Seeking Job Change for the Right Reasons

May 4 -- If long hours or other problems on the job have soured you about work, maybe you should do what thousands of others are doing — change careers.

That's what Bob Smith did. A 43-year-old New Yorker, he has actually changed careers twice in the past decade. The first time was to find a job after getting downsized. But the second time around was to find a job he could feel good about.

That first career move was largely the product of panic, he acknowledges. He followed his father's footsteps to a job on Wall Street at age 18, but then during the 1990-91 recession, saw "the handwriting on the wall." He used the classifieds to get a job with the New York City Parks Department.

His latest move was something different. As a nurse dispensing treatment to AIDS patients, he found not only job security and a flexible schedule, but something more — "good karma."

Smith's decision to pursue a job that was more in synch with his is psyche closely adheres to a central tenet of career development doctrine — heed your heart and the money will follow.

These days, this may be as sound an approach as you can get, as the economy looks for a soft place to land after the wild ride of the last few years.

Changing Jobs, Changing Times

Smith was not the only one changing jobs in the '90s.

Americans typically change employers every 3½ years, according to the Labor Department. A quarter of all workers have been with their employer for 12 months or less and government data shows an ever-declining tenure between 1983 and 2000 for men in most age groups.

The statistics reflect a late 1990s job market that gave employees the confidence to hop from one job to another in search of stock options, new skills or a more prestigious job title.

Since then, say career counselors, the economy has hit the skids and so has job mobility, while at the same time thousands of Americans have been forced by dot-com bankruptcies or corporate downsizing to re-enter the job market.