How to know when to leave your job

There comes a time in everyone's career when their current position or company just isn't fulfilling the employee's needs. Or they just fucking hate their job. There's always that too. Regardless of the reasons why, sooner or later, you'll be looking for another job. Below, I explore how to know when to leave your job.

There's a number of reasons to leaving your job. Everything from "I hate my boss" to "They block Facebook" or "The boss has 2 BMWs and a Porsche while I'm forced to ride the bus because they pay me so little". While professional relationships, freedoms of the job and compensation can certainly play a role, the ultimate factor is asking yourself if your job makes you happy. Despite what the general population may think or do to themselves, what you do for a living should give you happiness on at least some levels. I chose IT because I like technology and enjoy helping people. 

At my last job, I didn't feel like my boss liked me on either a personal or professional level, the pay was sub-par and there was no way into something better with that company. They had other positions but apparently they like high-turnover and hiring people from outside. There was no way to make it better without leaving it behind. 

In my current position, there's notable improvements. My co-workers, boss and his superiors all feel I'm doing great and are very glad they hired me, I've gotten compliments on my customer service, etc. A lot of things that really bothered me about my last position are fixed with the new one. However, I took a bit of a pay-cut taking this new job. It's more per hour but I used to get free-reign on over-time and anything over 40 was 1.5x the hourly pay. There was hardly a week where I worked less than 45 hours a week. I once worked a 74 hour week between 2 weekend shifts, and 5 long days. I complained of being tired the whole time and slept a lot but I was singing a very different tune come payday. This new job is 40 hours, nothing more and less if I need any time off for whatever reason. There's no PTO (paid-time-off) or vacation days because I'm technically not a "full-time" employee. No PTO hurts. No OT hurts. without OT, the pay hurts a bit too.

While I hate the work sometimes, I am gaining new experience. I'd never worked with AD, Exchange, Powershell, or Sharepoint before this position. Those are good things to know, especially in a higher-up position. I've also gotten experience with management programs such as MS's System Center suite 2012 and several other tools. Knowledge- and experience-wise, I'm moving closer to a SysAdmin position and away from Tech Support which is exactly what I'm wanting. Sure, I could get a "full-time" position doing more desktop-support but I don't exactly need more experience showing users how to restart Outlook, or how to print double-sided. That sort of thing will only take you so far. 

The only way I'd leave my current position would be for another similar role, full-time and better pay. While I'm dreaming, I'd also like to be less customer/end-user focused and more project focused. I've been flexing my Customer Service muscles for quite a while and I'd like to focus on working on projects. My Dad always said that good manners will get you farther than anything and I believe it. Hell, I'd also like something with a decent-sized desk, someplace to put a picture or something and some sort of window. I'm tired of working in windowless offices where the only sunlight is from the security cameras on a server.

While I'm mostly trying to figure out if I should stay or if I should go, I figured this information could help someone else too. Not my personal info, but yours. Are you happy with your job? Is your job rewarding? You shouldn't hate your job just because of the money. Yes, money is important but I'd rather have a job I like for a reasonable wage than a job with more money that I hate. You need to take a step back, think of everything about your job and if the good outweighs the bad, then stick it out and see where it goes. If not, then polish the resume' and get to hunting.