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Mindful Job Search: Is it really time for me to quit my job?

Summary

The episode addresses the current trend of many people leaving their jobs and the resulting boom in job openings. Host Jonathan Cottrell acknowledges that many listeners are likely considering a job search and aims to provide perspective on making such decisions mindfully, rather than simply reacting to market conditions or peer pressure.

Cottrell advises that it’s generally healthy to always keep an eye on the job market, as it provides external feedback on your skills and can motivate improvement. He emphasizes the importance of honesty with recruiters if you’re not urgently looking and warns against making pressured decisions, such as accepting an offer with a 24-hour deadline, which is often a red flag. The discussion highlights that while changing jobs can be a path to promotion or higher pay, it shouldn’t be done impulsively.

The host delves into human psychology, noting our tendency to rationalize our decisions post-facto to find happiness in them. He points out that few career decisions are truly permanent and that it’s often possible to return to a previous employer. A key piece of advice is to avoid comparison with others’ careers, as this can lead to decisions based on external validation rather than personal reasoning.

Listeners are encouraged to get specific about their reasons for wanting a change. Is it stagnation in skills, pay, or relationships? Cottrell suggests exploring whether the desired improvement could be achieved without changing jobs—for example, by seeking an internal transfer, asking for a raise, or cultivating hobbies outside work. The goal is to identify the core function of the desired change and ensure a job change is the right solution. The episode concludes by reiterating the importance of a mindful approach focused on improving specific aspects of your life and happiness, rather than making a change for its own sake.

Recommendations

Communities

  • Developer Tea Discord — The host mentions the podcast’s Discord community as a free platform for listeners to discuss career-related topics and have meaningful conversations with other developers.

Tools

  • Auth0 — A sponsor of the episode, Auth0 is presented as a solution for handling user authentication and login systems, freeing developers to focus on their core product instead of building and maintaining a secure login system.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to the current job market boom — Jonathan Cottrell opens the episode by noting the widespread trend of people leaving their jobs, creating many openings. He acknowledges that listeners are likely considering a job search and introduces the episode’s focus: making mindful decisions about career changes to avoid regret. The host sets the stage for a discussion on the psychology behind job searching.
  • 00:02:53 — Advice to always be open to opportunities — Cottrell suggests that it’s a good policy to always be open to discussing other opportunities, even if you’re happy in your current role. He argues this isn’t a breach of trust with your employer and can provide valuable external feedback on your skill set. This practice can drive personal improvement, particularly in communication and interview skills.
  • 00:06:25 — Warning against making pressured decisions — The host strongly advises avoiding decisions made under pressure, such as job offers with very short deadlines. He identifies this as a major red flag, suggesting the pressure usually serves the recruiter’s or company’s interests, not yours. Even in a hot job market, decisions should be based on careful consideration, not just market conditions.
  • 00:10:35 — Human psychology and rationalizing decisions — Cottrell discusses how humans naturally rationalize their situations to feel their choices were correct. Whether we change jobs or stay, we tend to focus on the positives or reframe negatives as learning experiences. This psychological tendency means we often find ways to be happy with our decisions after the fact, which can reduce the fear of making a ‘wrong’ choice.
  • 00:15:27 — Identifying your specific goal for change — Listeners are urged to ask themselves specifically what they hope to achieve with a career change. Is it addressing stagnation in interest, pay, or relationships? The host recommends journaling to dig into these feelings. He questions whether a job change is the only or best solution, suggesting that some problems might be fixed internally or through lifestyle adjustments outside work.
  • 00:18:12 — Conclusion on mindful career decision-making — Cottrell reiterates that the episode’s goal is not to provide easy answers but to encourage mindfulness. He emphasizes focusing on what you are trying to improve with a potential change. The host advises seeking happiness within your current situation first before deciding to change external realities. If a clear reason for change remains after this internal work, then proceed thoughtfully and without pressure.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2021-10-25T07:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:21:39

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] It seems that everyone is leaving their jobs right now.

[00:00:09] And as a result of that, a lot of high-profile jobs seem to be opening up for the first time.

[00:00:18] And in this market, I know a lot of you who are listening to the show, you’re probably

[00:00:22] considering a job search.

[00:00:26] Now, we are going to get into a lot of the reasons why people are leaving their jobs.

[00:00:32] The very simple idea of people leaving and opening up vacancies is obviously a part of

[00:00:40] it.

[00:00:41] And then, of course, the surge in remote work has predictably opened up a lot of higher-end

[00:00:47] jobs that previously were kind of kept on-site.

[00:00:53] In any case, there is a boom right now for job seekers.

[00:01:00] Because a lot of people have left behind those positions, and you are probably wondering if

[00:01:06] it’s time for you to consider a change.

[00:01:11] My name is Jonathan Cottrell.

[00:01:12] You’re listening to Developer Tea.

[00:01:14] My goal on the show is to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose

[00:01:18] in their careers.

[00:01:19] We’re going to be talking about job seeking this week, both in this episode and the next

[00:01:24] episode of Developer Tea, assuming things go as planned.

[00:01:29] We might end up talking about it a little bit more, depending on the response I receive

[00:01:33] from all of you.

[00:01:36] In this first episode, we’re going to talk about the decisions of job searching itself,

[00:01:41] kind of these larger decisions, and how to navigate that.

[00:01:49] We’re going to talk a little bit of psychology, and we’re going to talk about doing this mindfully

[00:01:54] so you don’t make a big change that you may end up regretting.

[00:01:58] Again, we’re going to look at the psychology to kind of guide us in this discussion.

[00:02:05] But the biggest question that most people are asking is whether or not it’s time to

[00:02:10] look for a job.

[00:02:12] Now, I’m not going to put boundaries on when in your career, timing-wise, you know, how

[00:02:18] long you’ve been at your current job, for example.

[00:02:21] I’m not going to put those boundaries on you.

[00:02:25] You have to make a decision about all of the specifics of your position, right, your timing

[00:02:34] in the market.

[00:02:35] Now, if you’re wanting to remain employed, in other words, if you don’t want to have

[00:02:41] between one job and the next, it makes sense to always be open to talking about other opportunities.

[00:02:53] There is an illusion that by doing this, by even entertaining the thought of leaving,

[00:03:00] that you are somehow breaking the confidence of your employer.

[00:03:04] But if you have this as a policy, right, even if you talk to your manager about this,

[00:03:11] then, you know, I’m keeping my eye on the job market always, you’ll find that a lot

[00:03:18] of people that you work with probably are doing the same thing.

[00:03:22] And if you are pressured not to do that, well, ask yourself why.

[00:03:28] Are people concerned that you will find an opportunity that seems better than the one

[00:03:33] that you currently have?

[00:03:35] If that’s the case, then perhaps it is better.

[00:03:39] So my first piece of advice is that any time is an okay and probably a good time to keep

[00:03:46] your eye open to, you know, survey what’s available.

[00:03:52] Now, this doesn’t have a negative effect on your employer most of the time.

[00:03:59] By doing this, you’re likely finding ways to improve.

[00:04:03] You might get some feedback or some insight into what your skill set is lacking.

[00:04:12] This is an external input into your skill set.

[00:04:15] You may be driven to improve and there is some crossover, maybe not a perfect one-to-one

[00:04:22] with the typical interviewing experience and the skills necessary there.

[00:04:27] Generally speaking, if you improve in your interview skills, you’re going to improve

[00:04:31] in whatever your job skills are, especially with relation to your communication skills.

[00:04:38] Okay, so any time is a good time to consider other opportunities.

[00:04:45] But as we’ll hear in the rest of this episode, I’m not necessarily advocating that you change

[00:04:51] jobs a bunch of times and we’ll talk a little bit about why.

[00:04:57] Now we should be clear that it is pretty common to change your career path and it can

[00:05:04] change drastically.

[00:05:05] More commonly, you’re going to change into another position that is either similar to

[00:05:10] the one that you have or maybe you are looking at this like a promotion.

[00:05:15] In other words, if you’ve been in your current role for long enough, it might make sense

[00:05:19] that the job change itself is one pathway to a promotion.

[00:05:26] And because of the lack of a standard in terms of naming titles in software engineering

[00:05:33] in that industry, a lot of times even moving in a lateral kind of manner can feel like

[00:05:41] a promotion depending on the responsibilities and what you’re actually doing in your job.

[00:05:49] Now the next thing that I want to bring up here about this kind of ongoing job search

[00:05:54] is that you shouldn’t be just doing this for fun.

[00:05:57] If you are keeping your head on a swivel, be honest with everyone about that.

[00:06:02] Be honest with the recruiters especially because sometimes the companies that are doing this

[00:06:07] recruiting are tight on resources and it’s good for both sides if you tell them that

[00:06:15] you are not necessarily looking to change quickly.

[00:06:18] But this brings us to our next point, avoid making a pressured decision.

[00:06:25] Avoid making a pressured decision.

[00:06:27] If somebody tells you that they have a job opening for you but that you have to make

[00:06:31] a decision in the next 24 hours, this is a huge red flag.

[00:06:36] It’s not always possible but making a decision about a career change is a big deal.

[00:06:43] Usually when someone wants you to make a change under pressure, there’s a reason that doesn’t

[00:06:47] necessarily benefit you.

[00:06:50] Whether they are under pressure to convert this particular position at a certain rate,

[00:06:56] maybe their recruitment is their full-time job and they have to meet a particular rate

[00:07:03] or if they are trying to make you make a decision so that you don’t have time to consider other

[00:07:08] options, whatever the reason is, typically it’s not going to benefit you.

[00:07:12] To this point, even though the market is hotter than normal right now, making a decision

[00:07:17] about a career change based on the market conditions, based on the fact that hiring

[00:07:23] is a little bit hotter than normal, it may come with its own set of frustrations.

[00:07:27] For example, a lot of these positions we already mentioned in the intro, that these vacancies

[00:07:34] may be open because the person that left was actually dissatisfied with their role.

[00:07:39] You might ask this question during the interview process, why is this particular role opening

[00:07:44] up right now?

[00:07:47] Whether you should leave your current job or not is a subject that we can’t really cover

[00:07:53] over the course of a single podcast.

[00:07:55] There’s a lot of good heuristics.

[00:07:57] For example, do you feel like you have stagnated and in that stagnation, have you been able

[00:08:05] to grow in other ways?

[00:08:07] Generally speaking, if you do feel like you’re stagnating, this is a sign that you were probably

[00:08:13] headed towards an unhappy place in your career.

[00:08:17] If however, you haven’t stagnated, there are more complicated questions to answer.

[00:08:23] We’re going to talk about some of that and we’ll also talk about why you’re unlikely

[00:08:27] to regret your decision no matter which way you go, right after we talk about today’s

[00:08:32] sponsor, Auth0.

[00:08:37] Developer T is thankful for the support for today’s episode from Auth0.

[00:08:47] Identity is the front door of every user interaction.

[00:08:51] Login experience is critical to a user’s experience with your app and as a software engineer,

[00:08:55] you’ve probably spent countless hours on this incredibly important interaction and it’s

[00:09:00] still not done.

[00:09:02] If you’re like most teams, you don’t want to spend all of your time on the login.

[00:09:06] In fact, you’d rather spend almost all of the time that you were spending on the login

[00:09:11] on your core product, something that differentiates you from other people.

[00:09:16] Maybe you don’t have the expertise you need to make your login experience seamless or

[00:09:21] maybe you are concerned about security and the constantly evolving nature of login and

[00:09:27] this build versus buy decision on login is really a no-brainer, especially as you start

[00:09:33] to scale your application.

[00:09:36] It’s even better if you can solve this before you adopt a bunch of technical debt or hidden

[00:09:41] security issues with the homegrown login solution.

[00:09:44] This happens all the time, even when you think you’ve got your bases covered.

[00:09:49] Auth0 is here to solve your login problems for good.

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[00:10:08] Social login, multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, passwordless and much more.

[00:10:13] You can implement Auth0 in your application in as little as five minutes by heading over

[00:10:18] to Auth0.com.

[00:10:20] That’s A-U-T-H, the number zero dot com, A-U-T-H-0 dot com.

[00:10:26] Thanks again to Auth0 for sponsoring today’s episode of Developer Team.

[00:10:35] One of the amazing things that we do as humans is we rationalize our situations.

[00:10:48] This is a very important part of how we deal with our realities.

[00:10:55] We take a lot of information that seemingly could be random or, you know, you could consider

[00:11:03] this just a part of our situation and we create stories that make us feel like we’ve

[00:11:11] done the right thing.

[00:11:13] It gives us some sense of confirmation that our choices are good.

[00:11:19] In this particular regard, a lot of the time we’re trying to rationalize why we should

[00:11:25] be happy with our decision.

[00:11:30] Why we should consider the change that we made or the change that we didn’t make a good

[00:11:36] plan.

[00:11:39] Often if we chose not to make a change, we can hyper-focus on the negatives that theoretically

[00:11:46] could have happened, you might say we dodged a bullet, for example.

[00:11:51] Or if we make a change and we decide after the fact that the change has given us a whole

[00:12:00] new perspective.

[00:12:02] Often even if a negative event occurs as a result of our decisions, we post-rationalize

[00:12:08] and say that the negative event has actually taught us something, that even though the

[00:12:14] negative event occurred, something that happened afterwards that was positive, that may or

[00:12:20] may not necessarily be connected, overrides or somehow outweighs the negative event.

[00:12:27] Ultimately, all of this is just to say that most of the time, the decisions that you make,

[00:12:33] you will probably find a way to find happiness in those decisions and in situations where

[00:12:40] you’re very clearly unfit or where that situation clearly doesn’t make you happy, then you

[00:12:49] will likely be able to make another decision.

[00:12:51] Which brings me to another point, very few decisions that we make as software engineers

[00:12:56] are permanent.

[00:12:57] In fact, a lot of the time, we can make a decision and then choose to revert that decision.

[00:13:07] It’s possible, for example, that if you decide to move to a different company, you could

[00:13:13] return to the company that you’re currently at.

[00:13:18] This may sound crazy, but I have seen this happen in my career more than once.

[00:13:24] When you’re making a decision like a career change, it’s important to ask yourself, what

[00:13:29] are the many subsequent decisions that I could make down the road?

[00:13:36] Are you truly giving up something that you can’t get back?

[00:13:41] Or are you just concerned that the worst possible outcome will occur?

[00:13:49] We’ve talked about this many times on the show before, but it’s worthwhile to do this

[00:13:53] mental exercise.

[00:13:54] What is the worst thing that could actually happen?

[00:13:58] Now, we don’t really have the ability to compare our decisions against an alternative version

[00:14:05] of ourselves.

[00:14:07] In other words, you’re going to have a hard time deciding whether you would have been

[00:14:11] happy with a different decision or not.

[00:14:14] Most of the time, the best advice in this case and in every case is to make the most

[00:14:20] of whatever your current situation is.

[00:14:23] But since humans are very much kind of wired for comparison, this is a social feature that

[00:14:30] we have, we’re very social creatures, we are very likely to compare our career with

[00:14:36] other individuals.

[00:14:38] This is a trap, especially when it comes to software engineering careers, because you

[00:14:43] will always have somebody who has something completely different from you and they’re

[00:14:48] very happy with it.

[00:14:49] Playing comparison games is an easy way to make a decision that doesn’t come from solid

[00:14:56] individual reasoning, reasoning for yourself, but instead comes from your comparison reasoning.

[00:15:01] If someone else’s career change has triggered your decision to look for a new path, there’s

[00:15:06] nothing specifically wrong with that, but you should ask yourself if you would have

[00:15:10] become interested, if you would have thought about this, if you would have thought about

[00:15:15] change had that person not changed their path.

[00:15:19] So ask yourself this question, what specifically is your goal in a career change?

[00:15:27] Sometimes the answer to this is that we feel like it’s time for a change.

[00:15:32] And this is a way of expressing that we feel that sense of stagnation that I was talking

[00:15:38] about earlier.

[00:15:39] Well, get very specific with this and do a journaling exercise or whatever you need to

[00:15:44] to dig into this in your own self.

[00:15:47] What specifically do you feel is stagnating?

[00:15:50] Do you feel like your interest, for example, in the subject matter that you’re working

[00:15:54] with is stagnating?

[00:15:56] Is your pay stagnating or are your relationships with the people that you’re working with stagnating?

[00:16:03] And is a career change really actually the answer to improving that stagnation?

[00:16:11] For example, maybe your interest could be shifted if you changed within, and this is

[00:16:17] a different kind of career change, but if you changed within the organization, or maybe

[00:16:22] your relationships would improve with your coworkers if you had other hobbies, if you

[00:16:28] cultivated some kind of interesting activity outside of work so that you’re not overloading

[00:16:35] the responsibility of the relationships that you have with your coworkers.

[00:16:39] Now, again, none of this is necessarily pushing you against changing your career, but it’s

[00:16:47] very possible that you’re choosing to change your career to solve a problem that the career

[00:16:53] change wouldn’t necessarily solve.

[00:16:57] If you think something is missing, consider how you might gain it if you couldn’t change

[00:17:03] your career.

[00:17:05] Is there a way, and all of this is safe space because all you’re doing is these mental exercises.

[00:17:13] Is there a way you could gain those things without actually having to go through the

[00:17:17] process of a career change?

[00:17:18] For some problems, it is absolutely easier to change jobs to fix.

[00:17:23] For example, it’s much more likely that you’re going to get a significant pay raise if you

[00:17:28] change your job, and this is very often the reason why people choose to do that.

[00:17:34] For other problems, it is a much less risky path to do the work to fix the problem.

[00:17:41] It’s much more likely that if you get along with your coworkers now, that the least risky

[00:17:47] path, especially if that’s something that you care a lot about is getting along with

[00:17:51] your coworkers, all things being equal, if you wanted to, for example, make a little

[00:17:57] bit more money, it’s very likely that the least risky path is to continue working with

[00:18:02] people that you enjoy working with and simply ask for a raise.

[00:18:08] I want to reiterate something here at the end of this episode because, again, we could

[00:18:12] talk about this in circles for a very long time and you’re likely left with almost as

[00:18:18] much uncertainty as you had coming into this episode.

[00:18:22] My goal here is to help you become more mindful about why, why you’re choosing to change your

[00:18:32] career.

[00:18:33] There isn’t anything wrong with changing jobs, but a mindful approach focuses on what

[00:18:38] you are trying to improve.

[00:18:40] What is the function of this decision?

[00:18:42] Am I happy where I am?

[00:18:44] And if so, what is motivating me to change my situation?

[00:18:49] If you see better pay, ask yourself how that pay will improve your quality of life or possibly

[00:18:57] if it will make it worse.

[00:18:59] If you’re seeking different dynamics or some other change, ask yourself how your happiness

[00:19:05] will improve.

[00:19:07] Remember that trying to predict what will make you happy in the future is very hard

[00:19:12] to do.

[00:19:13] It’s an unreliable prediction kind of mechanism that we have and so if you have attained some

[00:19:20] level of happiness, it’s probably worthwhile to be careful in this decision making process.

[00:19:26] But it does make sense to seek happiness without trying to change your external realities

[00:19:32] first.

[00:19:33] In other words, how can you be happy with what you have now?

[00:19:39] And once you’ve done this evaluation, once you’ve done these changes, there may be some

[00:19:43] other reason that still remains.

[00:19:47] Then if that’s the case, then by all means, take the time and once again, don’t make this

[00:19:55] under a pressured situation, but take the time to consider what kind of change you want

[00:20:00] to make.

[00:20:01] Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:20:04] I hope you enjoyed this episode and again, this is very hard work to do.

[00:20:09] This is all the internal work that you have to do when you’re considering a career change.

[00:20:14] Nobody said it would be easy and I also didn’t promise that I would give you answers here.

[00:20:19] My goal is to help you find a way to find those answers yourself.

[00:20:26] Thank you again to today’s sponsor, Auth0.

[00:20:29] To get started with Auth0, head over to auth0.com, that’s a-u-t-h, the number zero dot com.

[00:20:37] Thanks so much for listening to Developer Tea.

[00:20:40] If you don’t know about it yet, we have a Discord community.

[00:20:43] If you’re not familiar with Discord, then just probably Google it.

[00:20:47] It’s a really excellent communication platform.

[00:20:49] We actually have voice calling on Discord.

[00:20:53] 99% of the time, it’s essentially a chat server with various rooms.

[00:21:00] We have a very fun community of people, but it is improved with more interaction and the

[00:21:06] more people who come, the more questions we get to talk about, the more discussion we

[00:21:12] get to have.

[00:21:13] If you want to join that community, head over to developertea.com slash Discord today.

[00:21:17] It’s free.

[00:21:18] It always will be.

[00:21:19] The goal is just to give you a platform, a place to have discussions that are meaningful

[00:21:25] about your career.

[00:21:26] Thanks so much for listening and until next time, enjoy your tea.

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