The question of when to leave your first or second job is intimate and messy. Especially if your first job is management consulting as you will be presented with many opportunities to jump into industry. But no matter what the circumstance is, it requires you to consider an endless number of factors, ride through a rollercoaster of emotions, deeply understand the context of your situation, and have a level head when making the decision.
Furthermore, given the uniqueness of each person’s situation and context, it’s especially difficult to write an exhaustive how-to article on this topic.
As an alternative, I’ve decided to walk through the decision-making process on how and why I chose to switch out of consulting, and the various interview processes I went through spanning corporate strategy, corporate development, and BizOps roles.
My decision-making process is structured into four parts:
- Three guiding principles for career transitions
- A simple formula to figure out when to leave
- Factors that you may want to consider
- Factors to avoid considering
1. Three Guiding principles for career transitions
Prior to making career decisions, you should write down your guiding principles. For those of you in university, this is a great exercise to do prior to committing to a full-time role. When done right, these principles will help you choose between multiple opportunities.
One way to generate ideas for your guiding principles is to ask yourself, “what are fundamental beliefs I have about my career that I want to stay true to?”
Here are my 3 principles.
1.1 Make career decisions that are hypothesis-driven
My primary career philosophy is to manage my career like an experiment. Try lots of things, learn about myself, and keep pivoting to find opportunities that best fit my interests and strengths. Consulting was the perfect role to allow me to adopt this mindset and it opened my eyes to areas I never imagined I would enjoy. For example, the various commercial due diligence projects I’ve been on made me realize I enjoy working on transactions, especially mergers & acquisitions.
By not taking this approach, I’ve noticed some peers making career decisions that they end up regretting. For example, after realizing they dislike some critical aspects of their job, I’ve seen people make hasty decisions to switch roles driven by compensation or prestige rather than their own self-interest.
1.2 Prioritize skill development over compensation
Skills unlock long-term opportunity and are therefore an investment in compensation over a longer time frame.
Compensation is always important and, especially to students with debt, it can seem like the most important consideration for your next career move. However, I view compensation as either “good enough” or “too low”. If multiple opportunities cross the threshold of “good enough”, then compensation becomes irrelevant and it is better to focus on other attributes.
I always prioritize the skills I would build over moderate compensation differences. I believe the best route to long-term compensation and self-confidence is to focus intensely on skill development early in my career. I try to live by the saying “do what you love and the money will follow”, and in order to love what you do you need to be good at it.
That being said, I acknowledge the privileged position I’m in to be able to make this trade off without pressure to pay down debt or support dependants. If you subscribe to my belief of skills over compensation, think about how much compensation you’re willing to trade for a better skill-building opportunity. Depending on the industry you’re entering, you may find that some opportunities offer both better skill-building opportunities and higher compensation – a win-win.
1.3 Take personal responsibility
When making career decisions, I prioritize myself over the interests of my parents, manager, company, or others.
Your career is exactly that – your career. You will be in situations where your manager, parents, or peers want you to make a specific decision. But this is your career. You are the person who’s going to spend 40+ hours per week dealing with the repercussions of your decision.
It’s always helpful to broaden your perspective and hear others out, but when it comes to making a career decision, be wary of choosing something primarily because others want you to do it. This includes pressure from your manager or company to remain loyal and stay on beyond your desire to do so. The days of spending your entire career at one company are over. Today, professionals in many countries change companies every few years.
You should be able to maintain good relationships with your company by leaving in a professional and respectful manner.
Making career decisions becomes a lot easier with a handful of guiding principles, because they help clarify what you are optimizing in every trade off.
2. A formula for leaving
Here’s a basic formula to simplify the complex decision of whether to leave your job for a new opporunity.
You should leave your job when:
Perceived benefit of leaving > Perceived benefit of staying
+ Friction of changing jobs
I use the word ‘perceived’ because you will never really know what the true benefit of leaving or staying is. However, with proper diligence you can get an idea of what your future will look like in your current role or in a position at another company.
2.1 Perceived benefit of leaving
When examining a new opportunity, make sure you dig deep into the role and understand the day-to-day. One way to do this is by making a list of everything you like and dislike about your current role. Then, ask targeted questions about the new opportunity to understand how it is similar to or different from your current role.
If you have a good friend at the company, talk to them to get a realistic perspective of the company and position. This is my favorite (and most effective) tactic to learn about new opportunities. If you don’t have any contacts then start messaging some people in the team you are interested in or were approached by to have a quick coffee chat. It’s the same process that you went through when you were finding your very first job out of school.
Tip: Target people who previously worked with the team you are interviewing for as they tend to be more transparent and are open to speak freely. It’s also a great way to broaden your network.
2.2 Perceived benefit of staying
When assessing your current role, make sure you’ve been at the company long enough to really understand what sticking around entails. For example, if this is your first job and you’ve only been working for 4 months, you likely have not seen enough highs and lows of the job to really understand it. As a result, when you experience a low in your job, you are more likely to believe that the perceived benefit of staying is far less than what it actually may be.
If work isn’t amazing, a great first step is to candidly discuss your concerns with your manager and brainstorm a plan to work on more engaging projects. To make this conversation successful, come to the meeting with realistic solutions, not just problems and an entitled attitude. Some consulting firms offer internal/external secondment opportunities, that is, opportunities to work temporarily in a different firm or department to the one you are already in. Leverage these if you can.
Lastly, it’s worth looking into internal transfers, because you may find an incredible opportunity within your company.
In general, I think people don’t try hard enough to remedy the situation at their current job. Try your best to understand and shape your future in your current role before looking for the exit.
2.3 Friction of changing jobs
Lastly, friction is an important part of this equation because it prevents people from changing jobs when an opportunity slightly better than their current situation arises.
Friction of changing jobs includes the hassle of searching for opportunities, interviewing, joining a new company, rebuilding relationships, etc. This can be an exciting new start to some, but if you’re content in your current position, this can also feel like a hassle that’s not worth your time.
When in doubt about your current situation, refer back to the basic formula for deciding whether it is time to leave.
Perceived benefit of leaving > Perceived benefit of staying
+ Friction of changing jobs
Is the perceived benefit of leaving better than the perceived benefit of staying plus the hassle of changing jobs?
3. Factors that you may want to consider
To inform your comparison of opportunities, it’s helpful to consider a range of factors. Below, I’ve outlined the important factors I consider when evaluating an opportunity, along with those I consciously try to avoid.
I’ve listed them in no particular order, since the importance of each factor is a personal decision.
3.1 Skills and pace of learning
Are you building concrete skills that are valuable for your career goals? How quickly will you learn relative to your pace of learning today?
Positions in high-stress environments like professional services (consulting & banking), rotational programs, and high-growth companies are all great environments to accelerate your pace of learning.
On the other hand, a cushy job at a large company might not push you to grow as much, which I believe is crucial in the early stages of your career.
3.2 Compensation
This is usually the first consideration that comes to mind for most people.
How does total compensation (not just base salary) compare to your current position? How does it increase over time? Are strong performers promoted quickly ?
As mentioned earlier, compensation is an important factor, but I prefer to prioritize skill development.
3.3 Alignment with interests and goals
Is the new opportunity going to help you achieve your long-term career goals? Will it provide optionality for future career opportunities?
If not, do you at least find the work fascinating and worth learning for 40+ hours a week?
If the answer is no, this is probably not the right opportunity for you. Try to spend your time on work that will energize and excite you.
3.4 Work environment & culture
There’s a tendency to think about culture as soft, intangible, and therefore not important. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, I would personally place culture as one of my top criteria.
Culture = your day-to-day experience.
A company’s people, values, way of working, and decision-making process will deeply impact your happiness and fulfillment.
3.5 Your manager
A common adage for making career decisions is to find a manager you respect, build a strong relationship, and follow them throughout their career.
The thinking is that if your manager is top-notch, they will continue to be promoted and find interesting opportunities. Simultaneously, by having a strong relationship with them, they will include you in these opportunities and pull you to the top.
There are countless case studies of CEOs, executives, and government officials who followed other successful people and fast-tracked their careers.
Regardless of whether this is the approach you are taking, it is worth considering an opportunity with a strong manager.
4. Factors to avoid when evaluating a new opportunity
There are some common factors that people often rely on when make career decisions, which largely relate to external validation. Although they are not bad criteria per se, they shouldn’t be your primary focus since external validation is unlikely to meaningfully help you feel happy and fulfilled in your career.
4.1 Making more than your friends
For some, it’s important to make more than their friends. However, compensation can quickly become tied to self worth. Money can become a juicy carrot that you chase blindly rather than making clear sighted career decisions that help you achieve your goals.
4.2 Peer pressure and prestige
In university (and beyond), there is peer pressure to work for certain prestigious companies or industries.
Prestige is a powerful form of external validation. It gets people to optimize for validation over their genuine interest in a job. This is usually in direct conflict with the hypothesis-driven approach to career discovery and decision making.
It’s nearly impossible to completely ignore prestige, but I find that being aware of it is incredibly helpful when making a career decision.
By acknowledging the role prestige is playing in your excitement for an opportunity, you can force yourself to reflect on whether you would take this role if the prestige wasn’t there.
Again, you are going to be investing thousands of hours per year in this job. How much does it really matter what others think about your career path?
4.3 Perks
You may have heard of the ridiculous perks of technology companies in06 Silicon Valley.
The fancy chef-prepared food, stipends for massages and gym memberships, fitness classes, haircuts, unlimited time off – it’s all completely true. I was amazed at what my friend was enjoying at a FAANG company.
Although it sounds very exciting, you get used to the perks of a company very quickly and so risk falling into the trap of becoming complacent. After the glamor fades, all that’s left are the fundamental parts of the job mentioned earlier (culture, manager, skill development opportunities, and alignment with your interests and goals). In fact, after a short stint at a FAANG company, my friend moved over to a much smaller firm in a hyper growth phase so that he can learn more and have a greater impact.
In the long run, perks are peanuts, and you shouldn’t sell your soul for them. Don’t consider them too much when making a big career decision.
Conclusion
When thinking about leaving your job or choosing between multiple job opportunities, brainstorm your list of the following:
- Guiding principles
- Important factors to consider
- Factors you want to ignore
By having a customized framework for yourself, you will become more confident and able to make informed career decisions. Lastly, remember that it’s totally okay if your first job is not optimal. It is only the first of many jobs you will have. Over the long run, it’s more important to learn how to make strong and consistent career decisions than landing the perfect first job.
In the next article, we will go through the various interview processes I went through to switch out of consulting.
Jason Oh works in the Strategy/M&A – Global Wealth & Asset Management team at Manulife. Previously, he was a Strategy Consultant at EY and Novantas with industry focus in the financial sector where he advised on corporate strategy planning, commercial due diligence, and data analytics.
Image: Pexels
🔴 Interested in consulting?