Should I quit my job without another one lined up

Scorpio33

The other thing is that I can see how much this job is affecting my home life. I want my wife and kids to have a happy me and someone they can enjoy being around - that is just not happening at the moment.

Flyonthewall

Scorpio33 wrote: »

I'd love to take a lower salaried job with less stress, but this is not a long term solution. Also, I find those roles I can't get as I have too much experience and employers think that I would be bored and wanting to move onto something better quickly.

Are their things you can do for that to be a possibility? You risk making yourself long term employed which would be far worse financially than a lower salary.

There are numerous money saving ideas on these forums.

As for the employers, you need to persuade them that won't be the case.

Doshwaster

As long as you can afford to do it a "career break" can do you the world of good. I took 2 months off over the summer between jobs which was the first time I'd had more than 2 week off works in almost 20 years. I took a proper holiday, did some work on the house and garden, watched a lot of the Olympics and generally caught up with my life.

sangie595

Whether your partner supports quitting or not, I cannot believe that someone with two young children is willing to walk away from a well paid job and risk everything when they have family responsibilities. There should be no reason why a "deadline" of running out of money would improve your job-seeking skills or your luck. If taking a lower paid job isn't a long-term solution, what solution do you think the dole is? That is very "low paid" and it could be for a very long time.

steampowered

I think it depends on the job market for your line of work and how confident you are in getting another role quickly. If you are confident of getting another job within the 7 months jobs I would just resign.

3 months is quite a long time to find another job. I also had a 3 month notice period and moved jobs recently. I didn't resign until I had another job lined up and, to be honest with you, I wish I had just resigned earlier. Although to be fair I don't have kids.

To be honest, if you are a qualified professional, moving jobs may be pretty easy, especially if you are in London. I had no problem moving from my professional job to a similar one. You may be able to speak with a headhunter who will be able to give you an idea of how long it usually takes to place candidates.

ThemeOne

I sympathise, because I have always resigned first and then looked for a job. But I didn't have children and a partner to support, and I wasn't resigning from a 50K job.

My reasoning was, however, that I found working in a job I disliked so draining that I didn't have the energy for much job searching all the while it continued. I found that once I resigned I had more time, energy and was in a much more positive state of mind.

The catch of course is that if you resign and nothing comes along fairly soon, being out of work can sap that new-found positive feeling and you're almost back to square one mentally.

I usually used to do temporary agency work until something permanent came up - thus side-stepping the unemployment blues and also avoiding too many questions about why you resigned. However, from your post I get the feeling you're a bit too senior to be looking at "temping", though it might not hurt to have an informal word with an agency in your field of work to see if they could keep you busy, or not, with temporary work.

You will probably have to be very flexible with the kind of jobs you consider anyway - it could even be an opportunity to get into a completely different line of work.

daytona0

As your pay goes up, so does your level of responsibility and the greater your importance is (or so the theory goes!).

I think you should keep that in mind, as you've got to work harder than others and have more intelligence to justify the wage you are on. None of the things being asked of you, in my opinion, are unreasonable on a 50k/year "manager" job

I think you should also be giving equal consideration to the fact that you will *probably* end up on less money if you quit. Could you afford to support the family on that?

Sncjw

It will look questionable as time goes on when companies look at your cv and notice the gap in employment and the job application.

TBagpuss

Could you give yourself a deadline without resigning right now? For instance , talk to your partner, and agree that you will resign in (say) 3 months time.

knowing that you have that deadline might well help you because you'd know that there was an end in sight, and it could help motivate you to proceed with a really focused job search.


Use that period to get your finances in the best possible shape, look at budgeting to stretch your savings, consider with your partner whether they might be able to increase their earnings, whether as a family you could downsize or reduce outgoings etc.

Take some time to identify specific issues and how they could be improved, to take into account when you are looking at new jobs.

I did once get to a point where I was planning to resign without a job to go to, as the situation I was in was making me ill, BUT at that time I was single with no dependents. As things turned out, I was offered a job just before I got to the point of walking out, but I can understand the feeling.

I would also suggest that you talk to your GP. They may be able to offer help with managing the stress.

As part of the issue is feeling that you are out of your depth, are there any specific courses you could do? Either independently or by asking your employers to fund it?

purplegrape

I've just given notice on a job that's made me mentally and physically ill overthe past year for a range of reasons, so I very much sympathise with your situation.

I've nothing to go to, but I am really keen to find a new career path. My plan is to temp like TBagpuss mentioned to keep funds flowing (I wish I'd been clever enough to build up 4 months of savings!) and also to give me space to apply for new jobs with more energy.

Given your fears and need to have a bit of confidence building, have you approached any recruitment agencies that might specialise in your area of finance? They're usually very keen to get their commission and find roles that will match your interests and skills. I've seen this work extremely well with quite a few of my friends and colleagues.

The other thing might be to consider if there are other roles in your current employer you could explore. It can be easier to make a switch internally and have a chat with the potential line manager about opportunities.

Good luck - you deserve to feel so much more positive about your work life.