How do you know it's time to quit and move on

Edmond Lau shared own experiences and advice on how not to stay in one place, as swiftly and efficiently develop in the professional sphere. On account of his work for companies such as Microsoft and the Google, where he was able to take all the most valuable for future career and move forward. In his blog, and in the book The Effective Engineer's HandbookOver which Lau is now working, he sets out the basic principles of how to accelerate career growth, spend less time on labor-intensive tasks and use their skills much more effectively. In a blog post on Quora, he said, it is easy to determine that it is time to change jobs, to develop and move forward.

5 main factors indicating that the time for you to change jobs:

• your hard work is not enough to pay;
• You underestimate or do not respect;
• you do not agree with the basic strategy of the company, but can not change it;
• you do not get along with your colleagues or management;
• you alien culture of the company.

These factors are very easy to define, and all you need to do - is to map out a concrete action plan for change. But there are also other reasons why you should think about career changes.

You have reached a plateau

Plateau moment comes when you have already made by the company, staff, post all you can, and more nothing (or almost nothing) do not learn on the job. This point is especially important for young professionals who need to quickly develop their skills, expand knowledge and get new experience. If you notice that you start just mechanically carry out their duties, it is time to move on to the next level - a higher position or to another company.

What can you learn on the job

technical skills (In your post, depending on the specifics). For example, for programmers it can be learning another language, familiarity with new tools, skills of designing modern systems. Expanding the set of tools and techniques that you develop as a specialist.

Setting priorities. Every day you face many urgent and not very tasks. However, one of the most useful skills you can acquire on the job - is prioritization: the ability highlight exactly those options that require the least amount of time and effort, but it is possible to obtain maximum income.

Implementation of projects. Another useful skill that you can acquire on the job - the ability to create a quality product or service and bring it to the end user.

Mentoring and management. The faster growing company, the faster you will move up the career ladder and to acquire new skills, inherent leader: the ability to manage other people, to form the company's culture and determine the direction of work collective. This skill is useful to you in order to create an effective team able to give the best result.

When you come to work for the first time, training begins rapidly and affects different areas. You plunge into another medium, using unusual techniques, learning not previously known to you the product and getting started with a new team. Thus it is necessary to teach the different aspects at the same time, rapidly evolving. In the process, you'll sharpen these skills, selecting the highest priority, and then be able to put them into practice elsewhere.

When I joined Google right out of college, for the first six months of learned a lot of new things. Studied programming, management style, expanding their knowledge and delved into internal processes. I learned how to create new products and supply them for dozens, or even hundreds of thousands of people who come to google.com.

Why it comes to pay and how to define it

Over time, the speed of learning may be reduced. For example, due to organizational issues (appearance complicated bureaucratic schemes) or due to a lack of rapid growth command compared with the complexity of the product. As a result, you will begin to "slow down" and not be able to switch to the new challenges and projects as quickly as you would like.

The Google for my first warning signs came when I realized that many of the projects had specific schemes run or depend on non-transparent procedures for the approval, which I do not He controlled. For me, the launch of new products and get feedback from users - one of the priority items. When I analyzed how many ideas I can implement in the next year, the results did not satisfy me. And so I left.

About as I left the Ooyala, once felt that my learning rate has reached a plateau. I left the company, when I realized that I can learn a lot more about creating a product, joining a small but fast-growing team.

When I was an intern at Microsoft, I have received very good advice from a teacher friend of mine:

Analyze and define its place in the professional field at least once every two years.

Even if you are completely satisfied with their work, this exercise helps to determine if you really like what you're doing, and you learn something new, or simply do not want to leave a comfortable place.

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I am personally very close approach Edmond Lau, since my own decisions for a change of work is based on an analysis of what I will be able to learn more on the current location and where I want to go in the future. I I think that with the help of this method it is possible not only to assess their own strengths and weaknesses, but also more conscious and ambitious approach to the selection of the next job, and the project team. Do not be afraid to change and develop themselves in new directions, taking pleasure in the profession.

Tell us, and on what basis do you usually decide to change jobs and what priorities are set for yourself?

see also

• Work on yourself: how to begin to change →
• The most effective way to quickly learn new →
• Top 10 skills that are valued by employers in 2020 →