Dont Quit Your Job Until.!

It is well known that nearly 70% of those holding a job are looking or wishing for a better one. Some estimates suggest that those actively lookingwith various intensitiesfall into the 60% category. Of course, these statistics vary with industries and geographies, but the fact remains that many professionals are unhappy in their regular jobs and are chasing new ones expecting that somehow they will find a utopian solution to their career dilemma.

In my own coaching practice about 60% of my client intake stems from such a demographic. This group also includes clients looking for internal promotion as their preferred alternative. The remainder is made up of those wishing to improve their career where they are, out of work and looking, or knowing how to deal with a sticky relationship issue with someone of influence at their job.

For those who want to pursue another job(s) my guidance is always the same: Do not change jobs until you have overcome your challenges where you are and do not start looking until you have built sufficient career momentum at your current job.

Here is why I insist on these two recommendations for my clients to follow:

Overcoming current challenges

Every job presents its own challenges. These vary depending on a variety to factors, but they include difficulties stemming from deteriorating relationships, difficult colleagues, indifferent or incompetent bosses, and bad work environment. They become a problem when they affect your everyday work and bring you down. When your job starts becoming a burden as a result of these factors you look for change and the most obvious change one pursues is to run away from the situation, hoping to find a place where you can start anew and put your troubles behind you.

The problem with this approach is that another place will pose you new challenges and soon you will be in the same or a very similar situation again, looking for a change yet again. What you must deal with from the get-go is what changes must you make within your own to deal with your situation head-on before walkingeven runningaway from your current one.

This is where you need some outsider to work with you and to give you some guidance on changes you must make to deal with the situation or similar ones that can arise, no matter where you are working. Many HR departments offer coaching services, which can be useful. Seeking an outside coach can also help if you want to protect your work relationships. But, the main idea here is to moving away from denial and becoming aware of your own behaviors that you must change to deal with what is troubling you and to prevent them from happening in the future.

Building Career Momentum

The worst time to leave a job and to seek another is when your career momentum in your current job is on the decline. Career momentum or mojo is what is happening in your current job that will make you more desirable to other employers to hire you. If your momentum is on the decline because of your recent assignments, relationships with others, or by factors that you cannot control it is best to find the root cause and to identify ways to regain it, even temporarily.

One can recapture their career mojo by looking at hidden opportunities within your work unit or looking around your business or company to see what things could improve customer experience, work processes, or productivity. Taking on such tasks on your own by negotiating with your superiors is a good way to rebuild lost momentum and getting new bullets on your rsum that show leadership, initiative, and success.

Rebuilding your career momentum also helps in your job interviews because youll bring new energy and confidence to your message. Having a strong rsum because of the new initiatives that you successfully completed and having the confidence to showcase your message during a selection process can help you achieve your change objectives well beyond just landing another job.

So, if you are looking for a change because things are deteriorating for you and you are convinced that a new job will magically make your life better, think again and follow these two recommendations. Youll be surprised how it will change your life!

Good luck!

About Author

Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader.

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