I’m about to do this now, I am just counting the days until I get to give notice. While I am in the general field I went to university for, I’m not on a career path that will lead me anywhere at my current organization – at best, I can delve further along a path leading me away from where I want to be some day.
I tell myself: I didn’t put all that effort and money (that I’ll be repaying for years) into improving myself to get tied down to a getting-paid-lower-than-I-should-be position _unless_ it is directly moving me forward on my envisioned career path. I’ll accept some pain in the pocketbook today if there is a light at the end of the tunnel … but I cannot stomach a pay disparity coupled with a dim future outlook on things.
Toss in the fact that the office culture and I just do not mesh well. I need to leave feeling like we accomplished something and made a difference and without that I’m just left feeling bummed and burned out. The prevailing office culture here seems to be more “sit around and gab all day (personal phone calls & drop-by guests) and then fake busy for a bit, only duck out 15 minutes early”. Worse, management seems to work on a “avoidance of the issue works good enough” approach to dealing with these office problems.
Lastly, I know myself well enough; I know I cannot put the real effort required into a serious job search while I’m mentally and emotionally drained from working in a combative office for 8-9 hours a day. I need to be able to look at myself, and my abilities, and say “I’m definitely worth hiring” … and I cannot accomplish that if I feel beaten down by a poor work place and/or boss.
So … despite the economy I’m on my way out. Thankfully, knowing full well I wasn’t happy for a while, I stocked up a solid financial buffer to tide me over. My sanity is worth more than the paycheck, and I already know in my heart that first sigh of relief the Monday morning I can sit down at my desk at home and focus on ME instead of heading in to work and suffering all day will be priceless.