What's your rule of thumb about a job, if you like it or not? How long...

A close friend of mine used to say it would take at least 3 months before he would make a decision, I think that might be a little do aggressive and tend to lean towards 6 months. This at least IMO gives you a chance to actually start to contribute and really get a feel what the environment is like.

Ideally I like to grind it out for 18 months at least, but things happen, opportunities and situations....

Thoughts?

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Comments

coreyb80

I left a job of 3 years and went to 2 different companies after I left. I was at each company 3 months a piece before I came back. You usually know in the first couple of months or so. I went to a law firm and the work was very remedial to the point where most of my day was spent helping lawyers edit their word documents. Then I went to a marketing firm and was bored out of mind doing mindless work. Now I'm back at the company I left learning and working on an opportunity to land on the networking team.

dehgrah

To me this decision depends on the persons life circumstances (single, married, family, single income, living with parents?). I'm a one income household so in my situation I would need at least 3 Months worth of preparation before leaving any job. I would need at least 3 months worth of rent/mortgage, car payment, car insurance, and utilities; and keep in mind this doesn't include cable, internet, and cellphone bill, since some of these aren't necessities(means you can go without for a prolong period of time). You have to also factor in whether you leaving without having something else lined up, if you do in this case you will need at least 1-2 months worth of savings just in case you have to wait a few weeks without pay.

scaredoftests

sometimes, it just takes a day..LOL.

DatabaseHead

dehgrah, you make some good points and I agree you should have 1 - 3 months of saving set aside just in case. However, I was looking at it from a perspective to leaving, just getting to the point where you THINK it's time to move on, not pulling the trigger. That would come with time and planning like you mentioned.

In other words, when your decision is final and the planning begins.

Danielm7

It does take some time, as others said that time window depends on your tolerance for dealing with BS and level of risk you're willing to accept in jumping around. For me, my current job is OK, the first 2 weeks when I started were really bad though, I was instantly regretting the move in every way minus salary. Then, manager changed, team I worked with changed, I started to know more people and my way around and got way more comfortable with the whole situation. Now I like almost all of my coworkers, minus the fact that there is little point in me going to the office, I enjoy the work, there are definitely things I would change but at the moment none of them are enough to make me look elsewhere.

clarson

You leave a job in 3 months you did a lousy interview.

part of an interview is to see if the employer wants you for the job. The other is to see if you want to work for that employer.

if you quit in 3 months either you didn't find out enough about the position or the employer mislead you about what you'd be doing.

scaredoftests

I have interviewed for about 2 or 3 jobs where it was Totally different than what was said in the interview. I had asked all the right questions as well. It was very frustrating....

DatabaseHead

scaredoftests wrote: »

I have interviewed for about 2 or 3 jobs where it was Totally different than what was said in the interview. I had asked all the right questions as well. It was very frustrating....

Any veteran has been through this before...... It's what we like to call a false bill of sale.......

scaredoftests

Believe me, I am a vet to this. LOL

UnixGuy

As rule I say it takes from 3 to 6 months to know if they position/company is actually good. This is a rough estimation, but you should see all the red flags by then.

No place will ever be perfect, you need to be clear on what your future plans are, what you're working towards ALL WHILE keeping an open mind to opportunities in your current work place that you didn't know about!

Sometimes there are opportunities and different paths that you haven't thought about or didn't know existed...keep an open mind and explore your options.

Two jobs ago, I found that the job wasn't as advertised during the interview...it took me 3 weeks to figure this out - I stayed for nearly 2 years...I was looking for a job after the first 8 months. I did take advantage of all the opportunities, including having that employer's name on my CV (they're a big name), networking, jumping on training opportunities, trying to take projects..I did well!

greg9891

I would usually give it a year......then its either I love it enough to stay or its off to the races.

alias454

scaredoftests wrote: »

sometimes, it just takes a day..LOL.

Been there. Shortest job I ever had was 2 days.

scaredoftests

shortest for me was 3 days. Fired by email. classy

Welly_59

scaredoftests wrote: »

shortest for me was 3 days. Fired by email. classy

Wow that's insane. Is there a story behind this?

scaredoftests

It was insane. The client was pissed at the contractor anyway, and you could tell that. Plus the PM NEVER visited the site (totally different from what he said in the interview). I was so uneasy the whole time. I didn't have a badge nor access to anything. Couldn't do anything. The client said I was late (duh, no badge) and my productivity sucked (duh, no access to anything). The contractor had no backbone. The client was a complete asshat. Actually yelled at me for being late. Kept reminding him I have no badge, so getting on base was a pain.

DatabaseHead

That's a pretty horrible story, sorry to hear that.

scaredoftests

Kinda glad it happened so early, would've hated to be 'stuck' there. However, they are fighting my unemployment benefits. I am fighting tooth and nail. so glad I have a better job.

DatabaseHead

Totally understood.

Not to keep this thing going, but I have found that ~2 years in you know 100% where you lay. Even if you like it, there may be no room to move up or over if you do so choose to go that route.

In the larger companies I like to lateral. You get the lay of the land, and usually can get a 5 - 8% increase and sometimes go into a better role. It can buy you additional time at a large enterprise and you potentially can gain additional skills.