Would you leave your job without another one lined up?

[Peridotty]

Asking for my relative.
She has been in a hospitality job for 5 years now. She has a bachelors and masters degree from a good university in an area related to business/ economics. She has low self confidence and didn’t find a graduate job after graduating. She interviewed in a couple of places but got rejected. She found a job working in a hotel, was meant to be temporary but ended up being 5 years now. She wants to quit and look for another job in a university admin field. However she was furloughed for a year and was looking for a job and didn’t find anything. Should she still just quit and look for a job or quit once she has found a job? Thanks

In her situation I don't think she should quit her job before getting another.

She needs to spend her spare time making herself more employable to her target area. Having a current job is always more preferable to employers.

Absolutely not. It’s easier to get a job when you have a job. Lots of employers have a dim view of anyone out of work due to their own doing.

Not usually no, unless it was a truly dire situation (toxic environment having dreadful impact on mental health etc), or I was in the kind of industry where there are so many jobs I'd be confident of finding something suitable within a couple of weeks.

Otherwise the sensible thing is to stick it out in current job to at least keep some money coming in and something on her CV and really dedicate her spare time to finding a new job - as she works in hospitality does this sometimes mean she has mornings or weekdays off work? If so this could work in her favour for things like interviews as she will be free in the week and won't have to take time off work. If she can she should try and exploit her current role to get as much from it as she can, e.g. if admin is what she wants to do can she spend some time working on reception or in the office of the hotel so she gets experience of customer service, computer systems, accounts etc? Unfortunately it's pretty much the norm to apply for lots of things you don't get and have at least a couple of unsuccessful interviews before getting a job so she needs to practice persistence and resilience (I think this will probably be easier if she's still in employment too as gives structure to the day and a sense of some self-worth and social contact, there's nothing more depressing to me than to be sat at home alone all day doing nothing but applying for jobs that you get rejected from... if you add to that the pressure of having no income it gets really stressful!).

Absolutely not given she’s already had several unsuccessful stabs at job hunting and there isn’t actually anything preventing from her from looking for a new job whilst she’s still working in her current role. The only exception I’d make is if she’s sitting on a massive trust fund or something like that.

I have and it worked out for me. I took a month off then started looking and found a new role in just under 2 months but I understand not everyone is able to do this. In her case I wouldn’t as she’s been rejected quite a few times so it would be risky. There are so many jobs out there that are relevant to her degree. I’m constantly getting emails highlighting analyst roles that are available

No, never. I need to support my family.

Thank you for the replies. I also thought it was sensible to find a job before leaving her job especially as she couldn’t find anything she wanted to apply for in the whole year she was furloughed. She works from 3pm to 10pm 5 days a week and so she feels like there is not enough time for her to look for a job and is always tired. She ends up going to bed really late and wake up around 1pm which is why she feels like she has no time to do other things. She also really enjoyed the furlough because she could do her own activities like gardening and now she is back at work she feels depressed.

No. I'm always too scared of not having a regular income.

Plus it's always easier to find work when you're in work.

I don't recommend staying in a job you hate, but just get a new job first!!

Could she do a bit of voluntary work, to get more skills. If she’s only starting work at 3.00pm, would be harder, but I used to do evening classes after working a full day, so not impossible.
Or see if she can develop in existing job, are there any admin jobs there ?
It’s hard to get into other job areas without some experience.

I don’t necessarily see that employers take a dim view of people being out of work, it just doesn’t scream driven and ambitious if you’ve not done anything productive with it.

She does do admin type roles in the hotel I think but she also has to cook for all the guests in the restaurant and check people in and out. She says often it’s understaffed and she and one other person is there to look after 100 rooms (not all with be occupied of course)

She just wants a desk job that’s 9-5 basically without much stress.

No way.

I always promised myself that I would never have to stay in a job I truly hated - I could just leave. I don't think that not being able to find a job whilst furloughed is much of an indication - there were few jobs about then. Right now, the job market is far more open, so it's probably a good time to look around. If she's finding that the work is leaving her with little energy to job hunt, then I would just quit.

I couldn't afford to as I haven't got enough savings so no.

Hmm if I'm being charitable it sounds like she might well be depressed, sounds a lot like how my brother went when he was in the midst of a very bad depression, he quit his well paid professional job 'to look for something better', ended up in a cycle of up staying all night, in bed all day (sometimes all of the following night too), always very tired, struggled to engage or have any enthusiasm for anything. He wasn't applying for jobs at all, not because there wasn't anything out there suitable (although that's the excuse he'd give if asked) but because of the fog of the depression and the rut he'd got stuck into. He improved vastly when on antidepressents and with some therapy. Not saying you should wade straight in with that as a suggestion but possibly some discrete inquiries/support for her mental health might not go amiss, I find it hard to believe there was literally nothing she wanted/was able to apply for in the admin field in a whole year?

The harsher approach of course is to say she sounds lazy, lots of us would prefer if we could spend all day every day pottering to our own schedule and not have to work in a job which can be boring/annoying/stressful (aren't they all?) but that's the reality of adult life sunshine, you sometimes just have to suck it up. If she works 7 hours in the day and sleeps 8 hours a night that still leaves 9 hours a day plus weekends for job hunting, that should be ample, it's what everyone else does anyway... she can browse job sites and do applications in the middle of the night if that's when she works best, everything is online these days anyway...

@maxelly she is depressed but she doesn’t want to take antidepressants. She tried them and didn’t like them. She is just like how you describe your brother. I worry that if she quits she won’t be motivated to find a job. She has a roof over her head- I helped her to buy a house together so she only has bills to pay.

She is also I don’t know if I should say it but ‘lazy’ she wants to do the nice things like sleep in all day, do some gardening, no stress. Ideally she says she would like to get married to someone rich and not have to work at all and just relax for the rest of her life.

Yeah sounds exactly like my brother, he's had chronic depression all his adult life (runs down the male line of our family unfortunately, our father and grandfather were the same), to everyone other than him it's obvious he's much better mentally when taking anti-Ds and when in a structured routine/working but he does periodically plunge down into a bad phase, quit his job and retreat into himself for long periods . With him it's also very hard to seperate out what's the depression and what is his natural personality, even if the depression was magically cured I don't think he'd ever be a super energetic or driven person, he likes a quiet life and his hobbies etc so I do sometimes have to rein in my interefence and let him get on with it even though I know he's capable of doing/achieving a lot more in life, sometimes you just have to swallow your annoyance and accept them for who they are.

It sounds like you are super-supportive of her, keep that going, try not to judge the bad decisions she makes too harshly and try and gently steer her towards help. Has she been back to the doctor recently to discuss different anti-Ds or a different dose? With most of them you do have to stick with them for quite a long time, my Dbro is on Sertraline and it takes 6-8 weeks to kick in after he's stopped for a period, I really have to be on at him to stick with it as after a week or 2 he often decides it isn't working and stops taking it which sends him right back to square 1, particularly as docs only give him a 2 week prescription at a time [anger]. Other things that help are exercise, a good diet, good sleep hygiene practices, low-effort/non judgemental contact with friends and family, talking therapy, working !

@Peridotty

She just wants a desk job that’s 9-5 basically without much stress.

So do a lot of people who have more relevant experience. She would be very lucky to move from her current role into one of these jobs and may need to retrain.

I did but not in those circumstances, it was a very toxic environment, I had savings to rely on, I had a new job within 24 hours but I am very employable and there were a particular set of circumstances surrounding it.
It’s a huge risk so I would suggest she works on her cv, increases her confidence and apply, apply, apply.

She's had plenty of time to look for another job while on furlough for a year. Either she didn't look that hard or it's very difficult for her to get the job she wants. Either way, quitting her current job won't change that

It is a huge risk, depending on her circumstances.
A friend of mine left their job in June thinking they could walk straight into another job. It's now mid-September and they have no job, and the panic is setting in about how their bills are going to be paid now their savings have dwindled, and they are secretly kicking themselves for not staying in their job whilst they looked for another.
A 9-5 desk job that's stress free? They're very hard to come by, even "lowly" admin jobs are stressful, with annoying colleagues, heavy workloads, angry customers and so on.
Unless she has a good safety net of money in the bank and/or has minimal bills, then it's a good idea to stick it out until she gets a new job.