Following Your Gut Instincts in Changing Jobs

This morning I sat down with a big mug of coffee and a yawn to do my usual online reading and I got some good news. Nemorino, a first year associate in New Jersey who runs the blog Bridge and Tunneled and who reads my blog, has decided to change jobs from his current, good-but-unsatisfying private practice job to one that excites him. Check out his post here. To my enormous satisfaction, he said that in making the change he was following some of my advice from this blog. That is precisely why I write this blog. I was once a student and later a junior associate who could have used some advice, and I am glad he found my blog comments helpful.

So Nemorino is thinking about his career in the right way: he is following his heart and his gut instincts. It is far too easy in practice to stay where you are--to plan your career around the mundane and known present, instead of aiming toward an exciting but unknown future that might not work out. Inertia seems easy and safe; change seems risky and hard. But the payoff can be huge. And the downside of not taking a little risk? Waking up one day with kids and a mortgage, and feeling trapped. Staying in that situation means dying by degrees.

Think of it this way. Making a change means things might not work out. But staying on a career path that is not fulfilling means things certainly won't work out. One of my earlier posts on this subject is located here (look at the bottom of the post in particular).

So Nemorino has chosen action based on his heart over inaction through inertia. Kudos to him. I hope it works out.