Leaving a Job before 1 year

Question

I have been in my current job for 7 months. I work for a trade association, mainly responsible for external affairs (community, government, business to business, etc.).

Over the past 7 months I have come to realize that this job is not exactly what was 'sold' to me when I was interviewed. The hours are 60-70hrs per week, but I was told it would be 40-50hrs. This was due to the loss of an employee (we are an office of 4).

I have taken on duties that I am not trained to do (bookkeeping, etc.) because the President failed to take responsibility to ensure 'our house is in order' after the departure of the employee and many other issues. Additionally, I have uncovered various other organizational and management issues that I do not foresee being fixed - at least within the next 5 years. However, with that said, I planned to stay and do the best I could to help strengthen the organization.

Yet, along came a wrinkle. An acquaintance of mine who is the Executive Director of another organization asked me to come to work for her in a newly defined Director of Operations position, with the goal to groom me to take over when she retires in 3-5 years. This has put me in a difficult position. Two main issues are at hand here

1) I am hesitant to leave the current job before I reach 1 year (the potential new job has told me she will wait until my 1 year mark as long as I commit soon).

2) some of the Board members are the same for the current and prospective company.

Personally, the new job would be much better. The prospective ED is far superior to my current President, who never takes responsibility for the organization, financial issues, etc. as he is only hoping to collect a paycheck and wine-and-dine people on the company's dime. The prospective job also has a better schedule and more flexibility - I currently work 60-70hr weeks, although during the interview process I was told it would be 40-50hr weeks, which has created family issues particularly in the raising of my 6 month old daughter. The pay for the prospective job is also 10% higher.

So my questions are as follows: In light of the above, what advice can all of you give me to

1) help me decide if I should stay or go (personally, I desire to go due to better job and better situation for family, but I do not want to hurt future career prospects - I left my last job working for a politician after a year because I realized working in politics was not for me and my job before that was as a contracted position for 15 months);

2) help manage the transition with the similar Board members;

3) manage the resignation to ensure that no bridges are burned, etc.

I understand the above will generate an extensive response; however, I appreciate any advice provided. Thank you.

Based on trends on this site, I see close votes for your question. — Anjan Biswas, Feb 22 '14 at 01:23
TL;DR plz summarize ur post :) also give it a bit of formatting. — Long, Feb 22 '14 at 01:50
Based on the subject, I really want to read this and help, but I just can't get myself to read this much. Maybe I'm just lazy, but I think others are feeling the same way. — Brandon, Feb 22 '14 at 02:47
I have edited your question in an attempt to make it a bit easier to read. If I have made any mistakes please feel free to edit the question yourself to make corrections. — vascowhite, Feb 22 '14 at 03:37
why do you feel you need to wait until the one year mark? Is there a contractual reason, or do you not want to appear to be a job hopper, or something else? — mhoran_psprep, Feb 22 '14 at 03:44
Just leave if you've got a better offer. Come on. That's a great reason to leave a job, and everybody knows it; the only people that will cynically argue against this and bemoan job-hopping are middle managers that are afraid of losing their fiefdoms. I guarantee that they'd leave in a second if they found something that was worth the risk. — , Feb 22 '14 at 05:20
"3) manage the resignation to ensure that... etc" -- this has been asked and answered already, see eg: How do I maintain a good relationship with an employer after resigning? and How to make a smooth exit transition? — gnat, Feb 22 '14 at 13:23

Joe Strazzere · Answer 1 · 2014-02-26T13:11:01.993

Reading through your question leads me to believe you already know what you want to do. You want to leave, but want to wait for the 1-year mark before doing so.

So go ahead and do what you know you want to do - the offer is on the table.

I'm not sure that waiting for the magic 1-year mark makes any real difference. 5 months won't really matter to future hiring managers.

If it were me, I'd just resign now, and give an appropriate notice period to your current employer. It could be hard to give your full attention to your current job when you know it ends in 5 months or less.

Whatever you decide, think about this - jobs aren't static and situations change. If a team member leaves unexpectedly, others may be required to pitch in and help for a while. Even in your new company it will be unrealistic to expect everything discussed during the interview to stay the same forever.

A 3-5 year grooming period might well turn into an 8+ year period if your acquaintance decides that she isn't as eager to retire as she thought. A comfortable work week might turn into a 70 hour position if your acquaintance decides to ease into partial retirement now and require the Director of Operations to pick up the slack.

And your personal situation changes, too. Going into a job requiring weekend work may be fine in the beginning, but a change in the family situation may mean that no longer fits your needs.

These things happen. Jobs change. People change. We need to be able to deal with it as it happens.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 22 '14 at 16:03

Leaving one job before a year isn't a big deal. There are a number of reasons people change jobs. The problem is when you have a history of job hopping.

Imagine a resume that looks like this:

October 2013 - present
March 2013 - September 2013
June 2012 - March 2013

Now, suppose I need to hire someone. If I want someone for a 6 month job, great. This candidate seems like someone who will be fine with doing the job and leaving. But most hiring managers want someone for longer. It takes a few months to get someone to peak productivity. Why invest that training in someone who is likely to leave in a year (or less than a year.)

Leaving a Job before 1 year

2 Answers2