I have my resignation email typed up to my boss - I haven’t sent it yet. And I’m trying to figure out if it would be the stupidest move of my life just YOLO’ing my job out the window or not. I have just under $70 grand in savings/brokerage acc’s.
My mortgage payment is $1785 a month - of which I charge a roomate $600. That’s really my biggest monthly expense - and it’s something I could honestly cover working at home depot.
Do I have enough money to live on for a few months while I go find a new job??
Quitting before you have another job lined up is dumb, both in the long term and the short term. That money you’re talking about living off of could be earning returns instead of just keeping you afloat, and by cutting off your own income, you will be killing your liquidity for investment opportunities.
I agree 100% with SportBiker. In addition, wouldn’t it be a little stressful to be in a position where you absolutely have to get a job? Don’t put yourself in a position where you limit your options my dude!
It’s not. The problem is that you have no way of knowing how long it may take you to land another role. Employment gaps on your resume generally require a good explanation, and if instead of a gap you have 3-month stint at Home Depot, that carries a negative connotation as well.
If you have a job and you’re applying to my company, I think you’re a hard-working, disciplined, self-enterprising individual who has outgrown his current role and is simply looking for a change.
If you don’t have a job and you’re applying, I think you’re desperate to find something, but you’ll bail on me just as soon as something better comes along.
But, I am curious to see if you’d be interested in a little exercise. Let’s set up a fake interview. You be the hiring manager for a analyst/PM/whatever role, and I’ll be the guy who you’ve decided to interview with a gap in the resume.
I’d bet a lot that I’m able to end that conversation with you completely convinced that I’m not only the right person to hire, but also that quitting my job was done for the most perfect of reasons.
I appreciate your guys guidance. I just can’t go another week in my job though man. That’s the reality of it. I don’t want to get out of bed, I don’t want to eat, I don’t want to exercise. I’m even smoking copious amounts of pot during the day just to make it go by faster. I seriously think the last time I made a cold call was July, and the fact knowing that I shoulda been fired months ago makes me want to quit even more.
I get what you guys are saying, I’m just not convinced I can’t find myself across the table from a hiring manager and spin my situation in such a positive way that they don’t spend two seconds giving a ■■■■ about “oh this guy quit his job”. That’s just what I feel.
My man. Listen, I have jokingly busted your chops on this forum but in all reality you sound like a good guy trying to figure out his optimal career path. Please listen to me. Your hypothetical situation doesn’t resonate because you would not likely even be progressing to an interview with me if you had a gap, and you definitely would not be if you were showing 3+ months at Home Depot or similar. It would raise all kinds of questions for me that you’d never have the opportunity to explain to me because you’d be screened out before we ever spoke. I would dismiss you as not having good judgment, or not having your stuff together, or whatever, and move on quickly.
Do you have time off you can take? Fake a family emergency to just unplug for a few weeks from the job but still retain it? Whatever you do, please do not leave this job without a comparable or better status job already lined up.
Well I say go for it. Some good points here and DOW isn’t wrong in that assessment, but the truth is mental health is important and is generally swept under the rug for fear of losing face. You could be setting yourself back, but I don’t think at your age it’s a death warrant. You’d likely recover and by the sounds of it you won’t be getting a glowing reference from your current employer anyhow.
The other option is short term disability. If you can convince your doc that the stress is too much they’d take you away from work for a few weeks which might be good for you. You’d likely receive full pay on STD and can decide to go back, or not once the rest period is over. Take care of yourself man, work isn’t everything.
Hey man, you can text me if you need someone to talk to. But I’ve been there. I had a job that made me depressed to even show up. And i did take a break between jobs to take a 3 month trip around the world, but I lined up the new job before taking off.
If your mental health really can’t stand it, I would encourage you to do something productive in the gap. You could blame covid for work getting bad and say you decided to do a coding bootcamp or whatever. But I really wouldn’t quit without having a plan for what you are going to do. We are in a recession and you have no idea how long it will take. And the longer it takes, the harder it will be. Maybe you could find some freelance work to keep gaps off the resume.
Sounds like you have some other issues you may want to consider addressing before quitting. But I just hope you figure it out.
And I don’t want to say you are delusional about your persuasion skills, but there are plenty of people qualified for any job. Often you are looking for things that disqualify rather than qualify.
I agree with SportBiker - “Quitting before you have another job lined up is dumb.” And, yes, to quote you, “It would be the stupidest move” of your life. IMHO, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about that.
It’s a bad move because it leaves your judgment open to serious question. So, if you decide to quit without having a better, significantly higher-paying job to go to, I think you had better have one heckuva good explanation for why you left your previous job. And, FWIW, if I were a prospective employer, I doubt that you could come up with one that would be good enough to satisfy the automatic reservations I’d have about your judgment.
IMHO, quitting voluntarily–without having another job to go to–makes you look immature and unable to persevere in a tough situation. That sends the wrong message to any sensible employer. Even with 70K in the bank, you need the job, whether you realize it or not. So, stay where you are, discreetly look for something better, and don’t quit unless you find it. If that takes a while–which, in your case, I think it might–so be it. It won’t hurt you to continue to build up your savings/investment funds. . .and also acquire what appears to me to be some badly needed ability/willingness to persevere in a less-than-ideal situation.
The consensus is clear, @CEO10K-DAY. You’ve heard it from an old guy (sorry, @StrategyGuy), current BSDs, and someone who isn’t even in the industry: staying at your current employer while looking for a new role is your best course of action.
Funny, I was the lone soldier on the other side of this trade. Had a dream last night I quit my job without another one lined up, and I woke up with extreme anxiety. No joke. In the dream I had full intentions of landing a new job but the weight of not having one and the stress of seeing somebody else in my current job with a smooth transition (ie I’m replaceable) gave me night sweats.
Still though, I have friends going through this exact scenario and one in particular chose the short term disability route, with no plans on returning once it ends. This might be the play for our boy. He could use the down time on full pay to search for a new job while getting in some R&R.
