“I Quit!”: What Our Respondents Say As Their Reasons For Leaving A Job

It’s a common belief that people only leave their jobs when they are in “pain” – dreading each workday and being plain miserable. Au contraire. While this may be true in some cases, there are a number of other reasons why professionals leave their jobs. Find out what they are as discovered in an interesting series of interviews conducted across Asia by JobStreet.com.

The Threat of Layoffs

Involuntary resignation occurs when your current company is experiencing an unfavourable financial situation, or undergoing a merger that is most likely to result in an overpopulation of executive talent. Use your better judgement to anticipate the company’s prospects and policy changes of the company’s prospects and policy. If it seems that your chances are better outside than in, it is prudent to prepare yourself by searching for another job before the company closes down, or before you fall victim to a retrenchment exercise.

Loss of Respect for Management and Lack of Recognition

Uday, a 27 year old Web Content Manager from India, left his previous employer because, “My employer failed to keep his promises. They made me feel like a door ma…literally!” Glenda, 22, recently resigned from her position as Programmer/Analyst with an IT firm in the Philippines. “Improper management of people” was cited as one of her motivations to leave.

Monica, a 25 year old financial consultant in Malaysia adds, “Sometimes it’s the simple things like saying a word of thanks that matter. Not only just with words but also with action.”

Giving due recognition for one’s hard work is often one of the most quoted yet least practiced leadership creeds. If your employer fails to neither recognize your efforts nor provide you with the leadership and motivation to get the job done well, it is logical to reconsider the employer-employee relationship. Do this objectively, evaluating your own part in your performance or motivation.

Individual vs. Organizational Culture and Processes

One of the many cited reasons for leaving a job is a company mismatch in terms of culture and values.  Every company has its own culture. It is the nature of big multinationals to have policies that regulate everything down to the nitty gritty level. Often, this stems from the need to make sense and order out of mammoth logistical complexities. However, the reality is that it can leave bright and enthusiastic professionals stifled and restless.

“For me, it is the hierarchy. Having to go through four or five levels of hierarchy above me before a decision can be made. It is so time inefficient and it does not add to my ability to effectively contribute,” says Monica.

Unless you are given the ability to make a real and meaningful contribution to the bottom line, you may choose to consider seeking such an opportunity elsewhere. Whilst some progressive organizations in the big leagues do provide for this opportunity, most of the time, it lies within smaller companies where your role has a bigger stake in the profit game. Such has been said of the latest hot company of choice, the startups or other smaller companies with less hierarchy.

Leaving for Better Prospects

One of the stronger and often more advantageous reasons for leaving a job is when you foresee better career advancement opportunities outside your company. You may also want to expand your field of competence by switching from one field to another, e.g. from civil engineering to selling and marketing engineering-related products to the construction industry. Or in the case of Heera, a 35 year old Indian professional, he made a transition from pure financial consulting to IT consulting for financial management solutions.

“Strategy, organization and processes have been worked and reworked over the years. There is nothing new anymore. Companies now want end-to-end solutions. They want us to provide them with a finished product that only needs to be installed and run. That is IT finding its way into financial consulting.

After working in Andersen Consulting, Teoh, 30, left a great job as a regional Management Consultant in KPMG to join a small, up and coming Malaysian multimedia & E-commerce firm. “I decided to leave my previous job because I was being offered the chance to expand the scope of my role and responsibilities. I have always had a passion for the IT industry, and this was my chance to contribute in its advancement.”

These individuals have moved with the times; identifying opportunities for themselves to acquire in-demand skills, thus increasing their marketability and future prospects. But more than that, they made careful decisions by analyzing where the industry was going, matching these against their own interests in finding the best possible match before they left their positions.