It's Time To Go
my longstanding advice on changing jobs
I realize that given this job market, that this post may be ill timed - or even insensitive. I hope it’s not, and I hope it helps.
I changed jobs a few months back, and a lot of folks have asked me why? I talked about why I decided to leave $currentJob - 1 a bit on the AB Testing Podcast, but now that time has passed, people want to know how I ended up at $currentJob. So I’m going to write a bit about that.
Sometimes, It’s Luck
I give two pieces of frequent and consistent advice about changing jobs. The first is:
Never go from a job, always go to a job.
By this, I mean that, if context allows, focus on finding a great new job rather than just leaving the current job. I didn’t do a great job following my own advice here. But I also did follow my advice.
Let me try to explain.
$currentJob -1 wasn’t enjoyable for me anymore. I was burned out and frustrated. I worked with wonderful people, but I knew I needed to leave. So I decided to leave…eventually.
When I decided to leave, and planned to be jobless for a while. I planned to start looking for a new gig and be picky. I was prepared for that to take time.
It took a month.
Sometimes it’s luck.
The One
The other bit of advice that people have heard a few thousand times from me is to follow the three Ps. Following this bit of advice from myself made the decision to choose $currentJob easy.
The three Ps are simple. People, Person, and Product. Or, with a bit more elaboration:
People - make sure the people you meet in the interview process are people you really like, and want to work with. Interview your interviewers. If you walk out of an interview (as I did once at Amazon), and think, “wow - that dude’s a jerk", and hope that you’re never going to have to work with him, you will be wrong. Not only will you have to work with the jerk, you will have to work with people that allow the jerk to be a jerk. Work with people that you want to work with. That’s it.
Person - the person you report to, most of all, cannot be a jerk. Perhaps more importantly, you want them to support the way you want to work. Take time to make sure that the person you are going to work for is going to support you, challenge you, and be a partner in your success and growth.
Product - There’s a reason I never worked on SQL Server or MSN at Microsoft (aka $currentJob - 2). I have absolutely zero interest in those products. However, it’s worth calling out when I think of this P, that it’s not always a product that I’d love to use (like when I worked on Xbox), but a product that I want to learn more about.
In the end, I lucked out. $currentJob showed up and was strong in all three, so change happened. I was lucky - especially in this economy, and things ended up moving much quicker than I anticipated, and so far, so good.
Not Foolproof
I wish it was an infallible system, but it’s nowhere close. I’ve poorly misjudged all three Ps at times when changing jobs (note, that while I was at Microsoft for 22 years, I had 15 plus different roles). Despite my best efforts, I’ve worked for shitty managers, been on toxic teams, and worked on boring products.
But I think the advice is still sound, despite my mistakes. And the mistakes have given me opportunity for reflection and learning.
It’s a weird world out there right now, and I know that it isn’t always easy to be picky. But - when you can afford to be picky - focus on the job you’re going to, and on the three Ps.
-A