Should you start looking for a new job?

Use the right tool for the stage you are in

Job Calculator compares a current job with a specific new opportunity. It cannot honestly score “something better” when no offer exists. Before that point, use this checklist to decide whether the evidence supports negotiating, exploring an internal move, beginning a search, or simply observing longer.

Compensation stagnation

Gather: recent pay changes, responsibilities added, market ranges you can substantiate, bonus outcomes versus targets, and benefits changes. Ask: Has real responsibility grown faster than compensation? Is the gap structural or a single review-cycle issue?

Possible next step: negotiate when scope and evidence are clear; begin searching when the organization cannot describe a credible correction path. Once an offer exists, Job Calculator can compare salary plus realistic expected bonus and your Benefits rating. It does not score taxes, equity, or retirement match, so record those separately.

Persistent stress or declining happiness

Gather: a short weekly log of stress and happiness, recurring triggers, after-hours interruptions, recovery time, and whether conditions improve after workload or management conversations. Ask: Is this role-specific, manager-specific, organization-wide, or partly external to work?

Possible next step: address a fixable workload or boundary first; explore an internal transfer when the work is sound but the local environment is not; begin searching when harm is persistent and credible remedies fail. The calculator can compare expected Stress and Happiness only after there is a concrete alternative. Health or safety concerns should not wait for a score.

Learning has stopped

Gather: skills used and learned in the last six months, access to projects or mentoring, and specific development promises with dates and owners. Ask: Is a plateau temporary consolidation, or does the role no longer build skills relevant to your direction?

Possible next step: request a project, mentor, or training commitment; search if opportunities remain vague. Learning is one of three equal Career Growth subfactors in Model V2.

Advancement is constrained

Gather: written promotion criteria, examples of recent internal promotions, headcount constraints, feedback gaps, and the next role's actual scope. Ask: Is advancement blocked by readiness, structure, or an unclear process?

Possible next step: seek a specific development plan or internal role; search when the needed position does not exist. Advancement is scored separately from learning, so a role can teach you while offering little promotion potential.

Future opportunities are narrowing

Gather: where former colleagues moved, whether the skills transfer, exposure to useful domains, and the trajectory of the work itself. Ask: Will another year increase or reduce the range of credible next roles?

Possible next step: reshape responsibilities if possible; begin searching when continued specialization conflicts with your goals. This is the third Growth subfactor—not a prediction that any specific future job will appear.

The time burden is no longer workable

Gather: actual weekly work hours, one-way commute, required office days, PTO used rather than merely offered, and schedule volatility. Ask: Is the problem total hours, when they occur, unpredictability, or travel?

Possible next step: negotiate schedule or attendance, consider an internal arrangement, or search for roles with explicit constraints. In the calculator, work hours and round-trip commute increase time load while PTO offsets it at eight hours/day over 52 weeks.

Values, culture, safety, or trust concerns

Gather: concrete incidents, policies, commitments that were broken, reporting channels, and what happened after concerns were raised. Avoid reducing serious issues to a 1–10 rating.

Possible next step: may include seeking appropriate internal, legal, medical, union, or other qualified support; planning a safe exit; or declining an offer. Ethics, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, job security, visa risk, manager integrity, and psychological or physical safety are not fully captured by Job Calculator. A neutral score must never override a critical red flag.

Turn evidence into a proportionate action

Starting a search is not the same as deciding to resign. It can be an information-gathering step that tests whether a real alternative improves the factors that are currently weak.

For the model's boundaries and limitations, read How It Works and the result-focused FAQ.