We’ve all been there before when you feel that straw break the camel’s back. It’s you. You are the camel and your back is broken from your stale position. But before you look for a new job, take my advice.

You wondered how you let it get to the point of no return and realize you have no one to blame but yourself.  The “honeymoon phase” is gone and you’re left with feeling a pit of despair.  I’m talking about your relationship with work.

Maybe it’s a co-worker who you can no longer stand or it’s the long, grueling hours with little to show for it or the boss who’s always in your business when you just need to breathe without them criticizing you.  You’re ready to move on and get the hell outta dodge.

You scroll your local job boards for recently posted positions then fierce-text your buddies and ask if their teams have any openings. Sound familiar?  Me too.

I’m not the friend who encourages you to stick around and keep taking your boss’ shit, but I’m also not the friend who helps you egg your their truck and flip off their home surveillance camera either. I’m the friend who helps you make smart decisions about your career.

I made a list of things you need to do BEFORE you look for a new job. So hold off on blasting and scouring social media, desperate for the next best thing until you follow these steps.

1. Take inventory of your skills: Do your co-workers come to you asking for your expertise?  Have you been consulted with more than once on a certain topic?  What is that topic?  And why do you think that is?  You should be proud of becoming a SME – subject matter expert.  Jot those things down and highlight how else you’ve been successful.  Can you manage time well or multi-task like a boss? Add that too.
2. Draft a list of recent accomplishments / projects: It’s probably been a minute since you took a step back and thought about your wins.  Maybe you’ve sold 10 widgets to new customers in a week, or you created a slide show or pivot table that helped land a big account, or maybe you were able to diagnose a problem BEFORE something blew up.  Think through those wins and what you learned or were able to teach others along the way…Bonus if you can add a metric to these accomplishments. 
3. Prepare your base resume: Hopefully you have a starter resume. One that includes your previous employers, dates you worked there and a summary of what you were responsible for while you in their employ.  If not, there are a ton of resume templates for your benefit out on the wonderful world wide web.  Microsoft Word also has easy to use starters that look professional or casual – whichever to fit your application type.

So BEFORE you buy those eggs and then look for a new job, take an hour to start drafting up your skills, projects and resume. Leave a note here when you’ve done all three!