Deciding When It's Time to Leave

by Kim Creed, Education Manager

Inevitably, most technical communicators change jobs along the career track. Sometimes, a company reorganizes, or acquires, or gets acquired, resulting in an unplanned job change. But, how do we decide that is time to initiate our own job change? When is it time to go?

The Subjects

I polled some technical communicators to find out what they were doing to manage their careers. Some of those polled had recently changed jobs. The technical communicators polled varied in terms of experience, education and key motivators. The criteria and process each person used for determining when it was time to go also varied greatly.

The Need to be Challenged

Most of those polled agreed that having challenging work and being part of a great team helped to keep them at a job. Challenging work includes feeling that the current employer can nurture the growth of writing skills and provide some variety in the type of work. When you couple challenging work with feeling rewarded, chances are writers will stay.

Challenging work was also linked to perceiving advancement opportunities at a company. Without opportunities to take on more senior work, new projects or managerial roles, writers looked outside for the next job. To paraphrase one writer, if you feel uninspired and unmotivated, it's time to take a look around. Most writers polled took stock of their career direction during performance appraisals. The review process brought perspective and a chance to reflect on goals.

The Company Culture

Company culture contributed to deciding whether to stay or go. Lack of training opportunities, lack of funding for new tools and processes, and questionable company practices caused writers to become frustrated and disillusioned. Other issues that pointed the way to the door also included: inadequate tools to do the job, lack of advancement opportunities, fighting the same fires from release to release, and the desire for better remuneration.

Although lack of company perks such as special events and fruit baskets were not listed as reasons for leaving a company; however,  the writers polled did list these perks as reasons for staying at a company—human resources personnel take note.

Additionally, one writer noted that technical communicators were well respected at her place of employment. Feeling respected as "an integral member of the engineering team," also ranked highly as a reason to stay. Nevertheless, this writer left the place of employment because there was no opportunity to pursue management there.

The Decision is Yours

Should you stay or should you go? Most writers agreed that if they were doing the same old stuff and just collecting a pay cheque, that it was not reason enough to stay. 

Look around and see what others are doing. Get to know what new processes, tools and roles are available. That kind of knowledge can be motivating and put a new perspective on things. It might even open some new doors.

About Kim Creed

Kim works as an Information Developer at PEERGroup. Previously, she has written documentation for optical carriers, business process automation software, and manufacturing assembly lines. In her downtime, Kim practices yoga (Sivananda tradition), sketches, creates culinary delights, reads a lot of non-fiction, and is patiently trying to teach her bird to say a few words.