The 3 Factor Model for Switching Jobs
Through my minuscule career spanning a mere three years, I have been in a position to decide whether to take up a job or not for 5 illustrious times. Illustrious mainly because I do not go by the socially accepted standards of switching a job. To illustrate, for my second job, when people look for nothing but a hike, I took a dip of more than 30%. For my third, I changed from a Non-metro to a metro city for virtually no hike. For my fourth job, there was just one reason,chull. Chull, vaguely defined is a stroke of unreasonable passion or madness.
So you can understand that I have had a crazy ride to say the least. The interesting part is although each one of those decisions weren’t the most logical one and failed in one aspect or the other, in the end I am in a position that the B-school me would have given anything to be in. Maybe this is a reason a majority of my friends and acquaintances like to have a discussion when they switch or think to.
Going by the return rate of advice seekers, I can safely assume that model of switching jobs works more often than not. Let me put it out for you.
The Three Factor Model.
These three factors always were in my sub conscious and others too but the formalization simplifies things a lot. Though I wouldn’t take the full credit of coming up with this. It was, in fact a result of a depressed conversation with one of my closest friends.
The three-factor model, as the name suggests is based on three factors. For me and most people I know, these factors have been: Job Profile, Money and Brand.
The ideal job is the one that provides you with the tripod. Every leg exactly balanced as the other. For me, it would be the post of Brand Manager at Coca-Cola offering at least 1.5x of what I am making right now. Sadly, I am not that perfect, nor is the world.
Thus, we move to a more practical structure of the three-factor model:
The supported beam.
As you can see in the image, the supported beam is supported by the three factors. The position of the factors is inconsequential. The point being made is that if any 2 of the 3 factors get satisfied, you should go with the job switch.
In my case, when I took the job at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Money and Brand were 2 acceptable reasons. When I switched to a shitty app dev sweat shop, only one of the three factors were satisfied and that was the job description. I loved what I did but it was like eating ice-cream standing in a pile of shit.
Disclaimers:
As you’d expect, this decision-making model has no scientific or otherwise proof. It was something that has helped me take job switch decisions and I thought it would be of use to you as well.
Job description means much more that your KPIs and KRAs. It is what shit you pull off in reality. In the day to day job of yours, there must be ample learning and personal growth. And passion of course.
Money is subjective. My definition of enough and your definition of enough can vary dramatically. Small tip, in the formative years, go for the job that fulfills your needs and you would get ample for your greed later.
Brand is a function of too many things. From an employees perspective, it should not only be how the world percieves the company. It should be a mixture of external perception + work culture and other vital HR practices. Glassdoor reviews have served the purpose till now for me.
That’s all Volks. I hope I could help in any way possible. Let me know in the comments down here.
Cheers and never be comfortable, no matter wherever you are.
PS: I wrote this and other similar posts on my personal blog.
