The idea of changing jobs right now probably feels like insanity. We’ve just experienced the most bizarre and challenging eighteen months most of us are likely to experience in our whole lifetimes. The world is only just beginning to return to normal. During the turmoil of 2020, many people lost their jobs through no fault of their own. If you’ve been lucky enough to hold on to yours and continue earning a salary, why would you want to do anything to jeopardise that?
The answer to that question is that there’s a whole new world of opportunity out there right now. The past year or so has changed the way the world does business – probably forever – and jobs that wouldn’t have been possible to obtain in the past are now available. Companies that are attempting to rebuild themselves from the bottom up need good, hard-working people. The labour market has admittedly been bad, but from this point forward, it’s likely to be more vibrant and generous than it has been for years.
Changing jobs is never easy – especially if you’ve been happy and settled in with the same company for several years. Why risk losing what you have in the hope of finding something better? Well, think about this. That’s the same question people ask themselves before they play online slots, but they go ahead and spend their money at Rose Slots NZ anyway. They know that when they do so, they stand a chance of winning a reward far higher than anything they lose chasing it. Playing online slots is a little more trivial than changing jobs, but the point stands. We appreciate that you probably want more substantial reasons than that, though, so let’s see if we can give you some.
Your Job Might Become Obsolete Anyway
Be honest with yourself. Have you done as much work during the past eighteen months as you did before it? Many people haven’t. Instead, they’ve found that some of those meetings they used to go to really could have been emails, and the company they work for gets by just fine without their input.
This is especially true of people who work in management roles and generally spend most of their time in the office supervising other people. In most cases, it’s turned out that those workers continue to perform just fine without someone looking over their shoulder. This feeling of not being able to do anything productive even when we want to has led to insecurities and worries about the future all over the world, to the point where newspapers have started publishing guidance on it.
If this sounds familiar, now might be the right time to jump before someone decided to push you as part of an efficiency review.
Working From Home Opens Up New Opportunities
Even when every office door in the world is open again, working from home is here to stay for those who want it. Many big-name companies have already confirmed that they won’t insist on their staff returning to the office if they don’t want to do so. If people are happy and productive working at home, they’ll be allowed to carry on. This has been termed the “work from home revolution,” and although some old-school industry analysts aren’t happy with it, it’s the new reality. It’s also a whole new world of opportunity for you.
There are millions of people out there in the world who can’t go to an office every day. Perhaps you’re one of them. Because of physical reasons, healthcare reasons, childcare reasons or even transportation reasons, you can’t go to and from the office every day to work in your dream role. That isn’t likely to be an issue anymore. Living thousands of miles away from the company you work for is suddenly normal. Working as a project manager from your kitchen table works just fine. You could apply for a well-paid job one hundred miles from where you live, get the role, work hard every day of the week, and yet never set foot in the office. This brave new era was always coming eventually thanks to the internet, but the pandemic has accelerated the process dramatically.
You’ve Changed
What’s happened to the world since December 2019 will never be forgotten by anyone who experienced it. Millions of people have had their lives forever changed by these difficult times, and even those of us who’ve come through it all unscathed have been forced to re-assess their priorities. The simple fact is that when you’re cooped up indoors all day long for days, weeks, or even months on end, you begin to focus on what really matters. Maybe spending all day in an office chasing another pay rise isn’t as important as it always seemed to be. Maybe getting out into the world, spending time with people you care about, and travelling is more important to you now. Perhaps you’ve got back in touch with who you really are as a person and realised your current job is no longer consistent with your core beliefs.
It’s OK to change, and it’s also OK to do something about those changes. We know of salespeople who never want to sell another product as long as they live. On the other hand, we’ve also heard from people who’ve always wanted to give sales a try but never felt confident enough to take the risks involved in living on commission.
All in all, we think there’s a growing consensus that life is short and delicate, and none of us can take anything for granted. The idea of spending the next ten years spinning our wheels in our current jobs and picking up a middling salary in return for it isn’t as appealing as it once was.
To boil all of this down into one simple phrase, the iron is hot. It’s time to strike it. Take everything you’ve learned from the past year – including all the triumphs as well as the frustrations – and turn it into a resolution to look for your ideal job. The world has pressed the reset button. Maybe it’s time you did the same.
*Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
