Thinking about changing jobs?
Workparent Weekly
July 16, 2021
Are you a working parent thinking about a potential job change?
When you’re combining career and children, professional transitions can be alluring – and daunting, and complex. You want to make a good career decision – but you want that decision to work well for your family, too.
So: try asking yourself the following questions. They’ll help you see around the corners of any potential job move, cut through that thicket of concerns and considerations – and help you make best possible decision for you. (For a complete, step-by-step guide to working parent job changes, pick up a copy of Workparent - and check out chapter 13: Transitions.)
Reasons. Is this a push or a pull? In other words, am I fleeing the bad, or moving towards something good?
Necessity. Could I get what I’m looking for my current career, or role?
Flexibility. Does the new gig involve more hours or fewer? Greater or lesser control over my work? How much will I have to be connected to work during my “off” time?
Family future. How would this new role map to the next stage of my kids’ development (e.g., what would it be like when they’re in school, instead of daycare?)
Long term impact. How would I describe this decision, and my potential new job, 15 years from now? What story will I tell my colleagues – and my kids?
Identity. What do I feel that I would have to give up or leave behind if I make this switch?
Total-life impact. Will this one change bring others – a housing move, change in care, my budget?
Timing: Is now the time – or does it make sense to take stock again, six months out?
Feelings: am I making a change for objective reasons, because I want to, or because I feel I “should”?
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