Interview prep, Career change, or Gap year?
Job market is shit right now and I just got a 1% salary increase, essentially a slap across the face. Is it worth spending time interview prepping and interviewing if may not even see any results until next year? Seems like it takes up to 6months to land a job in this market. Alternatively, I can go to business or law school and switch into another field. Can also take a gap year or half year and just work on side projects and see if I can get anything monetised. Overall, is it worth interviewing right now? There is also potential risk of layoff in a month or two, if that impacts decision.
I wouldn’t let that 1% be the reason to quit your job and pursue other opportunities. For the next 6-12 months, focus on growth rather than just performance. But when you decide to venture out and interview, brace yourself; the market is quite challenging
Not the only reason, just one of the newest reasons. I didn't want to make the post too personal so that others could still potentially gain value from seeing if interviewing is worth it in this market or if it's just a time sink with little to no ROI. Personal reasons for wanting to leave include lack of growth and learning opportunities, toxic team culture, mia manager, lack of interest in team's projects, potentially at risk of layoff, etc.
What does one do about health insurance during the gap year?
0-2% raises are pretty standard in a lot of fields. I think they’re called inflation raises, which is kind of funny because that’s clearly not inflation right now. I think you should look at other aspects of your job as well before making a decision. Are you happy/enjoying the work that you do? Are you getting good growth opportunities? Do you have a good WLB (whatever that means to you)? On the flip side, was there something extraordinary that you did last year that you feel warranted a higher salary adjustment? Are you continually only seeing 1% raises? Have you sought feedback from your manager to help gain insight into your performance? Regardless of the answers to those questions, it never hurts to brush up on your interview skills and figure out what your value is in the market. Doesn’t mean you need to actively apply though - you could just start by responding to recruiter messages and going with interviews that come from that avenue.
Oh I definitely hate my role and there is no growth or learning opportunities on my team. Manager has skipped 1:1 for 2 months now. She doesn't join many meetings, i dont know what she even does. My salary is near top of band and due to salary structuring changes, it's very likely I won't get any increase in next cycle unless I'm promoted, which is also unlikely due to mia manager.
Oof yeah, sounds like you should move then. Don’t get me wrong - some people are totally fine in situations like yours and that’s totally ok, we need people like that too. But you seem to be looking for a lot more than what your company/current team can offer. Being at the top of the salary band is also not helpful, given that you need a promotion to move bands and an absentee manager will not help with that. Only advice is don’t quit while you look (that’s my motto, at least, especially in a post-covid market like this).