Quitting your job before you have found a new job?

bigpinkelephant

Hi,
I am looking for a new job at the moment. I have enough money to last me for a while. The job I have now needs a month's notice of me leaving.
I have no new job lined up- would I be mad to hand in my notice?
There aren't that many jobs around at the moment that I would be mad about but I have applied for a couple.

Run_to_da_hills

Bad for three reasons,

Firstly it is a known fact that a new employer will give preference to poaching someone from a job than taking someone that has been out of work.

Secondly if you wanted to draw the dole you will have some explaining to do they will quizz you why you quit the job.

Thirdly, theres a downturn and you mightn't get back into the labour force that easy.

egan007

They say it's easier to find a job when in a job.
I'd say that is for two reasons.
You appear motivated to your new employer
You don't get anxious when you start getting turned down.

smk135

I'd say wait till you find something worthwhile.
presumably you're leaving your current job because you're disstisfied with it so you are looking for something better and that may not be the easiste thing to find.

If you stay in the job you can browse around for a decent new one, be picky and do so with no stress whereas otherwise you may find yourself back in some crappy job for the sake of money (no matter how long you can last on the amount you have) or boredom or whatever.

Also, you can always ask your new employers for a break before or soon into starting, that's ok to do. And then you can put some of that money you have saved into a great holiday instead of just sitting around the house with it.

Good luck!!

m@cc@

Definitely no. But on the plus side, what it can mean, is that you have more flexibility when it comes to being able to go interviews and you are available immediately.

Slow Motion

It depends on how bad your current job is! I quit my job before I had a new one to go to because the nature of it had changed and I hated it, didn't have any trouble with the dole, I was upfront about why I had left and because I had a good employment history they accepted that and paid me. However it did take me over a year to find a new one that I liked, in the current climate you might face a much longer wait depending on what you are prepared to do!

Kintarō Hattori

My missus has just quit her job without anything lined up, which I'm not completely happy about but it was necessary. Ahh sigh, what a bad bad time to quit!

homerun_homer

I was going to quit my job last week and move to Dublin to live, with or without a job but there is too much paranoia in the air these days so I figured it’s best to hang on and try sort a job out before I move. It’s the travel up and down and days off work that had me tempted to leave early so I could focus on interviews in Dublin. By staying in the job though I think I’ve a better chance of asking for more money when the opportunity arises.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Never say you're unemployed on a CV or interview; say you're self-employed (at something you could earn a bit of cash doing) and things have been a bit dry lately.

Believeable and no need to worry about references.

Honey-ec

Bad idea. I'm desperate to leave my current job due to the sh!tty commute. I started looking for a new job back in May, thinking I'd have no trouble finding one, and nearly handed in my notice there and then, and here we are 5 months later and there's still not a whiff of a new job. It's a combination of current economic climate, not a whole lot of jobs in the geographical area I'm looking in, and the ones that are there are offering absolutely pitiful salaries - like, 12 - 15k less than I'm on. I'm willing to take a slight cut in salary in order to get rid of my commute, but at the end of the day, I still have a feckin mortgage to pay!