Jumping Ship at the Right Time

The gut is an interesting thing. It’s one of those organs that seems to have a good sense of when you’re in danger, and whether you should run or stay etc. In the past, I’ve not trusted my gut as much - mostly because I needed the money more than putting my mental health as a priority.

Recently, I’ve been running with my gut as the driver for many decisions. I think it’s because I’m in a much better place, and there’s a much calmer environment now. One of them recently was knowing when to sense that a company was in danger, or when it was time to jump ship from a company. This has happened to me twice now, and I’m so incredibly happy I trusted my gut. Let me explain.

To some seasoned people, this is definitely not a new skill or etc, but, in one of my last jobs: company-wide we were expecting a good pay rise to come. The company was profitable, we had clients, and we were smashing it. At the same time, there was inflation happening so it seemed right that we would get something close to the inflation figure. The day finally came and the news wasn’t exactly great for the majority. For a company that said it was profitable - the pay rise was about 1%. Maybe 2.5% on average for some of the other developers. That was a pretty poor sign.

I asked my line manager if there was a problem. He said no. He said that we are winning new clients and that we are still majorly in the green. I’m not blaming him at all, I think he was just as blind as I was. Either way, I cast it aside for a bit. However, that all-important gut feeling started seeping in. It was a bit of a ticking timebomb in regards to “something bad is going to happen soon”.

Now it took me a while to get around to it, but something else also prompted me to leave that company. It was the fact that I saw this pattern before. Something was going sour within the company, and within about 2 months after the payrise announcement: we won a new client. It was a client I had previous experience with and definitely did not want to work with again. At the same time, many of the clients we were pitching to had rejected us. I knew something bad was going to happen.

Once I got a new job offer, I did my notice and left that company for new pastures. About a month later: the bad news did start coming in. The current clients were starting to drop, and then a mass exodus started happening. The company lost about 20-25% of its staff. Then news came of an offshore model coming in. Things just got worse for that company. And at that point, I was very happy to have left at the point I did.

Catching up with some of my colleagues from the company, they all mentioned their side of what happened: many ranged from unfair pay to nightmare scenarios within the clients. In the end - this is the power of the gut and why you should always trust it. Not only am I in a better place now, but I’m also much happier than ever. I don’t give my gut enough credit to be honest. There are times I go against my gut because it’s easier to. The truth is, you’ll sometimes know whenever jumping ship is completely right for you… whether it’s a relationship or a job. Sometimes we need a bit of a guiding hand, and sometimes we are ruled by fear. That gut reaction of something may be wrong or etc is the guiding star that will steer you in the right direction. Nurture it, trust it, and do your best to listen to instinct.

Now, what happens if instinct is wrong? It doesn’t always matter, you basically try again. This is easier said than done. For example: imagine instinct said your job was wrong, and you left your job without one lined up - or worse (because this was happening during the time of writing this): you had a job lined up only for it to be rescinded. That itself is a very scary moment, and I’ve luckily only had that happen once before but never jumped ship before getting a contract. In this instance, it’s better to play devil’s advocate with your gut and weigh out your options before you do anything.

This won’t apply to jobs but, when I’m in the gym and nervous about reaching a new PR or going for a big lift: my gut usually tells me that this is “potentially” a bad idea, and my dopamine is telling me to do it. This is whenever certain things kick in against the gut. Luckily my success rate for that has been around 94%. The 6% fails have been epic (face planting the ground, pulling back muscles, twisting ribs) however, it’s fuelled a very healthy steady progression of weight lifting. For something as big as a job, I’d never say I regret taking a job because every one of them gave me a different purpose. It sounds a bit weird to say this but it’s 100% fate in how these things tumble together. I’ll write another post about that another time, the main take-home is to give your gut instinct a little bit more credit than you usually would. It’s one of the best tools you have at your disposal.