Joshua Mok

Which do you hear more often? A friend or colleague sharing how much they enjoy their job or complaining to you how much they hate it. The conversation topic about jobs is often related to dissatisfaction whether it is frustration about looking for a job or dissatisfaction with a current job for financial, workload, relational, ethical, moral, or even personal reasons.

There are lots of articles and resources available to help those looking for a new job, but very little information is offered on how to properly quit a job. Before you decide to quit your job, here are just 3 things to consider determining whether you are FIT to quit your job:

1. Finance – Estimate your unemployment duration. Compare your qualifications with the economy and industry demand to estimate how long it will take before your next pay cheque. Then, estimate your monthly spending to calculate and plan your financing during your period of unemployment. General rule of thumb for financial preparation is to add an extra 3 months or double your estimated unemployment duration – whichever is longer.

Unemployment can cause a lot of stress and being financially unprepared while unemployed is even more stressful which can lead to many negative implications. For example, a digital marketing specialist with 5 years of experience and unemployed for 6 months may become frustrated with his situation and apply for entry level jobs to compete against new grads. Or he/she may decide to work at a retail store to earn some quick cash rather than utilizing his/her digital marketing skills for freelance work. So if you decide to quit your job, it is important to be not only financially prepared, but also mentally prepared for unemployment as well.

2. Interview – Prospective employers will want to know why you left your job. You may have many reasons, but all you need is at least one convincing reason. Focus on the positive rather than negative. Also, don’t lie!

3. Timing – The job market will fluctuate depending on your industry, but typically, it tends to slow down during the year end period. Other timing factors to consider are job experience and bonuses. You may want to wait until the completion of a project or until you have developed expertise in a certain area of your job before quitting so that the job experience can be reflected onto your resume. Also, you may want to quit after you have received an anticipated salary bonus. For example, Japanese companies pay out a year-end bonus which is about 3-6 monthly equivalent salary.

No related posts.

« Back to Blog