Should You Quit Before Finding a New Job? Not so Fast.

The Armstrong Center for Alumni Career Services, which provides lifetime career support for all alumni of the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, explores an interesting question in its latest blog: To quit or not to quit your current job before finding new employment?

Do you dread going to work every day? Sometimes a job turns out to be truly miserable — a destructive company culture, an infuriating boss, overwhelming hours or travel, a reorg that marginalizes your role. These are just a few of the things that can turn a once promising job into your daily dose of dread. That’s a sure sign that you need to move on.

Should you heed the oft-repeated advice that it’s easier to find a job while employed? It’s true that many recruiters have a bias against the unemployed, especially if the gap is long-term (generally considered to be six months or longer). Marketable skills grow stale quickly, so most career advisers caution against quitting before landing a new role elsewhere.

But, finding a new job is a time-consuming and often daunting task. Most business professionals understand that a successful job search entails lots of networking, targeting a specific set of companies, and being patient through multiple rounds of interviews that can drag on for weeks.

After examining the pros and cons of quitting an existing job before landing a new one, the Armstrong Center listed five issues those who choose to quit first should be prepared to manage. Read those five insights and the full article on the Career Corner blog.