How To Leave Your Dead End Job
There are a million reasons to leave a dead end job. The problem is actually doing it. It's hard to take that leap of faith and just quit, but you're probably spending more time at your job than you would like so there's no time like the present! We've compiled some great tips for how to leave your dead end job, as well as some motivational quotes from successful people who overcame their own obstacles and made it out on top.
The five-step process looks something like this: Think about what you want - ideally, this means exploring options in order to make an informed decision. Prepare by learning how much money you'll need and coming up with a timeline for earning money after leaving your current position (i.e. three months, six months, nine months). Be sure to budget for early retirement (or earlier), especially if you're quitting to start your own business. Decide when you're going to quit - this depends on how far out you want to plan, but here are some guidelines: If you don't have company benefits and the company pays retirement plans, consider quitting before the next pay period starts. This way, the money used for retirement contributions just won't be available for income if and when you return to work. If you're unhappy and you want to quit, try not to do it on your own. Talk it out with someone who can help you make the decision from a financial standpoint, as well as helping you plan for the future - i.e., what will happen if the company goes under? If the company has retirement plans and you have good benefits, consider leaving before the next pay period starts. Overhead is very high when changing employers, so consider this method if you can afford it and are close enough to unemployment benefits that they'll meet some of your living expenses while job hunting. Call in sick or take off work if necessary to avoid going out at night or on weekends (within reason).
By far the best way to leave a dead end job is to quit.
I used to tell people that they shouldn't quit their dead end jobs, because they didn't know how they were going to make it yet. That was just not true. In fact I'd spent most of my adult life working dead end jobs and I'd seen plenty of people leave those jobs, so I knew the drill. The problem was convincing people that this was really the best option for them, instead of being stuck in a job that got you nowhere.
I'm one of those people who thought about leaving my employers every day and actually left on many occasions; but it's still not a foregone conclusion or automatic thing. You have to think about it, prepare for it and make some decisions that you can live with. So, I'll tell you how I leave my dead end job.
Step One: Prepare for the best possible outcome but don't get too worried about it.
Step two: Do something bad and make sure not to do it again.
Step three: Wait until things get really bad then make a decision (or a bunch of them).
This might sound like crazy advice, but I'm serious about that first step. Do you do that before you go to school, to get a job, or to go on vacation? Why would you not spend the time to come up with the best possible outcome for leaving your dead end job?
For example and with my own dead end jobs in mind, my goals were generally:
1) To make more money.
2) To have more free time.
3) To be happier.
I knew that there was no chance of me meeting those goals if I didn't change jobs first. But I also knew that I had just as much of a chance of meeting those goals as anyone else if I decided to stay and work harder at making things happen.
I told myself the same thing when it came to leaving my employers. I knew that if I changed jobs, I'd be able to make more money, have more free time and be happy. The problem was getting out of my dead end job now that I had no one there to question how long I would stay or how much money it might cost.
So, I talked it over with people who would listen and managed to convince myself to do something bad enough that I'd never do it again.
To this day, all my employers have ever done is mess things up for me. They are very good at that.
I've seen a lot of people quit because they made a bad decision. Those people like to leave without a plan in order to avoid the risk of making another bad decision, and they make the mistake of expecting their new employers to support them in making good decisions. I've never left my employers that way because I knew that even if I could afford it, no one would be there to help me keep sane during the transition. You see, I already quit once or twice before, but then I decided to do something bad and make sure not to do it again. The things I did were so bad that they helped me realize that I had to leave.
The most important part of making a good decision is to decide ahead of time what should happen and when. In our example, you should decide whether you'll put up with the same problems for one day longer than you say is acceptable, one week longer than you originally told yourself was okay, or one month longer than you'd like.
Another question I had to ask myself was, "Am I mentally prepared to do the things that need doing in order to get there?" In other words, can I endure the stress of taking care of personal matters and preparing my home, office and life for a new employer?
I realized that if I were stuck at my dead end job forever, it would take three years to get my career back on track. I wasn't willing to live that long without being able to do what I wanted in life. It's bad enough when it takes you three years or more to make enough money in your current job; but if you can't get out of your current position, then it might take even longer.
If you're not willing to stay longer than you have to, just quit. No one can help you realize that your time is up faster than you do it yourself. I would argue that the only way anyone ever gets anywhere in life is by making a series of bad decisions and then working their way out of them. You'll never get ahead or back into a better situation by waiting for someone to come along and fix things for you.
Again, this may seem like I'm advising people to be very dangerous criminals. So for some people, if this sounds like bad advice then wait until it's too late and make up your mind that you want more from life; but if you don't wait until it's too late - i.
Conclusion
Just because your dead end job isn't working out doesn't mean that there aren't better jobs that you can do. I've seen a lot of people decide they wanted to look for a job somewhere else and then settle for the first thing they found; thinking that it was all they could do. However, if you're not willing to make a big jump up, don't get stuck in this situation.
I know from experience that it's not such a bad idea to try another dead end job or two before quitting. But, as soon as things are going bad and you decide to leave, don't think about what you'll do tomorrow or next week.