you’re in a place where you feel happy, or you may find that you are not as content as you always thought you would be.
If you feel like you’re not fulfilled in your current job, and other opportunities may fit you better, you might make the bold decision to move on. Doing so might shake up the status quo, but that might turn out to be just what you need.
You Might Want to Move to Another Location Geographically
You might have a certain job because of where you live. You may stay at that job for years because you’ve decided to remain in that same city or state. Maybe you have lots of friends and family members there, so that’s part of what you like about your current situation.
Maybe your feelings about that city or state change as time passes, though. Perhaps you don’t like that place anymore because you feel like it has changed politically. Maybe some of your relatives die or move away.
You might have a falling out with your friends. There are so many different reasons why your feelings toward a particular geographic location can change.
If it does happen, though, you might find that staying where you are for a particular job no longer makes sense. If you feel confident that you can get a comparable or even a better job if you move away, you might decide your position is not a strong enough motivator to make you stay where you are.
You Might Leave for a Relationship
Maybe you have a job that you like, but you get into a relationship with someone who either lives elsewhere, or else they live where you are, but then they decide to move. If you reach that point where you feel like you care about an individual more than you care about your job or anything else in your life, that might be the incentive you need to leave.
A relationship can change everything about your life, and that can certainly include your job. If you weigh the job versus the relationship and the latter wins, you will probably do all you can to be with that person. If they say they want to move and try their luck elsewhere, and they ask you to go along with them, your job might become collateral damage.
Remember that your job and career matter, but there are sometimes other elements in your life that matter more.