When is it time for a new job?

I think there are certain times when people need to get a new job because they have outgrown their current one.  I have been through this, since anyone who has ever had a college degree and ever worked as a cashier/retailer has.

This thought process should be used by college student athletes as well.

I think it really boils down to two things.  Are you being challenged and are you learning anything?  I think these two things might actually be one thing, but whatever.

Are you being challenged?

If you have a job, but can do everything easily it becomes a lot less fun.  Challenges make things fun and most people with brains and ambition need to be challenged. 

Why did Michael Jordan retire for the first time? 

About two and a half minutes in he starts talking, and early on in his talking he mentions something really important...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDekQ3T01Dc&feature=relmfu

"When I lose the sense of motivation, and the sense of having to prove something as a basketball player, it's time for me to walk away from the game of basketball"

What I get out of the quote, and maybe I'm wrong, but I hear him say that he no longer thinks he is being challenged. 

Are you learning anything? 

This ties into being challenged.  If you are doing your job but aren't learning anything new than it's time you consider moving on and doing something else.  Part of having a job is to gain new skills.  Sometimes the job evolves into something more challenging and teaches new skills, but often times it does not.  If you aren't gaining new skills then you aren't preparing yourself to move forward.


You can love the people you are working with and you can love what you do, but in the end if you aren't being challenged and being made a more skillful worker you will get bored and enjoy things less and less.  You have to realize when it is in your best interest to move on and do something else.  If you do a great job, you will be loved and missed by those you work with, but you can't let emotion get in the way of your ambition, if you have ambition.  You need to do something more challenging.

I'm sure college basketball players don't enjoy having to upset fans by leaving early for the draft, but in the end they have an easy decision to make once they figure out what is best for them.  

This is why I have no feelings of anger towards student-athletes who leave school early for professional sports.  They enter the draft because they aren't being challenged and because they aren't still learning things.  Plus they have lots of financial reasons to go pro.  With the NBA Draft tonight, think about this for the one and done players.  If college basketball was no longer challenging them and if they weren't learning new things, than why stay in college?  They made the right decision by going pro.   



Some jobs suck because of situations surrounding it's pay, it's boss, working conditions, work load, etc.  You might want to move on for those reasons, but I think that's different than outgrowing it.

People also need to think that they are making a difference at work, because if not they lose lots of motivation.  So if you aren't making a difference, you may also want to find something else to do when you can.