Did you take a detour and still manage to come back?

[Anonymous]

I've been working in my field for about 10 years and felt really connected and reasonably successful before. I do human services so the money is terrible but the other rewards are great. We moved a year ago and I left behind all my connections. I have a new job where we live now but I hate it and the environment is really negative. I felt reasonably sought after at home and the last year here has totally wrecked my confidence. I've gone from teaching, working and speaking occasionally to feeling like I have no skills whatsoever. I'm going to leave the new job at the end of the year and I'm thinking of taking a break to regroup. I feel like I've worked so hard and now my career has gone totally off the rails. Has anyone else been in this situation? Please tell me a good story of how it worked out for you in the end!

[Anonymous]

Everyone has a bad job (or 2) throughout their career. Don't let it bring you down. Learn from it what you absolutely hate to do. Emotionally disengage from it, and begin an active job search. Interview lots- take time off work if you need to- BUT DONT QUIT. Hiring Managers (including myself) do not like quitters. No one with fault you for leaving a job that's not a good fit in less than a year. In fact, it will give you more to talk about in terms of learning experiences on your interviews.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks PP. Usually I agree that it's best to look for a job while you have another but in this case I'm thinking of actually taking a little time off to regroup, network in my new area and figure out a better path. I think one of the mistakes I made here was panicking about being unemployed after the move and jumping into something that sounded good without actually taking time to look into it or research it as much as I should so I don't want to do that again. I am pregnant and due in the winter plus we also recently learned the one of our other children has some special needs so I thought if I did need to explain the gap I might attribute it to taking some time off to address family health issues. How would you think about that as a hiring manager? I have been actively searching for about 3 months but the market I live in is really small so things don't come up very often. It's also very seasonal so I don't expect anything to come on between Sept-Feb. I am sticking it out for the moment but worried about getting so far down in terms of my confidence that I can't recover. I also do have another small part time job so it won't be a complete gap.