Are you fed up at work? Sick of it all? Ready to throw in the towel?
You’re likely not alone. The job market isn’t providing a lot of opportunities for mobility, keeping most people stuck in place, even if they’d otherwise look to move.
But everyone has their limits.
The new year is a great time for a professional reassessment. (I’m not suggesting quitting before bonus season. Do you think I’m an animal?)
If you’re thinking of jumping into the great unknown, we’ve got some advice for you. BI compiled four personal essays from people who quit their jobs and aren’t looking back. The series — “Quitting Without Regret” — shows that while quitting isn’t easy, it can lead to a more intentional and meaningful career.
Here’s some of the advice that came across in the essays.
Have a plan, even if you can’t stick to it. Jenny Wood created a detailed spreadsheet to weigh the pros and cons of quitting her job at Google, where she had spent nearly two decades. She also identified the people she wanted to network with before she left. Ultimately, though, she recognized she couldn’t plan everything out and had to take action. “Fear adds friction, which slows you down without actually minimizing risk,” she said.
You just gotta keep livin’, man. Quitting isn’t always about being frustrated at work. Sometimes it’s because you’re hoping there’s more out there than maintaining what can feel like the status quo. Jim Kukral left his job as a sales director at 54 years old to start a party boat business. He recognizes it’s a risk (and his and his wife’s retirement at stake), but “if I don’t do it, I feel like I can’t break free from this matrix of a world that we’ve created for ourselves.”
Remember: Work isn’t life. What if you love your job? That’s the case for Victoria Dobbie. She loves her job at TikTok, but the 30-year-old decided she wanted to travel the world for at least six months. With no kids and no partner, she feels now’s the best time to do something she’s always wanted to do.
Don’t let the golden handcuffs scare you. Jay Gengelbach was making $700K working in tech when he quit in mid-2024. He was terrified of walking away from such a big compensation package, but was feeling unfulfilled. He eventually landed at a smaller tech company, where he’s enjoying the quicker pace of delivering things at a smaller company.
