Before You Change Jobs, Understand What You Want to Change

More than half of U.S. employees are watching for or actively seeking another job. But before deciding that a different job is the answer, it may help to understand what you're actually hoping will be different.

More than half of U.S. employees are currently open to another job.

Gallup reports that 52 percent of U.S. employees are either actively looking for a different job or watching for opportunities. That's a remarkable number of people who, at some level, are wondering whether there might be something better somewhere else.

For some, the reason will be obvious. The pay isn't enough. The manager is difficult. The hours no longer work. There is little opportunity to advance. The organization is changing in ways they don't want to be part of.

But there are also people for whom the answer is much less clear.

They aren't necessarily unhappy. They may be performing well, earning a reasonable living and working with people they like. Yet when a recruiter calls or an interesting position appears, they find themselves paying attention.

Before deciding whether another job is the answer, there may be a more useful question to ask first:

What am I actually hoping will be different?

We tend to evaluate the next job before understanding this one

Once we begin considering a move, our attention naturally shifts toward what's available.

We compare compensation, titles, benefits, flexibility, location, responsibilities and opportunities for advancement. Those things matter, and eventually they may determine whether an opportunity makes sense.

But they don't necessarily explain why we became interested in leaving in the first place.

That explanation sits in our current experience of work.

Something may have changed in what the work requires from us, what we're learning from it or what we're getting back from the experience. Until we understand that, it can be difficult to know what we're really looking for somewhere else.

Dissatisfaction doesn't always arrive with a clear explanation

We tend to imagine dissatisfaction as something obvious. You dislike your job, so you look for another one.

Often it's more gradual than that.

The work may require more energy than it used to. You may have become very good at something that no longer gives you much opportunity to grow. You may have less autonomy than your experience now warrants. A relationship that once made the work enjoyable may have changed. The work may still be important, but you have more difficulty seeing the contribution you're making.

None of these necessarily produces a moment when you think, “I need to leave.”

Instead, another opportunity simply starts to look more interesting.

A new job changes a lot of things at once

Changing jobs is a significant intervention.

You may change your manager, colleagues, responsibilities, customers, schedule, compensation, expectations, culture and working environment at the same time.

That can be exactly what's needed.

But when many things change simultaneously, it's also easy to attribute the improvement we're hoping for to the move itself without being clear about which part of the previous experience actually needed to change.

If what you need is greater challenge, another job may provide it. So might a different assignment where you are.

If what you need is more autonomy, a new organization may offer it. Or the issue may be something worth discussing in your current role.

If compensation is genuinely the problem, changing employers may be the most realistic way to address it.

If the work no longer fits what matters to you, the answer may be a much larger change.

The point isn't that you should stay. Different problems have different solutions.

Look at the work before looking away from it

One way to understand what may be driving your interest in something else is to look at your current work from several directions.

Performance: What is it taking to produce the results you're producing? Has the work become easier to sustain, or is it requiring more effort and attention than it used to?

Learning: Is your work still expanding what you're capable of doing? Are you encountering new problems, perspectives and responsibilities, or mostly applying capabilities you already have?

Enjoyment: What does the experience of doing the work give back? Are there enough sources of energy, meaning, connection, belonging, autonomy or satisfaction to make the work worthwhile?

You don't need all three to be perfect. No job provides everything, and what matters in each area will differ from person to person.

But looking at them separately can help turn a general feeling of wanting something different into a clearer understanding of what “different” actually means.

Some things can change without changing jobs

You may discover that what you want is a different kind of problem to solve, greater responsibility, more control over your work, a better relationship with your manager, fewer competing priorities or an opportunity to develop a capability you've been wanting to build.

Some of those things may be possible where you are.

Others may not be.

Knowing the difference gives you more agency than simply concluding that you're ready for something new.

And sometimes the answer really is to leave

Understanding your current experience isn't an argument for staying.

In fact, greater clarity may make it more obvious that the change you need isn't available in your current situation.

But then you're no longer simply looking for another job. You're looking for particular conditions that matter to you.

That changes the way you evaluate an opportunity.

Instead of asking only whether the new job looks better, you can ask whether it actually addresses what you have learned about the work you want to be doing.

Understand before you decide

Being open to another opportunity is information.

It tells you that something about another possibility has your attention. It doesn't necessarily tell you why.

Before updating the résumé, accepting the recruiter's call or deciding that it's time to go, spend some time understanding the work you're already experiencing.

If I changed jobs tomorrow, what would I most hope would be different?

The answer might point toward another employer. It might point toward a change in the work you're already doing.

Either way, you'll know more about the decision you're actually trying to make.