Why I thought my next job was always the best.
By: Binny Baburaj
Tags: Work Life Balance, Job Hunting, Self Improvement, Skills, Personal Growth

It’s my fifth job anniversary — counting my anniversaries one day after each contract ends — and I now see clearly why I fall into this strange thought of how my next job would be better than my current job.

There’s a really complicated job market out there, and without a clear sense of why, anyone could easily fall into this cycle of ‘heaven in the next job’.

I can’t judge how you work. Neither can I say everyone does this. But there’s a trend of switching jobs that have never gone out of trend at all. Here are some of the reasons why I chose to switch jobs in the past — and repented later.

A better pay, a better life

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Surely one of the top reasons why I changed jobs. It’s sad when I think of all the meaningful relationships that I could’ve cultivated in all that time. Just as I get the idea that I could do the same work for someone for better pay, the greedy monster of ‘jumping jobs’ would appear.

The payment in most cases improves, as it is somehow supposed to. Companies are now mostly careful of these players and easily spot them from their resumes quite well. Still, the idea remains as fresh from the time it was first done.

It’s actually a quite relevant thing to do if you think your skills will be better appreciated somewhere else. Usually, skill has nothing to do with it though. If another firm has the exact same job for you at better pay, there’s nothing much to think about there, is it?

Before you make the switch, always try to think of what changes you can genuinely make to your work to reach a proper lifestyle unburdened by work. If not, you aren’t gaining much in your next job as well.

More experienced, hence a better company

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Spending years in a business meant more experience in the past. I remember the days spent merely sitting in front of a computer for eight straight hours, all in the hope of payment.

This neither helped me nor the business I worked for. Nevertheless, I played the experience card to get a follow-up job in another company. It sucked too.

The thing I learned there was this — we often substitute action for activity. Since nothing was said about contributing sincerely to the business, all I did was what my KPI mentioned. Here’s how the idea of enduring experience comes in.

We try to stay at a company, no matter how trashy it may all seem, for a set amount of time to switch to another job. A question that looms here — was all that time justified for the pay we got?

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea that better experience will get me to a better grade of work, the experience here meaning more years of service.

Somehow work hierarchy gets a higher mention than job satisfaction. You’ll find them everywhere, and honestly, I found myself as an asset to no company because of my so-called experience.

Procrastination at its best

The idea of the next company has almost always comforted me into reduced loyalty with my present job.

It’s not out of any intentional lack of involvement, but I’d have started dreaming about how the next company would be better than my current workplace, on so many levels.

I would dream of how efficient their management would be, how well they manage their brakes, the rotating chairs that are way expensive than the one I currently have, and so on.

Interviews, call letters, job offers — all these signal a new change — a change towards better opportunities. These have often lulled me into comfort and miss deadlines at my current work. Notice periods are notorious for being the laziest chapter for any employee’s output.

You see, I believe procrastination is a beast that resides within every individual. It’s with diligence and practice that we learn not to engage with it. But things change when we shift our focus from our current work to future glory.

One simple truth to understand and correct our course is to realize that what you do now is what matters. Not what you do next month, for the next review, or even the next working day. Now is all that matters.

New hope, new identity

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Changing jobs have always brought with it a renewed sense of identity in me. I am no longer associated with the company I was working for, and there’s a lot to post on social media about the new workplace as well.

My LinkedIn account will have a surge of notifications, where people will be congratulating me with their autogenerated messages. Sure, I’ll have more to add in my Bio as well. For a while, I will be a different person than just a week ago.

I know things will change quickly as the new work kicks in. That raise in pay most definitely accompanies with more work, and things just run in cycles from then on. The only change from usual would be the name of the company, and nothing more.

Embellishing your company’s name would be a mistake if you aren’t 100 percent involved in its success. Chances are, your company won’t value you just because you work there. Everyone is measured by their contribution and the heart they bring to their workplace, no matter how big their company is.

This is why you will see omnipresent social media confession groups for big companies where employees secretly spit out what they hate about their organization.

Even though they like the brand-name that comes with the title, bad management, sub-par working conditions, and above all, the lack of trust in opening up about problems within companies will ultimately make people not speak of their company so much. Perfect timing for another job, eh?

Letting go of old headaches for new ones

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Every bad deal that you may have had at your current firm will be over when you go to the new team, correct? Wrong. I’m not a statistician, but it’s fair to say that you won’t have more than 40 percent of what you expected at your new firm.

Not because the company was hiding its demons behind flowery marketing material, but much of what you thought and heard about your new firm was in fact, just what you heard or thought about it.

You will see the extremely best in the company and perhaps the worst quality in the firm as well, but nothing will prepare you to face the grey area where you’ll spend most of the time in the company.

Fancy refreshments and bean bags will quickly become a thing of the past, leaving you with more work to do than what you anticipated. The new work will become daily toil, and soon the fields will be fresh for new job opportunities.

A fresh start, or clean slate, or whatever

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This is perhaps the ultimate pressure valve that I have used in the past to get away from work. I may have made several mistakes in my current job, may have slept when I had to read, or may have forgotten to make the right calls at the right time.

Often, my misjudgment or lackluster work contributes heavily to make the switch to a new job. Trusting that the new company will somehow magically make me more productive is indeed one of the greatest myths that circulate in every industry.

Running away from your current mess to embrace new places to mess up yet again is never the way to look at changing companies. In essence, every time you decide to change companies is when you need deep introspection.

Is it my work, or is it me behind the reason to switch? Is it just the industry, the company, the team, or the nature of work that’s affecting me so much?

An honest conversation with someone you trust will quickly help you get the answers to all of them. And the best part — your friend doesn't have to know much about your industry at all. That’s because much of your pressure points will be quite evident once you talk about things you like or hate about your company.

Should you really switch?

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Every point I mentioned so far comes with a caveat as well. Perhaps you are getting less pay than the industry average. Indeed you must switch to a place where your role could benefit teams even more.

The distinction between the need and want to switch is a bit difficult to argue but can be accepted without much hassle. Understanding why you need to switch companies is where you will see areas where you lack. Money, teamwork, identity, and responsibility are just some of them.

I see my lack of judgment every time I think of switching companies. The things I could have said, the work I could have done, all confront me and reminds me of what I need to work on. If I choose to work on them, my chances at better living get one step closer. If not, I’ll enter the cycle.