Eric P. Butts

THE Career Site for Accountants and Consultants.

  • Home
  • About
  • Useful Resources
  • Articles
  • Work With Me
    • Breakthrough Resume Writing
    • How to Get Smart in Excel…Fast!
    • Corporate Ladder University (Book)
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer
  • Login
You are here: Home / Career Advice / When Is The Best Time To Quit Your Job?

February 13, 2013 by Eric Butts 1 Comment

When Is The Best Time To Quit Your Job?

Quit your job once you get your promotion

For most people, knowing when to pull the trigger on leaving their current company to pursue other opportunities is difficult. The difficulty stems from a few things such as not wanting to leave relationships behind and losing friends or burning bridges, fear that the next opportunity may not be as great as you thought, etc. So with all these different things to consider, how do you know when it’s the best time to leave your job?

If you’re thinking about quitting your job, the best time to do it is right after a promotion.

If you quit your job following a promotion it accomplishes a few things for you:

  1. Minimizes the likelihood you’ll miss an opportunity at the firm you’re leaving. In most firms, people the year after promotion is the year to take a bit of a breather. Getting a top rating is tougher because you’re spending at least six months just learning how to do the job, let alone excel at it. Not all that different from changing firms.
  2. Kick starts your salary. For example, if you were making $100K at your old job, and got a 10% promotion and then a 20% raise on top of that as the salary for your new job, it gives you a year-over-year increase of $32K (vs $10K promotion) that doesn’t include any sort of sign-on bonus you might receive. Boosting your base then makes any subsequent increases you get a little nicer cushion for your pockets.
  3. Allows you to come into your target firm at the title you want. While changing jobs often and should come with a pay raise, rarely will you find people getting promoted to the next level as part of a job change. Companies want you to prove yourself before crowning you the next big thing and rightfully so. You know that you can handle it but they don’t…unless you’ve already been pre-ordained by your current employer.

When do YOU think is the right time to make a job change? Let me know in the comments below!

Filed Under: Career Advice, Corporate Ladder University

About Eric Butts

I’m a management consultant, MBA and CPA who has a passion for helping others in their career pursuits. Grab my FREE cheatsheet on 12 simple habits of highly successful consultants.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Featured Posts

Consultants Get Paid For One Thing Only (and it’s not what you think)

Motivating Employees: Take The Time to Meet Your People

How to Get Into Business School – Part 3 (Interviews)

How to Get Into Business School – Part 4 (Recommendations)

Do You Know About the Dark Side of Management Consulting?

Popular Posts

  • 5 Reasons You Should Be Proud to Ask Dumb Questions at Work
  • What Does It Mean to Have a Sense of Urgency
  • Always Stay Close to the Gatekeepers
  • Why Are There Still So Few Black CPAs?
  • What's the Difference Between FP&A and Accounting?
  • 3 Reasons Average Students Become Good Accountants
  • One Thing You Should Never Do on Linkedin
  • How to Handle Double Standards in the Workplace
  • How to Pass the CPA Exam Without Breaking the Bank
  • Masters in Accounting Isn't The Sweet Treat Some Students Think

Recent Posts

  • Here’s why you may want to rethink that skills section on your resume
  • Internet troll triggered by a pair of tweets
  • Some knitting advice that might help you fatten your bank account
  • What Elon Musk should’ve learned from how Thanos approached handling his business
  • Here’s an example of why you need to change how you’re doing cold DM pitches
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer

© 2012–2021 Eric P. Butts