When is it time to go

I've kind of become the big fish in our small pond, after a couple of years of being the small fish in a big pond. So, how do you know when it's time to move on? I feel this need to prove myself at a larger paper after only moderate success early in my career at a major metro daily. But I'm worried about no-longer being the top guy. Thoughts?

 

If you're asking the question, it's probably time.

Be honest with yourself about this, though, and you'll know: Do you want to move because you truly have outgrown your current gig or are you thinking it's time to move because of some vague, external sense that you should be at a bigger paper by now?

If you want a challenge, go for it.

But if you're happy where you are — the job and the town — don't ship just because you think you have to be at a bigger paper. Bigger isn't automatically better.

 

If you're the sort of person who has trouble with being told what to do, then moving to a bigger paper might cause more problems than it will solve. That said, going from small-paper SE (that's what I'm assuming you are from your post) to a minion at a larger paper does have its benefits. Those feelings that the entire paper is riding on you likely will go away, and you'll probably be compensated better than you now are. Here's the rub: When you have an offer from a place where you want to work, it's time to move on.

 

It's time to go if every time you walk into the office, you get in a bad mood. Check that, happiness is overrated. If you can't think of something new that you can experience or accomplish at your paper, it's time to go. Staying where you are not challenged is like dying slow.
I know that itch you speak of, trying to scratch it myself right now.

 

it's ALWAYS time to go. You could get the Duke beat job (or whatever pro beat job, anywhere) and after a year you should strong consider ESPN or SI if you want to. It's feasible. Anything is now, thanks to the internet and proliferation of TV shows.

Always be closing?

Always be looking.

Never become content.

 

Not sure I buy that, AF. It's one thing to be content with your job, another to be content in your job. The former's fine, the latter ain't. As long as you're hammering away and stirring it up, I don't think it's a bad thing to stay at the same place forever if you're happy.

 

It's always best to assume A_F is either being fecetious or tongue-in-cheek. In this case, it was the former.

 

I now agree with the always closing sentiment, although it didn't seem to work for Jack Lemmon in Glengarry Glen Ross. : I stopped looking, became comfortable and wasted time getting squeezed. It turned around for the better, but I learned my it's-all-good lesson.