Leaving without a job lined up?

TN, did the same thing you are doing almost two years ago. Sick of the paper I was working at after spending just about 2 years there, so I came home. It's taken awhile but I am landing interviews in other professions. And while I haven't gotten a full-time job yet I'm still way happier here. I'm getting married in December, and I have money saved up from living at home. Soon enough you'll land a job. Just adapt your resume to what the job your going after entails. Most jobs require good verbal and written communication skills, so play that aspect up. Plus your in a fairly large job market. But give yourself at least a year or two before you find a job you really want. There's no rush. Your single and unattached, so do what you want. Leaving will be the best move you've made yet. I believe Random House has an office in Chicago. Might be worth trying to land an internship or part-time gig there.

 

I hate you, Tomas.

 

sometimes you just gotta take a chance ... something will work. you're young enough to do it.

 

honest, i was thinking of you when i wrote that.

 

I don't know what kind of situation you are in, but going two years without a full-time job is crazy. Unless you have a lot of connections in a market it will be hard to freelance enough to support yourself.
Plus, my parents would be willing to take me in to a point, but two years? If I went home at the age of 27 and told my parents I'd be living with them for two years they would let me in the door and then encourage me nonstop to move out.
Your parents have lives also and when you graduated from college it didn't necessarily involve you living at home.

 

I've never done it, sir, and even though I've thought of it several times -- especially over the last few weeks -- I haven't pulled the trigger. But if you've got a good support system backing your decision, like your parents, I think you'll be OK. You're young enough (and I apologize if this sounds condescending from a 24-year-old fool like myself) where I don't think you'll be hurt much by this step. If your heart's not in it all the way, either at your job or in the industry, it's best to take some time away from it to reevaluate your stance.

Best of luck, kid. Something better will come along.

 

the world needs ditchdiggers, too

 

Leaving without something lined up is something you can pull off once in a career. Any potential employer with a brain in his or her head understands that good people can fall into circumstances that merit walking out. Someone who doesn't understand this is someone you don't want to work for anyway.

Do it more than once, though, and a pattern emerges.

Nearly everyone I personally know who had the balls to walk out on a bad situation with nothing lined up ended up with something better, and it some cases it led to their big break.

 

Words to live by, at least once. It is very good for the soul.

 

I have done it before, but I can't recommend it.

I may do it again, but I still can't recommend it.

 

This is a tough one -- and it is at a tough time.

I'd say the odds of finding something better in the current climate are very long -- but it is not impossible. I wouldn't do it -- but I'm not 24 and single either.

I hope you have at least some free lance gigs or something steady, perhaps out of the industry, to fall back on.

 

Well said. Ditto for me.