Considering a job change? Here’s what I’ve learned about managing a career.

Almost daily we see a headline on “The Great Resignation” or “The Great Reshuffling”. People are reconsidering how they want to spend their work time. Having criteria that are important to you makes the decision easier. I’ve been fortunate to try different roles and work with many different people in my career. I’ve had times when I’ve been very satisfied at work and times where I was quite unhappy. Here is some of what I’ve learned.

1. Participate in a community. Earlier in my career, I had the opportunity to get connected with Wrox publishing. They aren’t around anymore but at the time they were a leader in the technical publishing industry. An editor saw a posting I had on an XML newsgroup. I was asked if I would do a technical review of book chapters. I said sure. That led to writing book chapters and being paid to present at conferences. I even got to extend that network to a work colleague (my wife). We had all-expense trips paid to Las Vegas and Amsterdam for their conferences in exchange for doing presentations (which we got paid for as well). Is there a community in your field of work you can contribute to?
2. Have a support network. It’s hard to make a change. The bigger change you make the more important is to have support from a spouse, family member or friend. My wife Sophie was clear to me that the most important consideration for my career was for me to be happy. With that support, I had the courage to try something completely different in my career which was leadership and sales coaching. I learned an incredible amount in two years from people like Mahan Khalsa, Randy Illig and Craig Christensen. To this day I continue to use those learning in what I do. Sophie took time with me every Saturday morning where we would have breakfast at Starbucks to talk through how things were going and planning next steps. Thanks Sophie, I couldn’t have gained that experience without you.
3. Consider value beyond money. Some of my biggest take-home cash years were 15 years ago. My time doing leadership and sales coaching were some of the lowest. However, from a personal development perspective, I made massive leaps forward in those two years whereas I was stale and stuck 15 years ago. That personal development opened new opportunities that I couldn’t have considered before. Consider the entire value of what you get from a company which includes the money plus the opportunity to develop. Personal development ultimately leads to bigger cash rewards and even more important, personal satisfaction.
4. Try different things. Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to develop and exercise skills in many areas including software development, sales, people management, marketing and business planning. Some of them I’m pretty good at and some are just ok. By having the breadth of experience I’m in a better position to interact with others that have those roles. More senior roles in an organization require that breadth. Take a chance and stretch into new areas when you can. You may have to give up short-term monetary rewards but you are investing in your future (see point 3 above).
5. Work with people you enjoy. Naval Ravikant isn’t shy with his opinion on this subject when he says, “If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day”. I’ve been at my current organization, Softchoice for 8.5 years. That’s the longest I’ve been at any company. The people I work with are a primary reason I feel Softchice is a good place for me. I arrived at Softchoice through Sean Denomey, a friend and former business partner and have developed new relationships with people who share similar values to me.

A job offer from an organization with more pay and a big name can be very enticing. It provides external validation that you are important and desired by someone. That enjoyment will be short-lived. Consider the long-term of your career and make decisions based on those criteria that are important to you.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.