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When a Better Job Appears After Starting a New One

By Mark Swartz, Monster contributor

You’ve recently started a new job. Although the role satisfies many of your needs, a sense that you could have done better lingers. Then you hear of a near ideal opportunity elsewhere.

Part of you wants to ignore that development. “Focus on settling in where you are and earn respect,” says a little voice inside you. A different one is shouting “Don’t let this rare chance go by!”

Time to weigh the pros and cons of this potentially better position. Whether it ultimately proves to be an amazing opening or not, there are consequences for considering, interviewing with and hopping to that superior employer.

Pros Of Considering The Better Opportunity

What’s the harm in just thinking about jumping ship so soon, right? All you’re doing is picturing possibilities. Among the upsides of doing so are:

  • Feeling less stuck in the current job that you more or less settled for
  • Avoiding feelings of regret that could come from limiting your horizons
  • Maybe getting motivated to stealthily apply for the better job if it seems an enhanced fit

Cons Of Considering The Better Opportunity

Though pondering a quick exit may seem innocent enough, doing so more than briefly might:

  • Distract you from doing your existing new job well as you daydream about greener pastures
  • Encourage you to have one foot out the door when you’ve only begun to get settled
  • Reduce your tolerance for small discomforts and disagreements common in a new job

Pros Of Interviewing For It

Assume that you apply for the better position and get asked in for an interview. Now you have a chance to get hired there. Beyond how this could obviously benefit you, there’s also:

  • The prospect of learning if the employer really is better (when doing your research and at the interviews)
  • Seeing how the employer treats its people throughout a recruitment cycle
  • Gaining valuable interviewing experience for future meaningful roles

Cons Of Interviewing For It

What have you got to lose by securing, preparing for and going to the interview? Maybe more than meets the eye:

  • Prepping for the meeting(s) will take time and require secrecy
  • If word somehow leaks, you could jeopardize your current employment
  • You could be left hanging while the better employer decides who to hire
  • The entire process will probably be emotionally and physically draining
  • It might mostly be for naught if you don’t get a more attractive offer

Pros Of Resigning To Take The Better Job

Say that you ace the interviews and get an appealing offer. After doing due diligence you gladly accept. While it will be jarring to quit the job you began of late, imagine:

  • Being in a job you can really sink your teeth into and excel at
  • Confidently knowing you’ve enhanced your career prospects by embracing change
  • Not feeling trapped, under-appreciated or inadequately compensated at work

Cons Of Resigning To Take Better Job

There are several reasonable ways to quit a brand new job. Still, you might be negatively affected by:

  • Guilt resulting from leaving your most recent employer in a lurch
  • Damage to your reputation (e.g. perhaps being viewed as a disloyal opportunist; or as an impulsive job-hopper)
  • Legal considerations of resigning from an employer
  • Harm to your relationship with third-party recruiters if one placed you in your current role

Should You Stay Rather than Go?

The positives of leaving for a more ideal position should easily outweigh the downsides. Otherwise it might not be worth the trouble. Contemplate sticking with the new job you’ve already started if the “better” one isn’t substantively superior. Likewise if you’re in a tight-knit field with few employers. There are only so many career bridges you can obliterate without serious backlash.

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