OP here. Thank you PPs for your fantastic advice! It helps to hear it from those who have been there.

Anonymous wrote:6 years ago I thought I did that... turns out it was a great choice because I ended up really loving it. It was a lateral move to a small company, but since it was not that challenging I was able to go back to school while also working. Then I was promoted within to a position that I was at that point very qualified for. So it CAN work out. All in all I would say if you are taking a job you don't really want, try to at least make it at a company that could open up other opportunities to you.

+1. OP - It's one thing to take a job you don't really want because it gives you more money or flexibility to continue looking or go back to school or whatever. It's another if you take a job that seems wrong and provides you nothing except an exit. I turned down something a yr ago and felt really guilty doing it as I REALLY need to get out of my current place -- yet from just facial conversations with 1-2 people there (pre-offer, not at the interview), they said -- there's micromanagement, turnover, people are here at 10 pm at night etc. It was the type of environment where I would be drawing a good salary but stuck bc I would not be able to look for another job at all; people at those kinds of jobs just end up quitting to pursue a job search -- if it comes to that, quit your present job and search; don't go from your present job to another terrible job and then quit that second one as those transitions can be hard to explain sometimes.

6 years ago I thought I did that... turns out it was a great choice because I ended up really loving it. It was a lateral move to a small company, but since it was not that challenging I was able to go back to school while also working. Then I was promoted within to a position that I was at that point very qualified for. So it CAN work out. All in all I would say if you are taking a job you don't really want, try to at least make it at a company that could open up other opportunities to you.

I did. I was so miserable that I absolutely just could.not.stay.anymore. I took a job that was really not what I wanted to do. It was incredibly boring and I only stayed two weeks- luckily one of the other jobs I had applied to while trying to get out of the awful job came through.

That was when I was not yet married and didn't have a family so I could jump around a bit. Now with two kids and a mortgage, and the job market what it is, Im not sure I would do the same thing again, but its hard to say for sure. It totally sucks to hate your job.

I dislike my boss currently and am looking for a new job. Sad, because I like the actual job most of the time. Bad boss + long commute = job hunt.

My advice is, be careful just taking "any" job because you will find yourself in a similar situation (you hate the job, hate the manager(s), whatever it is). I want to leave but am trying to be picky and find positions for companies/orgs that I'd actually want to work for longterm, but yes, that takes time. Take just anything and there's a higher chance you'll be looking again in a year.

Did you read my mind? I have never gotten a job offer that I dodn't really want. People can tell. Lots of us want new jobs for different reasons.

Have you applied for and taken another job even one you are not interested in because you hate your current job and it is literally killing you? Or did you wait until the right opportunity came along?